Advice on mowers

[hansenslawncare]

I was wondering if I could get some feedback on purchasing a mower for the lawn season coming up. Currently I only have one commercial mower, 36" Lesco walk behind, gear driven. It's a great mower, but was considering a zero turn in the hopes of obtaining a lot more customers this year. Here's what I was considering...An Encore 34" zero turn, which a guy on craigslist is selling brand new at half of the retail price(here's the link to the mower http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/cs...785525868.html), and here is where I need the advice. More than likely most of my customers will be residentials, and my 36" Lesco fits through most gates fine. But upgrading to a 34" zero turn would save me energy and hopefully increase production by decreasing overall time. But, the Encore is a 34", which means I lose 2" on the Encore deck as opposed to my 36" Lesco walk behind. Is this a bad idea? Instead of purchasing the Encore, I considered purchasing a new or newer 36" walk behind, but Hydro, instead of the gear driven I have now. This way I could put a velke on it, and still ride around on it. What do you think? Thanks a lot, Richard hansenslawncare.com

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[Liberty Landscaping LLC]

Lawn care business tips

Imo the zero turn would save you a lot of time compaired to a slightly bigger walk behind. Fatigue as you mentioned will also decrease. I would be a little more concerned about the price. That machine I don't think has a hour meter. If it isn't brand new have a mechanic check it first. If he is a dealer I would ask my the massive reduction.

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Liberty Landscaping LLC
www.libertylndscpng.com
Woodbridge, NJ

[hansenslawncare]

Originally Posted by Liberty Landscaping LLC

Imo the zero turn would save you a lot of time compaired to a slightly bigger walk behind. Fatigue as you mentioned will also decrease. I would be a little more concerned about the price. That machine I don't think has a hour meter. If it isn't brand new have a mechanic check it first. If he is a dealer I would ask my the massive reduction.

I've talked to the guy on the phone, he is a dealer but not sure how big of dealer he is/nor know of his reputation. There's another mower, actually exactly the same with an hour meter, so I assumed this one would as well. But yeah I think I'll take your advice and bring it to a mechanic.

What do you mean you're concerned about the price?

Thanks for the input.

[wandfsmall]

Originally Posted by hansenslawncare

I've talked to the guy on the phone, he is a dealer but not sure how big of dealer he is/nor know of his reputation. There's another mower, actually exactly the same with an hour meter, so I assumed this one would as well. But yeah I think I'll take your advice and bring it to a mechanic.

What do you mean you're concerned about the price?

Thanks for the input.

Encore Mowers was bought by world lawn a Chinese company that makes mowers. When Encore was bought the paper said they had 2 full time employees and 5 part time. They did not say how many mowers they had been making but I am sure not many for the last few years. I do not at this time know if they are using the encore designs in any mowers or if they use world lawn mowers with encore decals on them.

Personally I would be a little worried about any parts you could need to replace in buying one but that is from not knowing what they are doing. I am also not sure I would trust any sales reps or dealers for them as of yet or at least not until they have cleared out the inventory and parts that they currently have. The dealers may not even know the truth yet and going off of lies and a salesman is very likely to lie.

[hansenslawncare]

Originally Posted by wandfsmall

Encore Mowers was bought by world lawn a Chinese company that makes mowers. When Encore was bought the paper said they had 2 full time employees and 5 part time. They did not say how many mowers they had been making but I am sure not many for the last few years. I do not at this time know if they are using the encore designs in any mowers or if they use world lawn mowers with encore decals on them.

Personally I would be a little worried about any parts you could need to replace in buying one but that is from not knowing what they are doing. I am also not sure I would trust any sales reps or dealers for them as of yet or at least not until they have cleared out the inventory and parts that they currently have. The dealers may not even know the truth yet and going off of lies and a salesman is very likely to lie.

Okay, well thanks for that info. I think you made a good point, if I have problems purchasing parts that can be a lot of downtime with that mower, essentially paying for something without getting any use from it.

So thank you for that piece of information.