You have a choice , make it now !!!

[LittleJohn]

Me wants yous op-onions, on which way i should go,
in regards to brand ride on mower.
Take ya pick, me likes the huskies and now the JD's
but, there are so so many now to choose from
almost like theyre all comin from the same factory its getting confusing.
Grey imports are so tempting.

Im after hydrostatic drive 42 in deck, at least 18hp, no need for anything bigger.

multiple choice allowed

[97_gq_lwb]

Ride on's can be a costly experience if you buy the wrong one i personally would look at what the local council is using to do the medium strips even stop and ask the driver about them and how reliable they are.

[LittleJohn]

Very wise, never thought of that.
But do you have an opinion yourself about which brand you preffer or trust?

[Winnie]

We've always had a yardman and it's great.

Tappa tappa

[LittleJohn]

What brand engine is in a yardman, i havent seen those around KRISTOFFA?

[macca86]

huski and deere are always winners but greenfeild and mtd get good reviews. worthwhile sitting on a few and see what one has the most room to store a 6 pack eski next to your seat

[Winnie]

Not sure mate, Dad bought it years ago so I don't really know anything about it.

Tappa tappa

[growler2058]

Greenfield but has to be honda powered

[growler2058]

I worked at a hire firm years ago and the greenfield was the easiest of the ones to work on out of
* Cox
* White (tuffest grrrrr)
* victa

[97_gq_lwb]

I am not up to date on any of them always liked honda engines be it bike mower etc never had a problem with them.
Heres some info on yardman lol maybe they sold the name to china not sure you really have to be careful.

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/mtd-yardman-autodrive.html

[AB]

Question though....What are you mowing...Flat, hilly, bushy area with sticks and undulations or just plain old flat area grass?

JD are over priced IMHO but they do come with 3 stubby holders...lol

I got a Sanli ride on (copy rover) with the Briggs motor....Great little things, plenty of grunt but my area is full of rocks, hills and hard bush so it suited me perfectly due to the ease of seeing everything in front and side along with the auto drive and suits my giraffe legs too.

You can rub up to trees on both sides too.

That probably won't suit your area though.

[Bigrig]

Briggs and Stratton (excellent)
McCullough - not sure if they're still made, but had one on an old property and dead set couldn't kill it ... as per a previous post, it was the brand used by the local council funnily enough!!

[growler2058]

Sorry cant agree with you Biggus on the Briggs unless they have improved a gazzillion times over the last 20 yrs. I used to work on these pos and hate them with a passion ya can't beat a Honda and that's that........IMHO hahahahaha


Tappin N Crappin

[LittleJohn]

Ab, i got about 1.5 acres of govnt land behind my property, between us and the lake,
the local council only cuts it 2 times a year.
heaps of reptiles, frogs, and its scares us to know that theres browns in dem bushes.
Its sadly up to the indiidual owners to cut it if they so wish.
We have a storm fence and enjoy the view, so me being justso fit and so willing to cut wild thick grass
with my push mower honda, has really postponed me getting this ride on. LOL's ( sarcasm icon here)
The land is flat, just stoopid grass.

Big Rig, the funny thing is, ive seen some second hand models of these makes,
They sort of all go the same way with engines,
pre 2000 was kawasaki engines, and B&S predominantly,
then KOHLER and B&S, and some HONDA,
but nowadays.... all i see is B&S

ps. i gan cet grey imports, so the majors are all on even playing field atm.
under $3k

[LittleJohn]

yeah growlers hondas are great, but at 19 and up HP..hwoarrrrrrrrrrrrr exxxy bigtime dude.

[AB]

Nah I'm with Biggus sorry Growler....I dropped my old Briggs push mower off a cliff, left it out in the rain for 5 years, drove over it with a 4 wheeler and forgot to put 2 stroke oil in it about a million times and it still went...LMAO.

Sometimes you get lucky with motors....Nothing bad to say about Honda either...They rock, but Briggs are also very good.

[LittleJohn]

I am not up to date on any of them always liked honda engines be it bike mower etc never had a problem with them.
Heres some info on yardman lol maybe they sold the name to china not sure you really have to be careful.

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/mtd-yardman-autodrive.html

what scares me, is they all basically look like that yardman, im not kidding.'
you know that chinese winch threads... where they are built in same factory, just colr difference, re badging, slight remodelling etc...
Alot of these mowers are from the USA... but are they from USA via......China?? these days ( dont mind if the quality standards are same though)

[AB]

Hijack time...lol

EVERYTHING IS FROM CHINA!

Even the famous tough USA made milwaukee tools are all from China.

Even if it says made in USA a lot of the parts are from China and assembled in USA, etc.

There's China and then there's China....We can't associate China as cheap crap these days. Most if not all of the quality products we buy these days are from China or have important parts from China inside...China China China.

[LittleJohn]

OMG
you telling mee i might be buying a
CHuN DEERE ?

[growler2058]

OH AB you seem to have misunderstood me BRIGGS ARE SHAT hahahahahahhaha


Tappin N Crappin

[AB]

OH AB you seem to have misunderstood me BRIGGS ARE SHAT hahahahahahhaha


Tappin N Crappin

I have no comeback as no one in their right mind can bag Honda engines...LMAO

[Clunk]

I reckon cutting length is important most of these tractor style hobbies only seem to have a relatively small cut........ Not that good for large areas.

My old man used to have, what I can only describe what looked like a 3 wheel gokart type thing, 2 wheels up front and 1 rear to steer, bloody thing turned on a penny, was awesome......... Also had 3 rotary cutting blades which gave a 72in wide cut.
For the life of me can't remember the make or what engine it had........ All I remember is that an area that used to take me 4 hours to mow with the push along petrol jobby, took my old man 20 minutes............ I can't believe the barsteward waited until I moved out of their house before he bought the ride on!!!!!!!!!!

Taps a lot!!!!!!

[Clunk]

Hijack time...lol

EVERYTHING IS FROM CHINA!

Even the famous tough USA made milwaukee tools are all from China.

Even if it says made in USA a lot of the parts are from China and assembled in USA, etc.

There's China and then there's China....We can't associate China as cheap crap these days. Most if not all of the quality products we buy these days are from China or have important parts from China inside...China China China.

Been on the turps tonight have we mate??????? Lol

Taps a lot!!!!!!

[pearcey]

Mates got a JD comes with 3 point linkage plus small grader blade and bucket. Mower deck is about 1 to1.25 meters possibly more but with all the other acc`s he reckons it`s a steal at around 20 grand. He had a JD strait mower deck before and could not fault it including JD`s service.

[Finly Owner]

I can finally answer with absolute Knowledge, wisdom, power of observation, hands on servicing, using machines and knowledge of back up parts.

Firstly: New Honda Motors are not as good as the ones made 20 year ago!
Kholo is a good reliable motor providing cooling is kept under control.
Vanguard is a Briggs Motor. Briggs are value for money!
In my opion you cannot pass up a Kawasaki Petrol motor these days!!!

If you want desiel Kubota motor or Denyo!!

Secondly:Mower Brands

Greenfields are simple operation, relatively simple design to replace belts and blades. Robust Australian designed for Australian land. Mostly Briggs powered(Intek).Parts readily available.

Clipper is a relatively new comer Aussie Made. Zero turn with single joystick controller, and a easy slide out tilt up deck, to allow for quick blade change.Kawasaki powered.

John Deere is well known, but have a limited parts availability for drive lines usually. Import fro USA needed, upto 4wk wait. Also not cheap parts.

As are Toro. These are newer here than John Deere, but very good machines. Both John Deere and Toro have belts, blades, tyres and tubes available aftermarket and/or original.

I wouldn't touch Husquarvana, as they have a habit of superceeding models, then discontinuing parts for prior models. Thats in all their product range.

Hustlers seem to have a good reputation.

As for Cox, used to be good 35 year ago, now they are flimsy, and are only for real lawns. Better than MTD, but cerainly not as robust as Greenfeild.

MTD you'll regret it.

White is a cross breed of MTD & Cox.

AMC is no longer made, but you can still buy parts until they run out.

Thirdly Types:

Ride on Tractor Mower. Look for something that seems to have less parts that can fall off over time. Check the steering system for protection from tree bumping. Be aware of ground clearance with steering components. Ak what is the drive unit, Is it cork clutch? Contract Drive plates? Gearbox? Chain and sprocket? Drive shaft? Belt Driven?

The Cork Clutches wear and are a easy cheap replacement.
The Contact Drive plates are (I found) useless, unless on flat ground.
The Belt driven can burn out belts if you don't keep an eye on tensions every now and then. Pullies do wear out eventually.
Chain and sprocket can easily be seperated by twigs catching in the chain as they run close to the ground. No problem if you have a LAWN with no trees.
The other two are same as any gearbox drive shaft machine.

Blade types: You canhave acutter bar blade, or cutting disc with swing back blades. Different Makes models will have what Manufacturer deems best.

Some of thes come with 4WD, excellent for more slopey ground. Not maent to mow through mud, just enable tackling slopes easier.

These Ride on Tractor Mowers are usually mid mounted tinny sheet metal cutting decks. They don't like being treated rough.

Then you have Out front mowers, 2WD and AWD. These usually suffer big rear end swing. But usually tougher deck than a ride on tractor mower.

The you have the Zero Turns: (Zero Turn Means it will turn onthe spot, no turning circle as such)

Two sub species Domestic and Commercial: The main difference isthe cutting decks. Domestic is light metal(Tinny), Commercial is a pressed mild steel deck very strong. Can take some knocks.

When turning sharply with a zero turn you can and will get wheel spin, sometimes digging up the gras/dirt.

Best thing about Zero turns is they will zip around a tree in a single line cut. No back and forth! They have spindles which have a Cutting Bar Blade attached to them.

You do have Belts still for the cutting deck. But wheels are driven by hydraulic pump motors. They have electric clutches to engage blades.

You can also now get Quad steer. These mowers don't wheel spin when turning. bigger mower than Zero turn of some cutting deck. less footprint also.

Hope some of this helps. If you want more info, just ask or PM me!

By the way, I am currently employed in the hire game, and have been now for approx 7 years in total. And try to keep up to date with

[the ferret]

I'd just go for one that the Missus can handle John!!
Cheers, the ferret.
PS, Was that your Missus that you sent me the pic of in the green dress lol.???

[the ferret]

Hijack time...lol

EVERYTHING IS FROM CHINA!

Even the famous tough USA made milwaukee tools are all from China.

Even if it says made in USA a lot of the parts are from China and assembled in USA, etc.

There's China and then there's China....We can't associate China as cheap crap these days. Most if not all of the quality products we buy these days are from China or have important parts from China inside...China China China.

Cept the Ferret Tyre Deflator I'll have you know!!
Cheers, the ferret.

[LittleJohn]

Finly Owner,
a response to that magnitude earns my absolute highest respect.
Mate thank you so very much.


Ferret, you'll keep !! bahahahahhahahah.... wife bahahahhahahah

[my third 256]

Ab, i got about 1.5 acres of govnt land behind my property, between us and the lake,
the local council only cuts it 2 times a year.
heaps of reptiles, frogs, and its scares us to know that theres browns in dem bushes.
Its sadly up to the indiidual owners to cut it if they so wish.
We have a storm fence and enjoy the view, so me being justso fit and so willing to cut wild thick grass
with my push mower honda, has really postponed me getting this ride on. LOL's ( sarcasm icon here)
The land is flat, just stoopid grass.

Big Rig, the funny thing is, ive seen some second hand models of these makes,
They sort of all go the same way with engines,
pre 2000 was kawasaki engines, and B&S predominantly,
then KOHLER and B&S, and some HONDA,
but nowadays.... all i see is B&S

ps. i gan cet grey imports, so the majors are all on even playing field atm.
under $3k

whynot get a contractor in to do the mowing /not such a big outlay to have sitting in the shed and the expence of upkeep

[oil can harry]

Had our Huskie 48 with 22 hp Kohler for 6 years now and no worries. Here in Central Florida we cut the grass 12 months a year so it gets a work out. No problems. just oil, filters and blades.

[LittleJohn]

whynot get a contractor in to do the mowing /not such a big outlay to have sitting in the shed and the expence of upkeep

I understand your point totally ,( thumbs up icon here)
but i dont pay people to do anything for me.
Hence why i have so many tools etc. LOL's
The only thing i dont do is elec stuff, but got plenny uncles that are ,
and all they want is beer and souvlaki's

[LittleJohn]

Had our Huskie 48 with 22 hp Kohler for 6 years now and no worries. Here in Central Florida we cut the grass 12 months a year so it gets a work out. No problems. just oil, filters and blades.

Hey Harry, that would have a tripple deck with double blades, i'd imagine!!
hwoarrrrrrrrrr

ps. you're not into exporting boats are you???

[maxblack]

I have a 16hp 1997 Cox.....I would love to get a new Husky or JD, but I just can't kill this damn thing, gotta stop servicing it me thinks!

Anyone got one of the new Victas? (of course owned by B&S)

[LittleJohn]

yeah the new huskies look nuts, super comfy too

I gotta admit with JD , they've got alot of respect out there.

[Finly Owner]

Sorry but if I could find one.......I would buy an old Duetscher Ride on with Duel rear wheels 8 speed, twincutting disc with swing back blades. From Memory 13hp old built honda. They were tough!!!!!!!.



Tim

[LittleJohn]

Yeah went with JD in the end.
The grass cant grow fast enough.

When the wifes not around,
im gonna go cut the grass again, and again, and again !! LOL"S

[2TROLLFAM]

Yeah went with JD in the end.
The grass cant grow fast enough.

When the wifes not around,
im gonna go cut the grass again, and again, and again !! LOL"S

I used to lurrrrrv my JD but the ex got it with the house LOL ...


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?mehsbc

[45/70]

The real reason L J wanted a ride on.:smileyvault-cute-bi



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9XryvEMz24&feature=relmfu


Go dominate it L J you good thing.:driving2:

[LittleJohn]

bahahahah,
you gonna make me take the deck off my beast

you have just done that inception movie thing to me

Nos kit next ! LOL's hard