Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Zero Turn mowers?

I have a good local dealer that sells Skag brand mowers and they seem to be very well built. Anyone here have any experience with them ? ? ?

I wouldnt buy anything from Craftsman, nothing... never know where the company will be tomorrow or who will own what. Good luck with the warranty, and or finding the specific part without the need to cross reference a thousand things.

After the first spin around the yard with my zero turn, knocking down about 1/3 of my split rail fencing, I came to the conclusion that I should hold off on mowing around the pond until I had a few more hours of operating experience.

As mentioned before-61" Kubota diesel with the commercial deck. I mow stumps, T post, and other things. Bought it in 2003 and change filters and fluids as scheduled and several sets of blades.
Unless Kawasaki has made a design change, they have valve seat problems.

Toro timecutter 42" cut. Been having it for 20 years, replaced front tires once, back tires need to be changed (getting slick), however still cuts great. Changed oil once a summer and a battery about every 5 years. Best $2499 I ever spent on a lawnmower.

Also second the Kawasaki engine. Mine came with a Kohler 20 years ago, but on my duck hunting motor (prodrive) I swapped out my Briggs with a Kawasaki 37and its a beast.

I have a lower end commercial Hustler with a Kawi engine. It is a bit of overkill for my property but I wanted the commercial grade transmission (ZT3400) since part of the property is pretty hilly. No problems in the 4 years I've owned it. You can mow pretty hilly stuff with a ZT if you take your time and use the right technique.

I have a Kubota ZG 23 with a Kohler engine that I bought new around 2004. It has seen a lot of use and abuse, ended up in the pond once among other things. I did a little work on the stamped deck and had the base gasket changed about a year ago. It is still cutting about 1 1/2 acres a week.

My main mower is a an ExMark Lazer Z-X series. It is basically their most commercial model. 35 horsepower Kohler engine, 60” welded deck made of 3/16 and 10 gauge plate, a hydraulic seat that is very comfortable, their RED technology, giant spindles, everything is heavy duty. It is a beast.

Expensive but worth it.

Check out some of the brands used in places like Florida where they get 12 month use.
No doubt landscaping is one of the biggest industries in the south.
For sure they all use zero turn mowers. i

I've had a Toro since 2015 --- 42"cut with 22 HP,. Cut my mowing time in half from my old John Deere 111. It's been perfect --- It DOES get rim leaks in the Wintertime; I slime them.

I never use any ethanol fuel in it. Change the oil every 50 hours (at 10 hours the first time). Bought a cheap hour meter and installed it.

I'd buy another.

Walker. One and done.

We had a Cub Cadet zero turn, and it was pretty good. Replaced it with an X-Mark, and it is MUCH better! We mow 3 acres, but it's all flat lawn.

Mike Holmes

I have used a Hustler Raptor SD at church for about 5 years. It was an amazing improvement over the Husqvarna tractor I had been using. When I finally bought one for myself I went to the Hustler dealer and came home with a Bobcat. I like it much better. Mine is a 48 inch deck model. We have some tight spots that a larger model would not get through.

Who wants a mower that doesn't turn?

Have a 60" Gravely it has worked flawlessly since the day I unloaded it.
I know people that have 42"ers they have had the same reliability.
Great seat platform less slamming around much easier on backs.

My brother has an Ariens and loves it.

The town I work in has a fleet of Skags for their parks. A couple coworkers have Skags and have nothing but good to say about them. I've seen a couple commercial mowing crews using Skags as well.

Cub Cadet Pro-Z 960 here. Steering wheel version. I love it! Tried different lap bar mowers but we just have too many hills and obstacles. Suppose I could have managed with bars. Control of the front tires much easier for our situation though.

We have used Ferris, Skag and John Deere where I work. If I was just mowing a yard of up to 5 acres, the Ferris would be my choice due to the suspension ride and pretty nice cut. They just couldn't take the commercial level abuse that our staff put them through. We had to replace pumps constantly. We then went with Skag, and they are well built machines. The only trouble that we had was the occasional bent bolt on the decks. Our dealer passed away and the next closest dealer was three counties away and had terrible customer service. We now run John Deere and are happy with them. They are the easiest to pull maintenance on, and they have a nice cut, but are a little taller than the other two, so they feel a little squirrelly on hills. They also have that expensive green paint, but we have an excellent dealer a few miles away. There's my experience FWIW