OK, let's talk mowers, lol.

Well, it is now that time of year when a man's (or even women's ) fancy turns to thoughts of how to keep that unruly yard in check. I managed to more or less keep the old mowers going until the end of the season last year, but a new machine is a must this year. I also have close to 3 acres of grass to do, and a ton of various obstacles to mow around, so going to a zero turn is going to be a must. I already know what I want in terms of deck size and horsepower, but I have no clue what brands are any good any more. I'm leaning towards John Deere , but I also know I'm likely going to overpay a bit for the name. So what other brands have similar quality?

I've never used a John deer zero turn.I've had an exmark for 3 years and love it.I think there a little more pricey than John Deere but it's a high quality mower built for commercial use.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL135.../412305269.jpg

Not a zero turn but I bought this cheaper model Cub Cadet last summer and have been extremely happy with it. It cut my mowing time to a 1/3rd and also does a much nicer looking job than my 5-6 year old self propelled Honda. I had to stick with a 48" deck so I can fit through the gate in my fence to the back yard so was a little limited on my options. I also had one heck of a time finding one as most dealers were completely sold out.
I did a lot of online research prior to purchasing it and for this type and size mower anyway Cub Cadet was by far the highest rated.

Thanks for the input. I should have also mentioned that I pretty much have a 4k price cap for whatever I get, and a bunch less would help a lot. So a new exmark is indeed out of reach for a few years. Going to look at the Cub Cadet options again, as well as Toro. Toro was recommended to me by someone else as long as I go with the mx series. Apparently they are just a cheaper version of the exmark. The used market around here stinks, what is available is way overpriced for used or has so many hours you just know it's about to have something major fail.

        Darkbird I found the same thing looking for used myself. I see in Jackson so not far from me so same basic market probably. I messed around looking and by early summer had a hard time finding the one I wanted. Actually bought the step down from model I wanted because it was all I could find and at the time was last one dealer had. Worked out fine as I saved a little cash and this mower has worked just perfect for me.

I have a John Deer riding mower bought new a couple years ago. I did a lot research and felt that was the best brand for me. I didn't feel I overpaid and am happy with the quality. If you can, watch out for the best sale. I struck when it was the lowest price of the season + free yard trailer + free delivery.

I spent a lot of time researching on mower forums and read a lot of poor advice though there was some good stuff too. A lot people will suggest to buy used at a great discount. I have no idea where they're living but around here, 5 years and 50 hours will knock of 10 or 15% which is definitely not worth it. You have to get down to a 10 or 15 year old mower with 200+ hours for any kind of sizeable discount.

The other thing I noticed is mower snobs hate the mowers at Lowes and Home Depot. Advice was repeated ad naseum to buy the mower from a dealer, even if its the same model, because the ones at big box stores are not the same. Well, I ordered from Lowes and the mower was delivered from our local John Deere dealership out of their stock... so take what you read with a grain of salt.

I'm happy with it so far. I mow about an acre and it hauls fine even with the trailer overflowing with yard debris. I probably would have bought a JD garden tractor series with more power instead but we hire a local Ag tractor to cut our fields for hay and do any heavy work on the property.

I used a cub cadet for 7 years commercially cutting style for over 7 years on a residential mower. I just got a Toro mower at the end of season last year and I love it as much as my cub ( i need to put a starter on it and she will be back running) I just suggest staying away for the briggs and straton motors I had issues with the last 2 mower I had that had them.

Thanks for the input again everyone. Glad someone did another response to this, as I had forgotten to come back and update. Had a bill come up which basically cut the legs from under my budget, so I thought I was hosed. But a couple machines popped up on craigslist, and I ended up getting a cub cadet enforcer commercial zero turn for $1900, plus about $40 in gas to go and get it. Read some reviews on it and the biggest complaints were early parts failures and a lack of support from cub cadet if the warranty was even a day out. Neither of which is really an issue when I'm the third owner of a nine or so year old machine. Only issues with it are that the hour meter doesn't work, and since starting to use it I'm having some issues with the seat safety switch. Have to bounce my fat butt on the seat a few times every so often to get it to work. The switch is a simple fix, and I'm hoping the meter might be just a bad connection somewhere, but we'll see. Oil and maybe hydro fluid change will be the next things done. Did some rough mowing with it yesterday, and just the sheer amount of ground I covered with it was insane compared to the old tractor. Spent probably less than 4 hours cutting the old pastures with the deck all the way up, and covered more ground than what I was doing last year in 8-10 hours. Still going to put the old tractor back together, but just to use for utility work, like pulling the roller and such.