Suggestions on new riding mower/lawn tractor?

[beenthere]

As a boy, grew up pushing those reel mowers. Trying to mow under the hickory trees was not fun. But was all we had until I left home. They leave a nice cut lawn however.

[MONITORMAN]

    Just went thru the same process of looking for a new mower. Wife and I had been doing the lawn with a 37 year old Hahn walk behind. At 72 now and the heat of the south we decided to treat ourselves to a rider. We have some burms on the lawn and the shed that we want to keep it in, only has a 48 inch door. So with those two issues the biggest deck size was determined to be a 42 inch deck. I can reach down and lift the deflector chute and it just fits thru the door.
     What we found, that had every thing that we wanted, was a Craftsman model # 28856.
It is actually built by Husqvarna for Sears. Comes with the new version B&S 24 HP Platinum V-twin 724 cc, full oil pressure engine. Has the larger tuff torq trans axle rear with foot control for speed selection rather than the fender mount selrctor. I feel the fender mount works better if you have long straight runs, but if your yard is such that you need to slow down for a lot of turns, than the foot control is much better.
     These new Craftsman riders have the new Turn Tight front ends, they turn in a very tight radius, and steer real easy. The front axle is cast iron with grease fitting on the king pin areas, the steering pivot points and the wheel spindles. No grease fittings on the drag links tho. Rear tires are now 20x10 instead of the earlier 20x8.
     The engine layout is great, has a quick detach tube that drops down to drain the oil without running on the tractor, and the oil filter is right in front of you when you lift the hood. The hood also lifts off the tractor with no tools, just disconnect the wires to the headlights. Air filter also serviced without the use of tools. This model also comes with an hours meter. The tractor has a two position ignition switch, that allows mowing in reverse if desired. Six position grass cut selection lever that is spring loaded and operates easy enough for the wife to use. 12 ga. Channel frame, 3 gal gas tank with sight gauge under the seat.
    The tractor accepts a whole bunch of accessories as well. List price was $1998.00. They usually have it on sale at $1699.00. Once in a while they will have a two day sale where they sell stuff at 25% off. We caught this and got the tractor for $1556.00.
    Very happy with the deal so far, but just got it a month ago.
    Only down side I have found and it may not be a problem at all, is the toe in. It definitely has more toe in than I would like, but have checked and they are all about the same. No adjustment and Sears says they have had no complaints of tire wear etc. Sears warranty for consumer for two years.
   

[SwampDonkey]

Mines the next size up, but sounds like similar features. Just lift the seat and it will say Husqvarna. As I said I can mow around an acre of stones in 20 minutes.   I can mow my own lawn in half the time of the old Kabota. As far as I'm concerned you have to have HP if your mowing what I do. 8)

[Magicman]

Jeff, I'm getting in on this late, but I'll echo Dang said, replace what you have with about what you have.  No way could you justify a zero turn no matter what they cost or how much fun they are to operate.  I have a 42" JD e/w a 21 horse Briggs engine and I do just fine with about the same amount of yard that you have.  It cost about $1800.  A bit smaller would still do just fine because I used a 38" cut Murray for years.  After about 10 years you go into the repair/replace mode with any of them.  Bearings and other stuff will only last so long.

[Magicman]

Here you go.   


 

[Jeff]

We went looking at mowers today, and the mower I was drawn to of all the ones we looked at, was a Craftsman with a 21HP Briggs & Stratton Platinum engine. Its a tight turn model with a cast Iron front end. That's important to me, because that was the point of failure on the last one which had a stamped steel front end. It's listed at $1549,  but Sunday and Monday they are having a friends and family sale and this mower and its accessories will have 15% off.  We can get it tomorrow for $1396.55 out the door and that includes a pull behind trailer. Its a much better mower than what we had and in our budget.  I've had good luck with Briggs & Stratton engines but have had some issues with Kohlers. It looks like Kohler is the engine of choice for a lot of the other brands of mowers now.

With the 42" cut it will have no problem hitching a ride in the back of my pickup.

[SwampDonkey]

time vs health benefits is the thought to ponder not HP.  get a self propelled mower and enjoy the walk.  people pay to go to the gym.  people buy exercise equipt..

Some of us walk all day swinging a brush saw all summer and fall, so a little ride'n is mighty nice instead of pushing/walking for 2.5 hours in the heat. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Go for it!!  8)  Look under the seat. ;)

[Jeff]

I did. The Battery is there. 

[red]

have you looked at www.mowersdirect.com

[SwampDonkey]

I was just wondering if Husqvarna had made it.

[Larry]

Jeff, I've got 209 hours on a 22 HP Briggs.  They call it an Extended Life Series whatever that means.  It's had a very tough life on steep slopes.  No problems at all in the five years I've owned it.  Chances are the mower will fall apart long before the engine shows any wear.

[snowstorm]

it used to be almost all the cheaper riders were made by mtd no matter what the brand name on it. i would much rather have a older john deere . ford .case the real deal.  there hystat trans was 100 times better than mtd stuff. the old cast iron kohler will last a long time. i have a ford that was handed down to me that was new in 1978. never a problem with the hystst trans. the motor is a little tired. put a new piston an rings in it and it will hum for another 20yrs. there is a big difference between a lawn tractor and a garden tractor. i did upgrade bought a b 8200 kubota with a 3pt hitich finish mower works pretty good can be hard on the flowers tho mower swings wide in a turn

[Magicman]

Many mowers of different brands come from the same assembly plants.  They just grab another can of paint and fill the contracts.  Back when Jacobsen had a plant here, it looked like a rainbow looking at all of the different brands and colors.  It sounds like what you picked out is about like the JD that I have.

The very best thing about Sears/Craftsman is the warranty.   

[Jeff]

Just tooled around back with the new Craftsman lawn tractor.  I suspect my taking the snow blower back behindthe barn and the purchase of a mower in mid march shall cause us to loose all this early summer like weather and summon at least one major snow storm to his us head on. 

[beenthere]

Jeff
I took the snow plow off the tractor, and look forward to one more good snow storm.
I prefer that to the 80+ weather we are having now.  ;D ;D

Glad you are sporting a new mower.
Grin and bear it.  ;)

[SwampDonkey]

62 here in the shade, 69 in the full sun, 82 against the south end of the house. Not hardly any water running off the snow, it's going in the ground. No frost.  There is even a summer-like haze in the distance.   The robins are going crazy here, there must be 50 in the yard.

Enjoy the new mower this summer.  8)

[Magicman]

You made the right decision for sure.  What is this "summon at least one major snow storm" that you speak of  ??? 

[SwampDonkey]

Make no mistake, there will be more snow. I would be very surprised if otherwise. I've seen weather change mighty quick in the Maritimes. May could turn cold and be snow squalls the first part of the month. I saw this in 1997. And in 1996 it killed off the barn swallows which do not arrive here before the 20th of May.

[Al_Smith]

Neat birds .I must get 20 of them swooping hither and yon every time I mow my front field and stir up the bugs .

In my folks barn there are so many nests stuck to the rafters and floor joists  I think they are about out of space .They raise I think two broods a year .The nestlings from the first brood help feed the second .

[SwampDonkey]

They used to be thick here, but not so much now. But they will some day again I suspect. It was interesting. Even in the deep woods around bridges, logging camps and fishing/hunting camps, the barn swallow was/is present. On the Little SW Mirimachi R was a long span logging bridge and a fish camp beside it for crown reserve salmon fishing (reserved by lottery for residents of NB only). Both the bridge and the camp eves had barn swallow nests.  8) They used to bother the house cat(s) here and swoop down on them. Just inches away and make a cherp like they were clipping their ears as they went bye. :D

[sandhills]

They also do a number on the mosquito population  ;D (besides scaying the heck out of cats  :D)

[Al_Smith]

The swallows can buzz pretty close to people too  not just cats .I think they try to snatch the fleas out of my whiskers at times .. :D

Mowers ! Funny a majority of mowers are made by the Ohio mower compnay which for some reason is in Kentucky . ???

MTD ,Huskey  ,Cub Cadet to name a few .Yardman I think is home ported in Cleveland but I think is or was made by Ohio mower .They just go down the assembly line every color of the rainbow built to whatever specs they call for .

[SwampDonkey]

Some bad actors need their ears clipped once in awhile anyway. :D

[Den Socling]

This is just a little note on the side. The first zero turn mower I saw was orange. That was 1997. The place was Indianapolis. Don Laskowski was showing me around his factory. If you haven't guessed, it was a WoodMizer. Funny but I haven't seen a Woodmizer zero turn since then.