Could use some help deciding on quality riding lawn mower.
First time buyer here and have a acre to mow. Some of it hilly and uneven. Both sod and natural grasses.
Not sure a zero turn will work for me

I have had Wheel Horse, Cub Cadet, MTD and now a Husqvarna. All were OK for what the job was and what I paid for them. The MTD was the lowest quality but was also the cheapest. I had a small 3/4 acre flat yard with no bumps. Now I have a couple of acres or rolling hills, woods and yard. The Husky has been great and is holding up well pulling an aerator, wagon or just mowing. I understand Huskies are made with two different motors. I have a Kohler which is the better of the two. The only thing I have done to it is regular maintenance and a steering bushing.

I’d highly recommend a x700 series deere(or a x485 series) expensive but worth every dollar
Comfortable powerful liquid cooled hyd deck and can run attachments as well

I have a Husqvarna TS354D with a Kohler 25 hp still running strong 4 years cut 1.3 acres hilly and flat. I have no complaints it's been good.

What ever you decide, make sure it has three blades, not two

I'm starting the third year with a Cub Cadet XT2, happy with it.

Best recommendation I can give is buy from a dealer that services the products they sell.

That's a tough call. I'm still running the JD I bought in 1988. Small rider, 38" cut, Kawasaki motor and it has held up great. I'm leery of hydrostatic drives.

Compare cup holders.

We have a Grasshopper that works well.

I'd buy a Kubota, dealer support is so important.

Snapper mowers used to be great. Don't know about the quality since they sold out a few years ago but my rear engine 28" manual start is very reliable.

I really like simplicity the cut quality to me is unbeatable. The deck actually is pulled by the front axle instead of supported by the mower frame so it contours the land very good.

I'm running a 33" cut Snapper that I bought used about 6 or 7 years ago. Cut almost 2 acres with it and it just keeps on going.

I use a JD X540, 54inch cutting deck. I cut about 4 acres around the house and pond. Power steering is nice to have.

Thank you for the info.
The simplicity looks interesting but it has a B&S engine.
How are they in a larger size engine? My experience with them has always been a pull & pull, pull, cuss,cuss, pull etc. in push mowers

Both of my simplicities have been Kohler engines. I know they've always had options of different engines and such maybe they've quit that not sure

The engine will likely run far longer than the transaxle in most cases. I have a JD with a Tufftorq K46 and a Kohler engine. The K46 is the most common transaxle across most brands in the lawnmower (as opposed to garden tractor) category. It is sealed from Deere and requires removal from the tractor to pry open factory fill plugs. I’ve had to crack the case and reseal it more than once. I wouldn’t trust it for a large yard with hills.

Why?

Bought a 46" Cub Cadet 5 yrs ago...prob 140 hrs on it now...

Kohler 22 horse twin cylinder

Annual oil/filter change end of summer is all

This! Free floating deck. Front of the deck is attached to the front axle, rear runs on rollers, not hanging off the frame.

I've worked in Simplicity and John Deere shops. I'll take Simplicity over Deere any day. (considering there is a dealer in your area)
Dealer support is very important and would be my deciding factor.

And I would add pretty reliable I think my current Broodmoor model is an O2 or 05 comes to mind I can't remember but has 980 hours on it right now. I have replaced the electronic clutch once last year. And a couple years ago I rebuilt the debt per say bearings and all and that's all the work that's been done other than normal maintenance and replacement parts.

In taller grass, you will end up with a strip down the center.Two rotary blades don't overlap enough to cut it all.That third blade in the middle does

Great info , today I need a snowplow instead lol.

Depends on HOW hilly and uneven.

I have a John Deere X530 with 54" cut and it's good. It has a differential lock which is pretty effective on uneven terrain. But it's not even in the same league or universe as my Kubota BX1850. The Deere is a big lawnmower. The Kubota is a little tractor. The Deere mows grass well. But that's about the limit of its usefulness. The Kubota will do stuff you seriously cannot believe a little tractor could do. If you move snow...........a front loader and 5' rear blade on the Kubota moves a lot of snow in a little bit of time. There's a pretty substantial price difference between the two. But it's literally green apples and oranges.

We have two zero turn mowers. I don't know how important your time is to you; but a zero turn is probably twice as fast as a traditional mower in actual use once you get used to them. There is a reason that all the commercial mowers / landscapers I know of use zero turns.

One of ours is an exmark https://www.exmark.com/ it has been a good mower. We bought it upon recommendation of a friend who owned a mowing company. At that time, they used exmarks; but since switched to Kubota. One of my brothers mows a lot of stuff with his exmark that would give many pause and he's had great luck with it.

One of my sisters has a Husqvarna and it has been a good mower too. Another friend that did commercial mowing has both exmark and cub cadet. He liked them both.

Our other mower is an altoz
https://altoz.com/tracked-zero-turn-mowers
It is pretty amazing. We bought it to mow in some places we really couldn't with any other and it does it really well. It is fairly expensive to buy though and probably isn't needed by most.

If I were in your situation, I'd probably check what the commercial mowers are running locally and where they're buying their mowers. Then I'd explain my needs and budget to one of them to get their recommendation and to the local mower sales person.

I’m enjoying my Cub Cadet RZT, zero turn ability with a steering wheel which controls the front tires so you can go some hilly mowing, unlike the others with bar steering. Several newer offerings now from Cub Cadet.

I have a simplicity too. Pretty good machine.