Time for a New Lawn Mower

[flyingcheesehead]

A string trimmer is not horrible for smaller, hard-to-reach areas. We recently supplemented our Stihl gas-powered one with an EGO, and are very happy with it so far.

Yep, already have one - I'm just thinking that I could do a lot more, faster, with a small mower for the areas I'm thinking of. Rather than maneuver the tractor in and out of some tighter spots, I could just use the little mower. Too much area to really do in a reasonable amount of time with the string trimmer.

FWIW, I have the Black & Decker 20V Max string trimmer/edger, along with a bunch of other tools from their 20V Max series, and I'm pretty happy with them. I have the trimmer, chainsaw, pole saw, "Matrix" drill with both drill and impact driver attachments, hedge trimmer, blower, and an LED flashlight, plus a handful of batteries so I'm never short of a fully charged one when I need it. No battery concerns here!

I do kinda wish there were more tools in the Ryobi 40V series that I needed, but I guess I'll have to take that money and spend it on the airplane instead.

 

[flyingron]

I just schlepped my 80V greenworks pro to the airport for tiedown duty. It did really well on the tough grass there, even with a tired old battery. A 40V sun joe brushless is on the way for home duty.

My Greenworks won't run anymore (don't even get me started on the POS greenworks pressure washer I bought). Last time I buy any more of that crap. Even Lowes (who's corporate HQ is right next to Greenworks's HQ ) stopped carrying that junk.

 

[GeorgeC]

I suspect it's not a coincidence that they're neighbors. I had to buy a Lowes/Kobalt branded replacement blade, since apparently the Greenworks branded ones are already unobtainium.

 

[GMascelli]

I gave up cutting grass 20+ years ago. Gave the mower to my niece and her husband so he at least had something to cut with. I paid $35 a week back then and now retired to a great community here in OCMD. HOA fee of $202 that includes gym, pools, beach private parking, mulching, weed and feed, grass cutting, gutter clean, trimming bushes, and snow plowing and sidewalk clearing if it's over two inches. Hopefully that continues to mean more flight time!

 

[flyingron]

I have generally found that all the Lowe's house brands are crap. Don't even get me started on their "utilitech" line of electrical stuff. I had a whole package of batteries come dead and some of their LED replacement bulbs are all over the place with regard to color temperature.

 

[SoonerAviator]

I also had to get a new mower this weekend. My 1994 42" Yard-Man rider finally decided it didn't want to do more than snail's pace in fwd (hydrostatic trans likely toast). The bad part is that the engine (15HP Kohler) runs like a top and fires up first time, has new tires all around as well as new spindles, blades, and steering shaft last year. Might fix the transmission if I could find a manual for it just to get a couple hundred for it on CL or something.

Decided to buy a Kubota G1800 54" (diesel) with 900hrs on it. Seemed like a decent deal for $1,500 versus buying new. My father had a B7100 compact tractor which was built solid, and this garden tractor is built very similar. The deck is heavy gauge metal, and 900hrs is nothing on a Kubota diesel engine.

 

[Ghery]

I gave up cutting grass 20+ years ago. Gave the mower to my niece and her husband so he at least had something to cut with. I paid $35 a week back then and now retired to a great community here in OCMD. HOA fee of $202 that includes gym, pools, beach private parking, mulching, weed and feed, grass cutting, gutter clean, trimming bushes, and snow plowing and sidewalk clearing if it's over two inches. Hopefully that continues to mean more flight time!

Sounds like you get more out of your HOA than I do, but I only pay about $83/month. And we don't plow our streets. Well, we have plowed them once in the 24 years we've lived here. Grass cutting is on your own, but when we re-landscaped 15 years ago I got rid of what little lawn we had, so I don't worry about that. Now, if that HOA would just pull the weeds and trim the other plantings. We have our yard waste recycling bin picked up every 2 weeks. It was emptied Friday morning and by Friday afternoon it was full again. Not a small bin, either. Oh well...

 

[SoonerAviator]

I also had to get a new mower this weekend. My 1994 42" Yard-Man rider finally decided it didn't want to do more than snail's pace in fwd (hydrostatic trans likely toast). The bad part is that the engine (15HP Kohler) runs like a top and fires up first time, has new tires all around as well as new spindles, blades, and steering shaft last year. Might fix the transmission if I could find a manual for it just to get a couple hundred for it on CL or something.

Decided to buy a Kubota G1800 54" (diesel) with 900hrs on it. Seemed like a decent deal for $1,500 versus buying new. My father had a B7100 compact tractor which was built solid, and this garden tractor is built very similar. The deck is heavy gauge metal, and 900hrs is nothing on a Kubota diesel engine.

Follow up after first mowing with the Kubota G1800:

Man, that mower is a beast. My bermuda grass front yard was overgrown as it hadn't been mowed in a week and a half and we have received a couple of good rains this past week to pair with upper 90s temps. The diesel never even bogged down while throwing a finely cut swath of clippings 7' (no exaggeration) out of the discharge chute. I was very impressed by the quality of the cut and the way the garden tractor just carried on like it was nothing. I'm used to slightly larger diesel tractors doing their thing, but I've never really used one purposely designed as a mower. The 54" deck took some getting used to as my turning points and mowing path were all wrong after the first two passes. Wish I'd bought one years ago, lol.

 

[Bill]

I like Kubota, growing up on 6 1/2 acres, we went thru several "toy" Sears and other department store grade riders before dad bit the bullet and bought the B7100. Ours was set up just like the one in the picture below, turf tires and belly mower. 16hp diesel, it cut everything without even slowing down. It was over 30 years old when he passed, and it was still running great when we sold it.

 

[SoonerAviator]

I like Kubota, growing up on 6 1/2 acres, we went thru several "toy" Sears and other department store grade riders before dad bit the bullet and bought the B7100. Ours was set up just like the one in the picture below, turf tires and belly mower. 16hp diesel, it cut everything without even slowing down. It was over 30 years old when he passed, and it was still running great when we sold it.

That's exactly what my father's small Kubota was, an early 90s B7100HST. 60" mid-mount mower, his had the non-foldable ROPS though. Did well with their small acerage, but he mows with a 60" Bad Boy zero turn now since it's faster. I saw a pristine B7100HST in Mountain Home, AR and considered buying it (they were only asking $4K), but my property isn't big enough to need a compact tractor. The turning radius was also a bit large for what I need, otherwise they're great machines.

 

[DaleB]

I ended up buying an Ariens 42" zero turn. So far so good, took a bit to get the hang of steering but it sure does make quick work of the lawn. I gotta figure out a better parking strategy, though... no way I'm giving up a garage stall.