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My folks have a commercial-grade, zero-radius mower, having replaced an International tractor w/ a 50-some inch mower.

Holy crap. We were visiting and I just had to try it out. The first time I used it, it scared the buhjeezus outta me...wicked fast...TOO fast, almost. My folks have a 5-acre yard; I cut the whole thing in little more than 30 minutes, and it looked like a golf course. Smooth, even...after growing up and having it take hours to mow the lawn, and hating it, I LOVED mowing the lawn.

I'll see if I can scare up the brand name.

FWIW, when I lived in rural Virgina in the mid 90's, some of the locals would buy second hand Ford tractors (cheaper than JD) and use them to pull PTO mowers. They were never short on power. I don't know if this would work in your situation, since you are wanting zero-turn.

You probably already did this, but did you already investigate the Deere dealership at the corner of Warren Rd and highyway 64? It's pretty close by.

Just before my dad died he did LOTS of research on ZTM. He arrived at a
http://www.simplicitymfg.com/cobalt.php . Four wheel independent suspension so you can stay on the thing while mowing at full speed - 10 mph.

As a side note... they offered him purchase insurance (if anything happened to him, the mower would be paid for) even though he had been doing chemotherapy for a year. He had no hair and weighed about 100 pounds. He ended up just making one payment on the thing before he passed. He really loved it and found a reason to be on it everyday he could sit up, even in the rain - to go check the mailbox. He tried to get the Dodge dealer to make him the same deal on a new Magnum.

Before making our move to the central plains a few months ago, my wife and I agreed that it would be nice to have some elbow room with our new place. We wanted to live close enough to the city for the obvious conveniences but far enough out to get an acre lot. I knew a riding mower was in my future but I really had no idea that they were so expensive...

It's a sad day when the price of a riding mower surpasses that of my first car!!!

Tim

A friend of mine keeps his vegetation cleared with a couple of goats. They eat anything lower than 3 ft. above the ground. He rents them out from time to time, so his cost is pretty minimal.

When we first arrived out here most of the lot was okay but on the far end it was kinda long. Too long for my 2 yr old to walk thru without whining to daddy... So I drug out the push mower and made about a dozen passes until a neighbor wife drove her riding mower down and let me borrow it. She said it was too painful to watch me with a push mower!!!

Speaking of old mowers, here's my 2yr old on my uncle’s old Cub Cadet! It's just a little beyond repair!!! I especially like the snow chains!


Tim

bloke wrote:1/ I know not to get the "homeowner" grade of ANY make...only "commercial".

Yup. I spent about what you are contemplating on a Kubota tractor with a 60" deck. It's not zero-turn and there are parts of my yard that would be lots easier to mow if it was. But it won't pitch me off the thing if I hit a gopher hole at 10 mph, either.

But the main reason I bought it instead of a zero-turn mower is that I thought I needed something that could also push dirt and snow. I was glad to have that front blade when we had gravel delilvered for our 1000 feet of driveway and it needed to be shaped. And unlike a zero-turn model, I was able to attach a Cyclone Rake to minimize the annual horror known as November Death, when the (four acre) yard is quite suddenly covered with a 6-12" layer of leaves and pine needles. But after the President's Day blizzard of several years ago, I learned that a big honking snow blower is very much more useful with the white stuff than a yard tractor with a blade. The blade is fine if the snow is fluffy and no deeper than 8 or 10 inches. We had three feet in that storm.

The snow blower, though--like all walk-behind snow blowers--is made to homeowner grade, and I have to fix something on it nearly every time I use it.

When the Kubota wears out, which ought to be about 25 years from now, I may consider a zero-turn replacement.

Rick "who owns at least 20 internal combustion engines" Denney

Chuck(G) wrote:A friend of mine keeps his vegetation cleared with a couple of goats. They eat anything lower than 3 ft. above the ground. He rents them out from time to time, so his cost is pretty minimal.

It depends on how you define "cost". He pays a mighty high price if he decides he wants to walk in the grass with bare feet.

Rick "who prefers the removed grass to return to nature a bit less odiferously" Denney

Rick Denney wrote:It depends on how you define "cost". He pays a mighty high price if he decides he wants to walk in the grass with bare feet.

What, you don't have deer, raccoons, rabbits, coyotes, etc. poopin' on your lawn? I'd be happy if I could keep the turkeys from doing their business' on the driveway. You'd be crazy to walk with bare feet on the grass in my yard--you'd probably end up with a grand case of poison oak or something prickly in your tootsies.

Doesn't anyone live in the city any more? Of course if you lived on the 20th floor you probably woudn't read this post would you?

bloke wrote:bloke "I've pulled some of those 2"-3" diameter honeysuckle vines and poison ivy out of trees on my property perimeters with my truck, a good hefty rope, and the patience to pull s-l-o-w-l-y."

I just cut them at the base, taking out about a 3-foot section of trunk, then anoint the stump with Garlon straight out of the jug. The vine in the tree will eventually dry out and rot and come down on its own. The seeds, however, will stay in the ground, sprouting for years...

On the other hand, I've found that the only really permanent solution to getting rid of blackberries and scotch broom is to grub the stuff out of the ground, roots and all. Spraying seems to give only a couple of years, tops, before it starts sprouting again. I've heard that scotch broom seeds can remain dormant for up to 60 years...

Rick Denney wrote: Cyclone Rake

Awesome invention! My Dad has one of these...makes leaf removal fun.....almost!

Chuck(G) wrote:What, you don't have deer, raccoons, rabbits, coyotes, etc. poopin' on your lawn? I'd be happy if I could keep the turkeys from doing their business' on the driveway. You'd be crazy to walk with bare feet on the grass in my yard--you'd probably end up with a grand case of poison oak or something prickly in your tootsies.

Yeah, here, too. For some reason, though, the deer and rabbit poop in the yard doesn't have the same aroma as the yards managed by the goats, donkeys, llamas, horses, and other herbivores owned by my neighbors.

Rick "red foxes instead of coyotes and poison ivy instead of poison oak" Denney

bloke wrote:A very close friend has left his IH tractor permanently parked over here, so I'm covered in the tractor dept.

One of these days, I'll be able to afford the barn and will have room for more single-purpose machines. All that requires is the sack o'cash, and for the housing bubble to burst a bit more so that the local contractor's prices will return to earth.

Rick "not holding his breath" Denney

dmmorris wrote:

Rick Denney wrote: Cyclone Rake

Awesome invention! My Dad has one of these...makes leaf removal fun.....almost!

I wish ours was a little more heavily constructed. It's obviously intended for a mower with slightly less footprint than the 60" deck on my Kubota. I can fill its hopper in four minutes. The hopper holds about a cubic yard of ground-up bits, and I end up with about 15 yards of the stuff when I'm done. I have several mulch piles aging nicely in various empty spots in my woods.

Rick "who raked by hand the first year and then paid the hefty price for a Cyclone Rake with a big smile" Denney

bloke wrote:Maybe sometime this week I'll post a video link of the thing spinning in a circle at full throttle while I'm struggling to play some crap from The Flying Dutchman (??).

bloke "There are excerpts, and then there are exZerpts."

Oh c'mon!!! if you're toolin' around on this with your brass blazin' ya gotta do Die Valkyrie!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0dUwX2h5kI