new rider

Looking for a new riding mower and open to any praises or condemnation of what is on the market. I am not loyal to any mower brand. Have a rider now that is 13 yrs old and on its last legs. It is a craftsman with a brigs. Whole unit is solid but the motor is the style that had a splash system oiler and got starved of oil and screwed up the motor by running on too much slope. A new motor is 2/3 the cost of a new mower so I plan on running til ol red blows and just get a whole new unit. Probably going with a tractor style again. New one will have a full pressure oiling system and ideally a low oil pressure kill switch. Mowing road ditches are tough on them. What do y'all suggest for good riders?

 

I would say it depends on a couple things. What and how much you have to mow. And what your budget is.

For a quality machine and a quality cut. I like my Simplicity Broadmoor. 46" deck. They are much more expensive. But very well built.

For speed. When I bought our acreage a zero turn mower was part of the deal. It is a Troy Built Mustang. 51" deck. Zero turn = Fast.
(There are better zero turns out there, that is for sure. But the price is also much more.)

Some day I may trade both of the mowers in and buy a nice commercial zero turn. Like a Ferris or something like that. But right now both of these mowers are paid for and that is nice.

 

38-42" have less than an acre to take care of and mama has shtuff planted all over. Would like to stay under the17-1800 $ mark. All I have run by pure accident has been Briggs/Strat. Are motors motors or is B/S Kohler Kawasaki Techumpsa better than another? Right in town I can get snapper cub cadet husquevarna troy built and murray. I prefer to spend a bit more and have some quality rather than cheap out and with my degenerative disc disease a seat with good support is a must. I am not opposed to going out of town for other brands and want it to mow in reverse, borrowed neighbors once and was ready to junk it after it died every time it even got close to reverse.

 

Newer mowers have a kill function if deck is engaged when put in reverse- there is a bypass switch that has to be hit( momentary contact) in order to mow in reverse- pita.
Most all the mowers under $2k trannies ain't worth squat on slopes- last about 100 hours and then are junk if tractor hydrostatic style - there are a few all gear units around yet hard to find. Another point is the power factor 20 hp up front but I swear less than a 1/3 of that makes to the deck- rest is being sucked up by the hydro trany. For straight mowing the zero turns are likely a better buy under $2k provided they use hydro motors on each drive wheel not a tranny like in the tractors. Sadly the quality of most tractor style under $2k units is lacking color or name not withstanding. The $700 murray lasts just as long as the $2k green and yellow, Orange, or what ever color you like. Most all the units are using the same MFG for the tranny- so unless its a k56 style from them they are not worth the funds spent. K56 is a heavy duty tranny with external filter, and you are able to change the fluid. All the smaller ones are sealed- once they start slipping its history as replacement cost is 2/3 the price of a whole new tractor. rebuilding them is futile and costs as much as new. Very sad state of affairs. Dealer vs big box store isn't any help either in this price range. An easy way to tell if the unit is worth the money is if it is rated for ground contact equipment - if it isn't might as well save up some more cash. The old Simplicities with the bullet proof SunStrand tranys are worth there weight in gold now days. Course creature comfort were not their high points at the time. Same with big tube frame Bolens units- eitherway need to be your own mech. and parts are harder to come by.

 

Don't know this year's pricing but last year a deere x300 could be bought for $2100 at the dealer. Better unit than the lowes models too.

 

I'll go at it a different way. I know you said a new engine would be too expensive, but have you considered a Harbor Freight Pedator engine? From what I understand they are Honda clones and just about everything I have read has them holding up well. It might buy you a few years before having to get a new mower.

 

Bad time of the year to buy a mower. If you knew about it last fall/early winter, that would have been a killer savings time!

 

I bought a 42" cub cadet 8 years ago. Starting about the third year, I've had to replace something on it every summer, with the exception of last summer. So that can only mean something will probably break this summer. The kohler engine is the only thing that hasn't given me any trouble so far, knock wood. I don't know what my next mower will be, but it won't be made by MTD.

If I was looking to buy a new mower, I'd probably start by looking at the john deeres, made by John deere and not the ones that are found at home depot.

 

JD are not made by JD, in the price bracket of the op, they maybe assembled by Jd but the guts come from other sources sometimes to their specs. Particularly in the lawn, subcompact and compact lines. Like everything else now days it is a global sourced market. Rebranding with tweaks and new paint is the norm.

 

The mowers assembled by JD are still better than anything that MTD puts out. JD is where I'd start looking, not that I'd necessarily buy one. When you hold yourself to a certain price range with mowers, you'll end up paying a lot more in the end, whether it's from buying new deck spindles every year or worse.

 

My buddies dad buys those little Cubs zero turns from TSC. They are nice little mowers, but he gets about 5 years out of one and by then the deck is rusted out and shot. He calls them disposable mowers! I bought a 36" exmark walk behind with a welded deck, I should get many good years out of it. I wouldn't recomend it though if you have a bumpy yard, but it is great on sidling hills!

 

The L, LA and D series mowers you can buy at Home Depot and Lowes are the exact same L, LA and D series mowers you can buy at your local JD dealer.
Your local dealer will most likely deliver your Home Depot mower and do any warrantee service on it. Some hire a private contractor for deliveries.

Your local dealer should be able to fit you into the best model(s) to fit your needs and budget better than someone at the big box store.

That's not necessarily true here as Deere has cast off all the old time small dealers and what's left is the newer corporate style hoars with attitudes that have taken their place.

 

With that budget it will be hard to buy new and get what you're looking for. Not sure where you are in ND, but this looks interesting.

http://fargo.craigslist.org/for/4967131115.html

 

Dixon is supposed to be a decent tractor, especially with the Kawasaki engine. I believe the parent company is Husqvarna. There has been a few issues with the electric raising and lowering of the deck.

 

Bolens used to have the same issues back in the day

 

Thanks for all the input. I am hoping to limp ol red thru til fall sales are on but trying to get informed just in case things don't go according to plan and an emergency short notice is all I have time to research. At times it looks like I am fogging when any extra load is put on the mower.