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Zero Turn Mowers- Good, Bad, Expensive....

Curbkrawler said:
Very nice! Man please be careful without the rops on that thing! I had a family member get crushed to death loading his on his utility trailer
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Thank you, I’ll be careful. There’s no great answer with these things from a safety standpoint.

My sawed-off powerlifter boss had a new high end Bad Boy with a rops. He ran under one of his trees at speed, and that rops bar clipped a solid branch. He said it flung him into the control levers hard, wheelied the mower way out of control, and then it all kinda repeated when the front of the mower slammed back into the ground. He said it scared the absolute shit out of him, and he could easily see how he could’ve ended up in front of it.

I see your point, that if that mower is going on its lid, the rops gives you some kinda shot on getting out of the way first. Sorry for your loss, by the way, that’s terrible.
 
OHV Wildcat said:
Thank you, I’ll be careful. There’s no great answer with these things from a safety standpoint.

My sawed-off powerlifter boss had a new high end Bad Boy with a rops. He ran under one of his trees at speed, and that rops bar clipped a solid branch. He said it flung him into the control levers hard, wheelied the mower way out of control, and then it all kinda repeated when the front of the mower slammed back into the ground. He said it scared the absolute shit out of him, and he could easily see how he could’ve ended up in front of it.

I see your point, that if that mower is going on its lid, the rops gives you some kinda shot on getting out of the way first. Sorry for your loss, by the way, that’s terrible.
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It was a freak accident. We don’t know if he gunned it going up the ramp or what. His wife found him already dead. I never thought about shit like that when I was younger but the older I get the more safety conscious I “try” to be.

Edit: I wear my seatbelt not for safety but because my yard is so damn rough I have slammed my head multiple times into the rops going over bumps.
 
[486] said:
well, I'm not in on zero turn crew
but I did just end up with a 1400 dollar jacobsen lf3400 fairway mower

the reels do absolutely nothing to 3' high grass, the user manual says you can adjust from 3/8" to 3/4" length of cut rofl
the magic is it's got three hydraulic pumps out front, one for the 3 front reels, one for the 2 rear reels and one for full hydro steering (which also runs the lift cylinder valve much like a hydroboost brake power steering loop)
drive is via a sunstrand hydrostatic pump, just one both wheel motors teed in, I could probably valve it real fancy in a series-parallel arrangement to get a hydraulic "diff lock" function if I need to, but that'd also double the speed (and halve the torque?)

best bits: 4wd and a kubota v1305
it's gonna get trashy riding mower decks grafted on in place of the reels.
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Did you mean 3 inches?

:flipoff2:
 
OHV Wildcat said:
Hope this helps. Just picked up this 2017 Ferris IS2100Z for $4k. I think it was a steal. It was used commercially at some point, and had an engine replacement a couple years ago. The suspension really does make a difference. Trying to watch the front wheels the one time I’ve used it so far, they didn’t noticeably move as much as I thought they would on my rough yard, but it definitely lets you run faster. The pissed off tires he put on there require more finesse than I have so far…

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I’m envious of those dual tanks; they only put single tank on most of their lineup and I hate how frequently I find myself having to dump gas in the thing.

On mine the rear suspension seems to do 95% of the work, but boy does it make a difference in the ride:smokin:
 
Sounds like instead of a lawnmower you should have bought a rectangle baler and a wood stove big enough to fit a bale. :flipoff2:
 
Curbkrawler said:
It was a freak accident. We don’t know if he gunned it going up the ramp or what. His wife found him already dead. I never thought about shit like that when I was younger but the older I get the more safety conscious I “try” to be.

Edit: I wear my seatbelt not for safety but because my yard is so damn rough I have slammed my head multiple times into the rops going over bumps.
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Not saying you are doing anything wrong, just want to point out seatbelt on with ROPS up but when ROPS is down seatbelt should be off.
 
I usually have my rops folded down. I lifted it up during the hurricane hoping if a tree fell on it it wouldn't be as crushed.
Forgot it was up and went through my gooseneck pretty quickly. That woke me up.
Pretty sure the kid did it to the week before.
 
ROPS is actually more dangerous on my flat propety. I've considered removing it. Wife took out the mailbox. Wife and daughter sometimes snag low tree limbs. This is all with the ROPS down.

ROPS is required for
mowers above 1323 lbs
or
mowers above 882 lbs if stability is less than 30 degrees.
or
zero turn with midmount deck above 882 lbs

If it has ROPS it is required to have a seatbelt
 
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Finally replaced my hydro oil. It came with a trailer, and the trailer had a gallon of lucus stop leak hydro oil. Had a feeling they used that in the mower. Never got around to changing it. 2 years later, it definitely had lucus in it. Much quieter now.
Replaced the oil cooler lines. Looks like I got lucky and noticed in time
About to go test the self sharpening blades. I think these are going to be pretty good. The picture on landscaping forums looked impressive.
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xr-nut said:
I caught my rops on a guy wire at my business, I was moving fast enough that it brought the front up in a big ol hurry. :lmao: I mow with it down now. :laughing:

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I keep mine folded on my Scag. I was mowing and caught it on a guy wire for the electric pole in a yard. you ain't a kidding about it yanking the front end up with a quickness! :laughing:
 
2big bronco said:
So

How does that work? Center layer is super hard and outer is soft so it always wears slightly more?
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Laseredge®

The lawnmower blade that "Cuts Itself Sharp". Self-sharpening lawnmower blade technology from Fisher Barton means superior lawns.
www.fisherbarton.com www.fisherbarton.com

Pretty sure the bottom is just diamond coated or something. So as it wears the bottom gets sharper
 
ANGELO said:

Laseredge®

The lawnmower blade that "Cuts Itself Sharp". Self-sharpening lawnmower blade technology from Fisher Barton means superior lawns.
www.fisherbarton.com www.fisherbarton.com

Pretty sure the bottom is just diamond coated or something. So as it wears the bottom gets sharper
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Those are very cool, let us know how they hold up long term.
 
Gbkeith said:
Do you like them? I saw them somewhere online a few years ago when I bought my mower but couldn’t find anybody at the time who had used them. Kinda forgot about them until now.
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I love everything about this turd. :laughing:

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It's a 72", has great ground speed. Between the seat. The tweels. The z glides. You don't slowdown for anything.
 
xr-nut said:
I love everything about this turd. :laughing:

20230729_170534.jpg


It's a 72", has great ground speed. Between the seat. The tweels. The z glides. You don't slowdown for anything.
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I’ve got a 915E with tweels that I’m happy with. No z glides, though, so there’s probably room to be happier.
 
I had never understood the 0turn till the last year. Commercials always were like, "look, i can mow around this tree".

I use my sisters 0 turn at her house around the corner. Probably 1 acre out of the 13 to mow. I have probably .5 of my 2 acres to mow.. I use my push mower. Fuck I need a tractor out here.
 
NOODLES said:
I had never understood the 0turn till the last year. Commercials always were like, "look, i can mow around this tree".

I use my sisters 0 turn at her house around the corner. Probably 1 acre out of the 13 to mow. I have probably .5 of my 2 acres to mow.. I use my push mower. Fuck I need a tractor out here.
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Previous house was 4.5 acres. About 1.5 acre yard, 3 acre horse pasture/ rodeo arena. Started out mowing the yard (60" zt) and clipping the 3 acre with small tractor and 6ft. bush hog. Pulled up the arena fence and made the whole thing a yard. I could mow it all with the zt way faster than I could bush hog the 3 acres.
 
45acp said:
Previous house was 4.5 acres. About 1.5 acre yard, 3 acre horse pasture/ rodeo arena. Started out mowing the yard (60" zt) and clipping the 3 acre with small tractor and 6ft. bush hog. Pulled up the arena fence and made the whole thing a yard. I could mow it all with the zt way faster than I could bush hog the 3 acres.
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Ya. But the brush hog can do things that the zero turn can not do without blowing up the hydrostatic drives. I killed a zero turn in less than a day. brand new. Turns out you can't treat it like you are going through the little sluice box in the 2000's. You use the mower on the skid steer for that. And then return then get the entire 0 turn replaced because it isn't even 24 hours old. My BIL was a little upset.
 
NOODLES said:
Ya. But the brush hog can do things that the zero turn can not do without blowing up the hydrostatic drives. I killed a zero turn in less than a day. brand new. Turns out you can't treat it like you are going through the little sluice box in the 2000's. You use the mower on the skid steer for that. And then return then get the entire 0 turn replaced because it isn't even 24 hours old. My BIL was a little upset.
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Yes, obviously. I'm talking yard stuff here. This was a perfectly flat well maintained horse pasture, that after a season of mowing with the zt looked just like the rest of the yard. I'm not bailing off in the woods and cutting an atv trail with it. :laughing:

Bush hog/ rotary cutters have their place. My point was in a yard scenario, the zt is faster than a tractor with more cutting width.
 
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