We are thinking about getting a riding lawn mower under $2k. My yard isn’t huge, but the push mower is a lot of work, especially in the rainy season. I am looking for cutting power to keep the grass shorter, but with a wide deck to cause less “burn patches” from cutting too short.
Go!
In my experience a wider deck will cause more burned or scalped spots than a narrower one. A snapper with a 30 in deck and a bagger is kind of old school, but they still sell them for a reason. They are excellent mowers.
The shorter you cut the more weeds will start to take over. And the width of your deck shouldn’t have anything to do with burning up your lawn unless you have uneven areas and scalp the grass. Your grass will burn from cutting too short and drying up. If you have a wide deck and a lot of uneven ground your going to burn the lawn even more.
I have a rear engine Cub Cadet. 30 inch cut with 1 blade. It has hydrostatic drive. Works great for our in town yard. It is 4 years old and only maintenence—flat tire, sharpen blade, and change oil & filter.
Yeah, I guess a wider deck will cause more burn now that I think of it. My lawn is an old lawn. About a dozen different grasses and many different types of weeds. My neighbor has a rider and he cuts it short, so it’s mostly Bermuda and looks nice.
We have a weed called pusley which is fine that hugs the ground. That’s what I want to control. I also want to be able to mow in a shorter amount of time and more often. Mowing is tough to schedule during the rainy season. I also want the power a rider has over a push mower. My push mower used to bog down and stall because the grass/weeds was thick and wet.
Higher horse power / inch of deck = less bogging down an long as you are looking at manual trannies to manual or hydro-stat to hydro-stat is my thinking.
Does anyone make a 30″ zero turn?
Take the $2k and kill the grass, cover it with landscaping fabric and cover it with rock.
Crack a cold beer and watch the neighbor keep his lawn immaculate.
Does anyone make a 30″ zero turn?
Toro makes a 32″
https://www.toro.com/en/homeowner/riding-mowers/timecutter-ss3225-74710
HRG
That Toro looks nice.
I found an interesting article comparing different types of mowers.
https://todaysmower.com/do-you-really-need-a-zero-turn-mower/
How large is your yard? Do you have a lot of obstacles to mow around? What’s the budget?
Would a good self-propelled mower be a better option? I have a Snapper self-propelled that will practically drag me behind it on skies. Great cut, good speed adjustment, very reliable. The biggest thing is a good self-propelled drive system takes a lot of work out of mowing compared to a push mower. You still have to walk behind it, but that’s about it. Maybe a good option if you have a lot of obstacles and areas where a rider would be difficult to fit or maneuver. I’ve mowed with some good Toro mowers with that self-pace feature too and they work really well. Just saying is a rider really the way you want to go or would a good self-propelled be a better option cost and storage wise?
I have an old Deere rear engine rider, 30 inch cut, and for my suburban lot it’s perfect. I still mow a lap with the Snapper to get the edges and around/under obstacles, trees, kids swing set, etc, but then I mow the whole yard in 30 minutes or less, so it still saves time over the self-propelled alone. It would take too much jockying around to mow the whole lawn with only the rider, however, so I still need 2 mowers.
Obviously, the cost-is-no-object solution is a zero-turn. As long as you don’t have hills and mow in wet conditions.
Grouse
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jwellsy wrote:</div>
Does anyone make a 30″ zero turn?Toro makes a 32″
https://www.toro.com/en/homeowner/riding-mowers/timecutter-ss3225-74710
HRG
I have this mower along with the bagger. It works well for my 1/3 acre suburban lawn. Typically just use the bagger for leaves in the fall and the occasional cut if the grass has gotten super long.
How large is your yard? Do you have a lot of obstacles to mow around? What’s the budget?
Not going over $2K
Would a good self-propelled mower be a better option?
I want one for more than just ease of mowing. During the rainy season the grass is growing very fast and I have to dodge the daily thunderstorms which also means that the grass is also damp besides being dense. So part of my reasoning is to be able to get out and mow front and back in a half hour window. I will still need to use the push mower to get to the places a rider can’t.
Also, it would be nice to have a bagger for the stupid Live Oak tree in the winter.
More than anything I would like to be able to mow 3 times a week June-Sept regardless of weather,
move back to Mn
move back to Mn
He signed a no trade clause when he left.
DT
My Simplicity mower has a deck that rides on the ground (as opposed to being firmly affixed to the mower) and doesn’t scalp high spots, which I have plenty of. I don’t know if you can find that feature in the lower end models or that they would be available at that price point.
For under 2k. Go Husqvarna. They make a nice mower. I have had 2 of the craftsman versions 1 at home and 1 at the lake with zero repairs or problems for 10+ years.
I have yard with ½ acre. I don’t like spending time mowing so I went with a 52” deck and changed the land scaping so I would not need to use a push mower or weed whip. I can be done in 30 min. Only took 25 truckloads of dirt to flatten it out. This is a lot of work but if you are going to be staying for years to come you will appreciate that you did it. The gator mulching blades work great at making grass clippings and leaves disappear.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>MN Z wrote:</div>
move back to MnHe signed a no trade clause when he left.
DT
I don’t intend on waiving it either.
I have yard with ½ acre. I don’t like spending time mowing so I went with a 52” deck and changed the land scaping so I would not need to use a push mower or weed whip. I can be done in 30 min. Only took 25 truckloads of dirt to flatten it out. This is a lot of work but if you are going to be staying for years to come you will appreciate that you did it. The gator mulching blades work great at making grass clippings and leaves disappear.
I’d love to kill the grass and regrade. That ain’t going to happen though. Because a lot of weeds and grass dry out in the winter, there has been some erosion, so the yard is uneven with small dips here and there too.
I did finally figure out what the reclaimed water line on our bill was. We have access to non potable water for the lawn. So for a flat fee I have unlimited water for the lawn. I plan on overseeding once I figure out how to connect to it.
Regardless of the mower you buy, weed control is still a must. You can’t cut the grass super short to control that weed you have. In fact it will probably make it worse.
For weeds I make sure and spread dandelion and crabgrass preventer pre-emergence, then spot treat and pull dandelion heads while their still yellow. Pulling yellow heads isn’t too bad once you get them under control.
Dandelions aren’t a problem down here. Pusley is a problem. It’s a lot like silver dollar or dollar wort where it is a vine that hugs the ground blocking brass from growing.
Maybe you could try pusley farming.
https://www.drugs.com/npp/purslane.html
I believe that is a different family of flowers, but I have seen those.
This is pusley. AKA Florida snow
Spray your lawn and don’t mow it so short. Longer grass helps choke out the weeds
Well here was part of the problem. Still doesn’t help the hp of the cutting blades.
PXL_20201003_192714092.jpg
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