Need some mower suggestions

[Denis]

http://robomow.com

The best time-saving gadget ever - in the same labour-saving category as washing machines and dishwashers. It saves my weekend time for stuff I actually want to be doing. Highly recommended.

[evan price]

Avoid Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki motors. They are great motors but when they break they usually break big time. A Briggs will run like hell for years even if it is tired.
=/quote]

Really?? That's counter to my experience w. small engines in the construction world. The pro series of Jap engines you listed, plus Subaru, are all very highly regarded for longevity and ease of repair.

I'm sure you have a lot more experience breaking them down and fixing them than I do, so I'd like to hear more. The conventional wisdom in these parts is the Jap engines are > than Briggs and Kolhers. If that's changed, I'd like to be in on it

If you're buying new- by all means- the Jap motors are great- Especially small stuff like generators and pumps. Honda and Subaru/Robin motors in the smaller sizes are terrific, run forever, no complaints. They are so great the Chinese copied them darn near to the last screw and make them cheaply and the parts in many cases interchange. If you are buying used again the small motors- especially the Honda GXs- run darn near forever in the worst conditions you can name.

The riding-mower sized air-cooled engines- 15-20 HP- not so great in my experience. They run great right until they explode, usually without any warning. This may be because so many people are users and not maintainers. Keeping the tins clean and the oil fresh is a big deal with air cooled motors.

The liquid-cooled motors are fantastic. They run forever and just keep running. I would buy a liquid cooled Kawasaki FD-powered commercial mower for the right price if my job depended on mowing. However we are talking a price point that is much higher than a basic mower for an acre cheaply.

I've got a Craftsman DLT-3000 riding mower with a Honda GXV 16.5hp twin on it. It's a great piece of engineering, CDI ignition, high compression hemi heads, run by 2 timing belts contained totally within the crankcase and oil sump, plastic camshafts and aluminum rods... great engineering like a watch, should run forever...the previous owners meticulously maintained it with oil and filter changed regularly.

Motor had a catastrophic connecting rod failure and ejected parts out the side of the motor case. The replacement is about $1300. I gave the previous owner $100 for it with a new battery, blades and belts already installed.
I'm repowering it with an 18.5 HP Briggs & Stratton opposed-twin flathead. It will run on petrol-flavored varnish, with coal tar in the sump and a bees' nest in the airbox.

Now that may be due to lack of maintenance on most peoples' parts. Never underestimate the ability of the average American to not bother taking care of $2500 pieces of equipment. But I knew the POs and they were not poor and kept their stuff in good order.

[MarkD]

Any recommendations for a walk behind mower for my, oh 1/4 acre or so of grass?

Be gentle, I've never owned a mower before.

I have a Craftsman push mower with B&S engine that runs like a champ.

If you're planning on bagging the clippings instead of mulching, I recommend you get the one with bigger wheels in back. Makes pushing easier when the bag gets heavy.

I intentionally didn't get a self-propelled because I have to do a lot of back-and-fill, it would be self-propelling so little of the time it wouldn't be worth the effort.

[JAG2955]

Any recommendations for a walk behind mower for my, oh 1/4 acre or so of grass?

Be gentle, I've never owned a mower before.

I have a Craftsman push mower with B&S engine that runs like a champ.

That's what I have. Bigger wheels in the back and self-propelled. It does bog down in heavy grass if I have the ejection chute closed for mulching. But for how much I've abused this thing, I can't complain.

[Captain Wheelgun]

Any recommendations for a walk behind mower for my, oh 1/4 acre or so of grass?

Be gentle, I've never owned a mower before.

I've been using a Homelite 24 volt battery mower for several years now on my mobile home park postage stamp yard. It is much quieter than a gas mower, with no exhaust fumes. The downside is that the battery weighs a ton and takes 15 hours to charge, so I have to plan ahead when I want to mow.

[JAG2955]

I swung by both a Deere and Kubota dealer today. Both showed me some SCUTs, but the prices on each were like a giant price in the crotch. Like used car prices.

I see that there is a ton of utility in them, I just need to decide if I should do it now and basically do a capital deferral, or wait and buy it later.

We do need to do a ton of landscaping in the backyard, so I'm wondering if I were able to do it myself with the tractor if that would help offset the cost at all.

Oh, I also need to swing by a CPA to see if it could be an agriculture write off for the (non-producing) timber land in Idaho.

[rightisright]

I swung by both a Deere and Kubota dealer today. Both showed me some SCUTs, but the prices on each were like a giant price in the crotch. Like used car prices.

And the used ones hold their value quite well. I looked for over a year for a decent compact tractor w. backhoe for ~$10,000. Anything near that price was beat to shit. I finally settled on a low hour Ford w. a front end loader and no backhoe for 8K. I'm still searching for a decent frame-mount (you do NOT want to mount a backhoe solely on the 3 pt. hitch) backhoe for it.

[Denis]

... used ones hold their value quite well...

Around here, the machinery dealers can't give away used lawn tractors. Everybody whose plot is big enough to warrant a tractor is buying the robot mowers instead. The dealers are actually warehousing the used tractors so as not to undercut their robot sales.

I am considering making the dealer I got my robot from a silly lowball offer on a used tractor with some pulling capacity, just because...

[evan price]

My SCUT is a Satoh S470 Buck 2wd with ag tires. Made by Mitsubishi in the 1980s. Three point category 1 with conventional pto. Three-cylinder diesel about one liter displacement and 18.5 pto HP. Paid $1600 for it with a back blade and a cultivator from a guy who had used it to scrape, level and sod his huge yard, then decided he wanted a loader and got a bigger tractor. It's not cosmetically pretty but mechanically it's top notch. It sat a few years, he was in Cleveland on the lake, and not really a tractor using demographic. It had 740 hours on it. I had to do some minor maintenance-filters, fluids, an alternator belt and a battery- and I've put maybe 100 more hours in the past few years. Picked up a Woods 48" rear mower for $300 that needed a belt and had a stuck pto shaft. PB blaster and a belt and it works. Picked up a Ford rear mount scoop for $50 at a barn sale. Modified a fertilizer spreader to fit.

[JAG2955]

I wound up buying a 46" Husqvarna zero-turn with a Briggs and Stratton engine. 3 year warranty on everything, 10 year on the deck. No one here wants a regular lawn mower, so if I ever sell this, it needs to be a zero turn. Only two blades underneath, and it can add a hitch to pull a something-or-other.

And yes, Lowes will give a disabled vet discount.

Tomorrow I'll build a ramp to get it into the shed. It gets delivered on Monday.