Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Zero turn radius lawn mowers

Yep, once you use one anything else is second rate.

In high school/college I worked for a large farmer, one of my jobs during the summer when we weren't in the fields was to mow around the outbuildings/grain bins at the various farms. He had a 60" Grasshopper. That was a mowing machine. Put a lot of hours on it, I ran it for 8 years, and not sure how old it was when I started, and it never had an issue that I didn't cause due to improper care.

Dad got sick of the Craftsman lawn tractors and their wearing out every couple years and bought a Marty-J by Deines.




Its a commercial duty mower, built for using repair parts rather than throwing away the thing, bearings rather than bushings, etc. When I was a kid it took me 4 hours to mow the yard with the 32" Snapper. With this he can have it done in just over an hour, and he mows quite a bit more ground now than I did then. He could buy a pair of Craftsman tractors for what he paid for the Marty-J used, but it is still going strong and will continue to.

I have a Kubota ZD21 with 61" cut. The diesel is great and it is fast. I mow about 2.5 of our 5 acres. I mow T post, stumps, and bricks. I do go through a couple sets of blades a year.
The big disadvantage to the mower and all Z turns will tear up sod on a tight turn, you have to be careful. I am starting on my 6th year and beside blades and oil and filter changes the only repair that I have had is bearings on one of the blade hubs. Seems if I had greased them they would probably be ok.
I had a Snapper Z turn before that and it was a junky toy.
Butch

Wouldn't a freakin' goat do this with far less noise and maintenance?

Mine comes with a beer holder.....

Thanks for all the replies!

What do you folks think the longevity differences would be between the "light duty", the "mid-level" models, and the "commercial units?

Is it worth spending more for longevity?