The Gun Counter

How much lawn do you have to mow? No sense in going nuts if you need to use the mower for 30 minutes a week. Yeah, commercial stuff is great. I get it. I've been a contractor for almost 30 years.

It takes me 25 minutes to do my lawn using a 42" John Deere tractor I bought brand new at Home Despot 15 years ago for $550 during a late fall clearance. If my lawn were much bigger, I'd attach a 3 pt hitch to my 27 HP diesel tractor.

In the 15 years I've had the lawn tractor, I've changed the oil 4 or 5 times, plugs twice, drained the gas every fall, sharpened the blades 2 or 3 times and just recently changed the mower drive belt and idler pulley assembly. It has a B&S 20 hp engine. Point is, there is no need to spend the $$$ for a commercial grade mower if you are going to use it for 20-30 minutes a 3-4 times a month. If you have several acres, it's a different story.

rightisright wrote:How much lawn do you have to mow? No sense in going nuts if you need to use the mower for 30 minutes a week. Yeah, commercial stuff is great. I get it. I've been a contractor for almost 30 years.

It takes me 25 minutes to do my lawn using a 42" John Deere tractor I bought brand new at Home Despot 15 years ago for $550 during a late fall clearance. If my lawn were much bigger, I'd attach a 3 pt hitch to my 27 HP diesel tractor.

In the 15 years I've had the lawn tractor, I've changed the oil 4 or 5 times, plugs twice, drained the gas every fall, sharpened the blades 2 or 3 times and just recently changed the mower drive belt and idler pulley assembly. It has a B&S 20 hp engine. Point is, there is no need to spend the $$$ for a commercial grade mower if you are going to use it for 20-30 minutes a 3-4 times a month. If you have several acres, it's a different story.

True but it also depends on the type of grass and the type of soil. Sandy soil down here eats up thing pressed decs. Our thick ass bahia eats blades. Eating blades makes them dull. Dull blades is more side load on the spindles... way more wear then some other places.


My 60in Gravely PM260 was 6 minutes including moving it out of the workshop and back on my half acre. At $10k no way to justify that if I didn't have the business. The Toro 36" walk behind I had with the sulky. Paid $900 used and sold it 2 years later for $700, did the same yard in 15-18 minutes.

Lot is one acre, maybe 3/4 is grass. Some St Augustine, mostly lighter stuff.

Local JD dealer has a couple of small used mowers for sale I'm going to look at.

Precision wrote: True but it also depends on the type of grass and the type of soil. Sandy soil down here eats up thing pressed decs. Our thick ass bahia eats blades. Eating blades makes them dull. Dull blades is more side load on the spindles... way more wear then some other places.


My 60in Gravely PM260 was 6 minutes including moving it out of the workshop and back on my half acre. At $10k no way to justify that if I didn't have the business. The Toro 36" walk behind I had with the sulky. Paid $900 used and sold it 2 years later for $700, did the same yard in 15-18 minutes.

Good point about the sandy soil. I am on clay, so I get little to no dirt kickup.

A semi-local (45 minute drive) Deere dealer has a 1999 LX255 (42", 15hp) for $1000. Good deal?

Langenator wrote:A semi-local (45 minute drive) Deere dealer has a 1999 LX255 (42", 15hp) for $1000. Good deal?

The LX has a good reputation on the tractor forums I visit. You'd really need to take a look at it to check condition. Any pix?

Here are what some are listing for: http://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/fa ... ltxt=lx255

For 3/4-1 acre, would one of the larger robot mowers be an option?

(Though I still vote sheep. An adequate herd of baby doll sheep could be supported off 1 acre- sheep apparently have to be in an actual herd.)

BDK wrote:For 3/4-1 acre, would one of the larger robot mowers be an option?

My Robomow is rated for .5 acres. The next bigger model is rated up to up to .9.

BDK wrote:(Though I still vote sheep...)

Not making the obvious Aggie joke...!

Some of us are quite fond of lamb chops...