It looks like as long as the inspection is good and there are no hiccups with financing, I’ll be buying a house on nearly an acre of hilly grass. The current owners have a riding lawn mower, so I think I’ll probably want to go that route as well; the hills are steeper than I’d want to do with a push mower.
I’ve never had a riding mower before. What am I looking for? I’m in mid-Michigan, so the idea of getting a snow plow for the front is intriguing after the last winter we had!
Get what you can afford.
Cub Cadet and John Deere are some of the higher end mowers if you can swing it. I bought a store branded MTD riding mower and after the first maybe 6 or 7 years I find myself having to fix something all the time. If you’re handy, and want to save on initial costs maybe that’s not a terrible thing. Mine is 18 years old now and I have to replace the starter motor this year. I’ve already had problems with the exhaust, the engine mounting bolts, the starter solenoid. Not too terrible, but I doubt John Deere and Cub Cadet mowers are as labour intensive.
A snow thrower attachment might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Is your driveway sloped? I know traction can be an issue in the winter and people usually have to add weights to the rear to maintain traction.
Of course there are high-end tractors like Kubota, for example, but in my experience we’re talking 4, 5, 6 times the price of a typical riding mower.
Have you (or your realtor) asked the owner of the house about theirs? You can negotiate for stuff like that in the buy-sell agreement. If they’re moving to somewhere that doesn’t need one, you might be able to get them to just throw theirs in with the house.
Make sure it has a cup holder.
yep–that is what I did. Was good for another year or two and then I bought a new John Deere.
MTD makes mowers under several brand names, including Cub Cadet. I use a tractor myself, but the Cub Cadet Zero Turn with the steering wheel looks interesting.
This Wiki link lists all the brands they make MTD Holdings - Wikipedia
My father-in-law always bought cub cadets for mowing . He was a farmer and diesel mechanic. His bigger tractor/ end loaders, etc were always Kubota.
Been mowing 2.5 hilly acres for 12 years and I vote for the basic 1200.00 to 1500.00 dollar Craftsman riders. They are lighter, faster, and more durable than anything out there, I abuse mine terribly but the engine and tranny have been completely repair free, replaced a wheel bearing and I’ve rebuilt the deck (don’t mow mesquite roots with it) but never any charging problems, starts right up, cup holder not so good, always bouncing my beer out…
MTD and John Deere are overweight gas guzzling monsters, keep your money in your pocket, only hassle with Craftsman is having to get all parts at Sears.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I’ll describe my sister’s problem with her lawn. There are some steep banks where her mower feels top-heavy and unstable if you drive across the slope rather than up or down it. And in some places there are features that prevent you from driving up or down it. For instance, the lawn slopes rather steeply toward the curb and street around two sides of the property.
So she needs another mower to do portions of her lawn. Maybe (she doesn’t know because she bought the mower before understanding this would be a problem) there are mowers with lower centers of gravity that would handle the slope.
So that’s something to look closely at – how steep are parts of your grounds and whether you can find a mower that will handle it.
A riding mower will get expensive fast. I have a base-model John Deere and it was $1500. Compared to the old Murrays my stepfather used to buy it’s been a great mower for what I need (1.3 flat acres.) The base-model is a 19HP 42" cut with gear-driven transmission. They have some nice touches like an hour-meter and the maintenance schedule printed on the back of the seat. Oil changes are extremely easy and the battery is easy to get to. Lowes and the local John Deere dealer had it for the same price, but the dealer delivered for free, so I gave them the money rather than Lowes.
ETA: You can probably read more than you ever wanted about lawn mowers/tractors here: http://www.mytractorforum.com/
That base model on-line is $3,000. How on earth did you get it for $1,500?
They have lower models, mine was a LA105 but I think it’s a slightly different number now. Just walk into Lowes or Home Depot or a JD dealer and you will find them. IIRC a couple months ago it was still $1500. I believe I’ve read that JD doesn’t actually build them, they are just built to JD specs and branded JD.
Here is the low-end model on the JD site: John Deere US | Products & Services Information
We live on 15 acres. I have three riding mowers: a Cub Cadet, a Simplicity, and a Craftsman.
My advice:
Stay away from hydrostatic. You don’t need it.
Stay far, far, far away from “timed” mower decks. These have a timing belt to synchronize the blades.
Don’t be cheap; spend the money and buy a quality machine.
After you get it, regularly change the oil and oil filter. Use 100% synthetic oil.
Wow. There’s a bit to think about here. Thanks, everyone, for your responses.
I guess my main takeaway is ti buy the best mower I can afford. I’m probably in that $1,200 range; it looks like at least one person doesn’t think the Craftsman mowers are crap. Does anyone else have any feedback on them?
I took a look at a couple of Ariens and Cub Cadets yesterday at Home Depot. Is it worth the extra $150 to get an auto transmission? Do you shift a tractor like a car? Or is it more like a big snowblower that just has different speeds?
I don’t think that Craftsmens are crap.
I think that they are overpriced.
If Sears came off their prices $200-500 dollars on most models they would be selling a good mid-range mower at a decent price.
Personally, I own a Poulan and I have 1/3 of an acre to mow. I have owned it for 4 years and other than replacing a battery (which I probably could recharged if I had a rectifier at the time. Now I do…LOL) I have only spent money on oil,a filter and gas. It starts every time and it runs like dream.
$1100 dollars with tax and delivery from Home Depot.
I would strongly advise against buying used unless you are handy. A used riding mower has probably been beat to shit and you’ll spend as much keeping it going as you would simply buying new.
Some info about clearing snow with it, since you mentioned getting a snowplow attachment. I got a craftsman lawn tractor, the most powerful one I was willing to spend the money on (22-23 hp) because we moved to a place with a long gravel driveway. So I got the snow plow attachment, chains for the back tires, and I put a 50 lb. weight under the seat (plus I’m not light myself). But it’s barely adequate for plowing snow. Anything over 7-8", forget about it. I used to think the heavy wet snow was the worst, but this past winter it was so cold we’d get a lot of powdery snow that acted like powdered graphite under the wheels, and I couldn’t get any traction, even with the chains and the extra weight.
Someone said that Craftsman tractors are lighter than others. It might be that a heavier tractor, even if it’s more of a gas hog, might be better if you plan to use it for snow removal, especially if you have a lot of area to clear. Or just plan to use it for cutting grass and make other plans for the snow.
FWIW, I’ve got an 8 yr old 18hp Craftsman, and haven’t had a single issue with it. Change the oil + filter, spark plug, air filter & clean at the end of every season. I’ve got a flat 1/2 acre though. We inherited it, so I can’t speak to it’s cost/value.
A couple of thoughts:
Just in case it hasn’t been answered clearly, you will not need to shift gears as in a car. You will pick the appropriate gear and cruise at that speed until something makes you change - for example, higher/thicker grass may require a lower speed (gear) while traveling without cutting can be done an the highest gear. You do have to stop to change gears. Wiith hydrostatic you control the mower speed with an accelerator pedal, like an auto transmission car. Hydrostatic is nice, but does have many more failure points and is more expensive to repair.