Howdy,
I'm the guy who asked about lawn tractors a while back. Got some great
advice...
Thanks!
We went out and looked at stuff this past weekend. Our criteria were:
* 48" deck or bigger
* hydrostatic tranny
* prefer electric PTO
* no more than $2500, much prefer less than $2000
I'm not too concerned about the ability to cut in reverse or whatever,
since I'm pretty much planning to disable any safety thing that annoys me.
:-)
Also not too concerned about a lawn tractor vs. a garden tractor. I have
no need to use digging implements off the back of the tractor and the
slightly better frame doesn't matter to me. When I asked the Sears guy if
he'd ever heard of a frame breaking, the answer was no, so I asked him why
I cared about a better frame... No real answer :-)
Again, this is for mowing around 2 acres, flat, fairly smooth, not much in
the way of trees & stuff to mow around. We'll probably also get a cart to
tow stuff around with, and _might_ (but probably not, most likely I'll get
a plow for my truck, which will be a future question, I'm sure! :-) get a
snow blower attachment.
We looked at Sears, Home Depot, and Lowe's.
Home Depot has the JD LT1xx series. They seem to have the exact same
features as the tractors at Sears & Lowe's, but are green/yellow and cost
more. Oh, and have a 12V cigarette lighter power port.
Sears had a model we liked reasonably well... It was a DYT4000. Cost was
$2200 (on sale), had a 48" deck, & 25hp Kohler twin. Used a hand lever on
the right side for speed/direction control, had electric pto, nose roller,
etc. Looking online, they also have that same tractor with a 24hp Briggs
Intek for $1900 (also on sale).
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/search.do?cat=Lawn+Tractors&vertical=LAWN&Filter=Deck+Cut+Width%7C48+in.%5E&displayTarget=Subcategory&subcat=Lawn+Tractors&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
Lowe's sold Husqvarna and Cub Cadet, among others. Lowe's also offers a
10% off coupon you can register for on their website (thanks to the person
who pointed out that lawn & garden forum... Found out about the coupon
there!)
The Husqvarna we looked at was a 21hp Briggs V-Twin ELS, and otherwise
seemed to be the same tractor as the Sears DYT4000. $1800. There didn't
seem to be much of a reason to me to get a Sears model over the Husqvarna
model if the Husqvarna was cheaper and supposedly had a motor that would
last longer (though it does have a bit less hp).
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=19517-41798-LO21H48
The one we liked and will probably buy was the Cub Cadet LT 1024. Lowe's
sells them for $2000. 50" deck, 24hp Briggs ELS motor, greaseable mower
stuff, foot control (with cruise) for the hydrostatic transmission,
automotive hub style rear wheels.
http://www.cubcadet.com/servlet/BrandProductDetail?ID=1161&CAT=28&SUB=149
My fiancee likes the foot controls over the hand control & the slightly
bigger deck. It also seems to be the best balance of cost/power/whatever.
The 1000 series Cub Cadets are actually made by MTD (which some folks on
that garden/lawn forum don't particularly like) but it appears to be their
top of the line stuff.
All these tractors had things like cast iron front axles, electric PTOs,
etc. The biggest single differentiator was the foot vs. hand controls.
Anyway, we'll be moving in about a month, so I'll look around for a steal
on something used until then, then likely buy the Cub Cadet.
Thanks folks!
Mark
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