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Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

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Larry Hampton

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
We used to have a Toro ZTR (54"? 60"?) but since we added onto the church, we no longer needed it, plus we had to add a bunch of trees so it was harder to mow around them. We sold it and bought a pair of commercial Honda walk behind mowers (HCR216) which are really nice. We just had a home with a empty lot beside it next to the church go onto the market and we purchased it and now I kind of wished we'd kept the ZTR, although it would have been a bit large.

I'm the Chairman of Buildings & Grounds and in our meeting last night, we decided to consider getting a tractor style mower in the 38"-42" range. In addition to our to Hondas, we have a Walmart Toro walk behind that we use on the playground where we have pea gravel, two commercial Echo string trimmers, a commercial Echo edger, and a residential Echo leaf blower (not a backpack).

We're leaning towards something a bit better than the conventional package store offerings, I went to a John Deere dealer this morning and got a discounted quote of about $2600 for a 42" X300 with a 17hp Kawasaki. The X304 is the same tractor, but with 4 wheel steer and about $400 more, not sure if it's worth it or not, but one could mow around trees easier with it.

Just considering different options.

Larry
 
#2 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Approximately what is the acreage you need to cut with this? and is it flat? and wil the tractor also be used to plow snow?
 
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Discussion starter · #3 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

What is snow?!?

Nah, we don't get much snow, but when we do, we have a guy with a backhoe that goes to church with us that does our lots.

It's not totally flat, we have a detention pond in front of the church that we have to mow and there is an area just north of the playground (within the cross hatched area) that slopes off the parking lot in the back. This picture from Google Earth is a couple years old, we recently added onto the back of our church so I tried to outline it to reflect what we mow now. We bought the house as leverage as we're trying to purchase the parking lot to the east of it from another church to our northeast, across the main street out front (the one in the upper left hand corner).

Image
 
#4 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

I wouldn't go below 50" on the deck.

Our church has 6 acres of rough lawn we mow with three garden tractors. Paradoxically, our smallest deck is 48", and that tractor mows out the fastest of the three.

We have a new Craftsman GT 5000 I really like. It has the 54" deck.

We also have a worthless Cub Cadet RZT 50". We're on our second left side transmission and it's in the shop now getting a third one. Extended warranty covers it, thank goodness.

If you go to a ZTR, get one of the commercial machines. There's a bunch of good ones out there, now. Get three or four bids, minimum. We have A Lesco 60" deck and a Toro 54" deck at our Elk Lodge. We mow 15 acres there, and have a Kubota 4x4 with 50" King Kutter finish rear mower, and a TroyBilt 48".

I maintain mowers at the church and Elk Lodge as a volunteer, and mow at the church.
 
#5 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Simplicity makes very nice zero turns as well as Lawn and Garden tractors. The Broadmoore is an excellent tractor for the money. Has the same 10Guage frame as the garden tractors, 18" turning radius, nice cutting decks up to 50".
MU
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Wanting a lawn tractor, not a ZTR. Don't need a 50" cut, need smaller as we have a ton of trees around the church, the only place a big mower will do us any good is on that empty lot. The trees are all in a row, like you see on the south edge of the parking lot to the north of our property, but they're more frequent, about twice as many and they go all around the property on the street.

The ZTR we had would just butcher the retention pond that is on the east side of our north parking lot, that white strip you see in it running north/south is the concrete trough in the bottom, the bottom is about 3' deeper than the walls, the white east/west strip at the south of the north/south strip leads to the collection box which dumps the water in the grass just to the west of the sidewalk. Believe me, 38"-42" is the best bet.

The JD X300 has a 16" turning radius, which leaves a 32"-34" circle, but the JD X304 has a 15" turning radius, but due to the rear steer, leaves about a 16" circle.
 
#7 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

munderhill said:
Simplicity makes very nice zero turns as well as Lawn and Garden tractors. The Broadmoore is an excellent tractor for the money. Has the same 10Guage frame as the garden tractors, 18" turning radius, nice cutting decks up to 50".
MU
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:ditto: I love Deere tractors, but for what you want to do, I think the Simplicity is almost an exact match. And if there are no Simplicity dealers in your neck of the woods, it can be had as an AGCO, Massey Ferguson or Snapper, as they are all made by Simplicity.
 
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#8 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

We have a Deere X300 with 42 inch deck at work. It will cut a nice tight circle. According to the Deere web site, the uncut circle is 28". I like the X300 so much I will be getting one as soon as I talk the wife into getting it.
 
#10 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Here's my take as an X300 owner - It performs admirabley for a tractor in the $2800 range. I have most all the attachments for it and do everything I need for a total investment of $4000. My dealer is superb.

I did not buy a Z-turn mower because I needed the chore work done that the tractor will do better than the Z-turn.

I could not justify the extra $600 for the X304 in April 2006 when I purchased the X300. The X304 is no more capable than the X300 physically, and though it turns slightly tighter than the X300, the X304 lags far behind a Z-turn mower if you must turn about the machine's axis.

Cub makes a Z-turn lawn tractor that is sold at the big box strores. I don't know anything about it's ability or reliability. But one thing is for sure - It's not as nice or as heavy duty as the X300 and it's more money.

Just my two cents FWIW.
 
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#11 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Larry,

Looking at the aerial pic and I'm wondering if you have any grass at all? :sidelaugh Are you sure you don't need a tractor with a rotary brush to sweep the blacktop?
 
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#13 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

I would first look to see who has the best service in your area. If you recomend a tractor to your church and then can't get parts/service you'll be embarrassed!
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Well, it takes anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours depending on the crew and how many show up just for the church property. There is a LOT of edging and weed eating to do. If the team before you doesn't do a good job, then it'll take you longer. I have done it all a couple weeks in a row myself and if I keep it edged, I can edge just as fast as I walk.

I mowed, edged and weed eated (?) the house and lot by myself and it took about 2 hours, this was with one of the commercial Honda mowers.

I've got 4 teams of 4 people, but they all don't always show up. I try to get as many on a team as I can so that the job will go quicker, it's frustrating. Back when we had the ZTR, and before the addition and all the trees I had 5 teams that had 3 or 4 people on them and it went very quick, we didn't have the north parking lot in front of the sanctuary then either. but now we also have a sprinkler system and a much nicer lawn.

Actually, a rotary brush sweeper would be nice. I'll have to look for a Simplicity dealer, not sure if we have a Broadmore dealer or not.
 
#15 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Larry Hampton said:
Well, it takes anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours depending on the crew and how many show up just for the church property. There is a LOT of edging and weed eating to do. If the team before you doesn't do a good job, then it'll take you longer. I have done it all a couple weeks in a row myself and if I keep it edged, I can edge just as fast as I walk.

I mowed, edged and weed eated (?) the house and lot by myself and it took about 2 hours, this was with one of the commercial Honda mowers.

I've got 4 teams of 4 people, but they all don't always show up. I try to get as many on a team as I can so that the job will go quicker, it's frustrating. Back when we had the ZTR, and before the addition and all the trees I had 5 teams that had 3 or 4 people on them and it went very quick, we didn't have the north parking lot in front of the sanctuary then either. but now we also have a sprinkler system and a much nicer lawn.

Actually, a rotary brush sweeper would be nice. I'll have to look for a Simplicity dealer, not sure if we have a Broadmore dealer or not.
Click to expand...
Not sure if it was a typo but, the Broadmoore is made by Simplicity. It is one of their many models. Check their website, just google simplicitymfg.com
 
#16 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

JMC said:
Here's my take as an X300 owner - It performs admirabley for a tractor in the $2800 range. I have most all the attachments for it and do everything I need for a total investment of $4000. My dealer is superb.

I did not buy a Z-turn mower because I needed the chore work done that the tractor will do better than the Z-turn.

I could not justify the extra $600 for the X304 in April 2006 when I purchased the X300. The X304 is no more capable than the X300 physically, and though it turns slightly tighter than the X300, the X304 lags far behind a Z-turn mower if you must turn about the machine's axis.

Cub makes a Z-turn lawn tractor that is sold at the big box strores. I don't know anything about it's ability or reliability. But one thing is for sure - It's not as nice or as heavy duty as the X300 and it's more money.

Just my two cents FWIW.
Click to expand...
The JD LA110 42" hydro is about half that price, might want to look.
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Yeah, but the LA110 is a step down, is it even the same grade mower? Is it even made by JD or is it made by someone and badged as a JD. Doesn't it have a B&G? How many year mower is it vs. a X300?
 
#18 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

The JD LA series is made by john deere in Tenn.The L,LA series is for people who dont want to spend a whole lot of money on a new lawn tractor and good to use on smaller and not to steep lawns for mowing.The higher end LA models can be used for light to mod snow plowing,but if you want to do more!A garden tractor would be better choice.I myself have had no problems with my LA100 on a 1 acre cutting area with some small slopes.I would say up to 1 acre for the LA100-120 and 2 to 3 acres for the 130-150 would be great for cutting with this lawn tractor series. It wont be as durable as the 300 series but for the price it will be just fine.
 
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#19 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

Our church uses a L120 and a Troy-bilt (can't think of the model, but it was a $6K tractor and has full hydraulics and front PTO) and though the TB is more comfortable (larger wheels and tires), I would say, the Deere gets picked 90% of the time by the first lawn cutting team member to arrive. We are approaching 400 hours, with spotty maintenance, lots of riders, and the only problem we have had is with the electric clutch at ~ 350 hrs. We cut ~ 4 acres. I think the Deere L and now LA series are a decent low-cost alternative to some of the competition out there, and from our experience, it has been quite well made.
 
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#20 ·
Re: Looking at buying a new Lawn Tractor at my church, 38"-42", suggestions?

JDFANATIC said:
Our church uses a L120 and a Troy-bilt (can't think of the model, but it was a $6K tractor and has full hydraulics and front PTO) and though the TB is more comfortable (larger wheels and tires), I would say, the Deere gets picked 90% of the time by the first lawn cutting team member to arrive. We are approaching 400 hours, with spotty maintenance, lots of riders, and the only problem we have had is with the electric clutch at ~ 350 hrs. We cut ~ 4 acres. I think the Deere L and now LA series are a decent low-cost alternative to some of the competition out there, and from our experience, it has been quite well made.
Click to expand...
Sounds like it's holding up just fine.
With all those different users you know it get some abuse. You'll probably get another 300 hours and more.
MU
 
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Larry Hampton
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