Mower Advice

[Exceptional Lawn Care]

Good Evening All:

I'm new to the forum and this is my first season into the lawn business. I want to pose a question to the folks on this forum. Its probably been discussed a number of times so I apologize in advance if it has.

So here's my question.

If you had an unlimited budget to purchase a zero turn rider, what brand and size would you purchase?

Let me preface this by saying I do mostly residential properties, but I do have some commercial accounts. I don't have many large lawns or acreages at this time, but plan to market more commercial accounts this fall and next spring. I know they say not to buy based on accounts you don't have yet so thats why I want to pose this to others that have both small and large lawns.
I live in Oklahoma so the majority of our lot sizes here are fairly small.

My current inventory is listed below.

3 - 21" Toro Walk Behinds
1 - 36" Yazoo/Kees zero turn Walk Behind
1 - 44" Snapper - Residential Zero Turn Rider - (Motor just blew on it -REASON I'm Shopping for a new one.) This was my mower for my home.

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking at purchasing a new mower this week so I will look forward to your comments.

[lawncrafter56]

Toro commercial ZTR's.. Nice financing available. I love mine and think my payments are very reasonable with no down nice machine for the money

[Saddlewood]

Hey there and welcome!

From my perspective, I started out much like you did w/ a ZTR rider. Since then, I've sold that off and purchased a 36" Wright Stander. I also do mostly residential yards w/ a couple of commercial accounts. I stuck w/ the 36" due to the simple fact of being able to get in and out of the residential gates. Most of my residential customers have gates. For those that don't have gates and the commercial lots I have very few restrictions in size and sometimes wished I had a larger mower, but the 36" serves me very well and is very unversal.

As for the stander vs the rider, I can't see myself buying another rider. Sure I get wacked in the head from time to time as well as an occassional branch in my ear (because I'm up higher than the rider) but the mobility and the way it sticks to the hills is certainly impressive.

Just my $.02

I think the important part is that you ask 10 people you're going to get 10 different answers. Figure out what your conditions are and head to your local dealer and try out a few. Figure out what works for you and go for it!

[lawncrafter56]

i like the thought of a 36" deck too. whats the ground speed on the wright?

[Saddlewood]

i like the thought of a 36" deck too. whats the ground speed on the wright?

9 mph forward and I think it's 6 in reverse. I put on a set of the gator blades and it rips through the grass very nice. :D

I'm sure there's many high quality machines out there but the Wright is certainly my vote!

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Though it is overkill for most residential yards, at 9.2 acres/hour, 74" mowing deck, and 40 HP Kohler engine, the Dixie Chopper Excalibur is a field killer for large commercial sites and is my current dream machine.

Keith
Start A Lawn Care Business (http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com)