im very happy with the 425 with the 60 inch deck for lawn cutting and snow removal and now im working on a gt235 for a backup...oh thens theres the 265 I use for the field

 

I bought a John Deere 210 with #47 deck in 1989, then rebuilt a burned out 300 with a #48 deck few years later, then in 2004 bought a 420. That was the hot ticket! So just 15 years. I needed the power steering to weave in and out of trees.


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I have had a 66 110, put a hydro lift on it, had a 69 H1 140, had a Charger 12 Wheel horse, a 106 Cub, finally bought a JD 300 and loved it, acquired a JD 314 and liked it, got another 140 that I have not gotten running, THEN! I bought the 332. I'm in love. I found what I want and now I want 3 more! :tango_face_devil:

 

I'm not there yet.

 

I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not, either. What I now have has worked well for ten years, but I think I've gotten a case of "Wannabigger", and have been thinking about upsizing my X748.

My first rider mower was a '66 RF110, I found it in a yard a couple miles from my house, for $600, about 25 years ago. I kept it for 4 years; in the meantime, we moved and a neighbor at the new digs had a '72 112 that he couldn't get to run, sold it to me for $200. all it needed was a carburetor. Kept both for another year but needed something larger than either one, as my property size had increased from 1/4 acre to 4-1/2 acres. Sold them both, and at the time had no idea of the collectability of the RF, or I'd have kept it. I couldn't afford a new JD at the time, bought a Sears 18hp GT, and after a couple of years regretted it. Sold it, and bought a new GT235, which I still have. It did a remarkable job, just took longer than I wanted, and wasn't really suitable for the gardening I wanted to do, or other landscaping tasks. I found a nice Yanmar 1810D compact tractor, bought a rear finish mower, and I was much better off. The Yanmar was 23 hp and 17 pto, did okay with the 60" mower, and I had it for 6 years. I had by then bought an adjacent property and increased my mowing to over 5-1/2 acres. A friend offered to buy the Yanmar (I didn't have it up for sale), he needed something to maintain a deer plot and small cabin out in the boonies. I sold him the tractor, the finish mower, a blade and a cultivator, and bought the X748SE. A bit more power in a more compact size. Over the years I've found a few collectible JD's to restore, including the partially restored and very usable 318, which I use quite a bit to mow with when the X7 is configured for gardening or loader work.

This has got me to thinking, 'why not upsize the X7, I still have a mower(s) I can get under trees with and into the tighter spaces (318 and GT235), so find something a couple of sizes bigger than the X7 with more loader power, but still small enough to mow with?' I love the X748, it's a beast, but I'd sell or trade it if I can find a really nice 2320 with mower and loader. I can't really justify buying a new 1025R (new version of 2320) for the price difference, and a 1023 isn't enough of a move up for me. I've got my eyes on a 2007 2320 with less than 600 hrs, has a 62" deck and loader, for less than $12K. I retired last week; having the larger tractor could open me up to do some contract landscaping and garden work, I have a great pto tiller and a few other 3 pt implements. Gotta talk the wife into the trade first, though.

 

I think I got it on the second try. The LA140 was perfectly fine for the job, but I love the ease of power steering, agility of 4-wheel steering, and slightly faster speed on the X394. I didn't realize how much work I was doing to steer the LA140 until I got power steering and felt the difference.

 

Took me two years, started with a throw away Massey, bought brand new, (think k46 and single Briggs intek), hated it, then bought a 2010 x530, liked it for snow removal, but it cut like sh*t. Then, finally, found my basket case 2009 simplicity conquest 4x4, 23 hp Vanguard, 50” deck, and loved it. Took a year to restore it, it now look like this:

 

Well...

1973 Lawnboy 20” push mower - first time home owner, rake and tarp leaves, shovel snow
1978 Bolens 5 hp 24” snowblower - no more shoveling after the 78 snow, but I still had to shovel snow into blower to remove the 5’ drift in front of the garage door
1998 or so Ariens 824 snowblower - replace weary Bolens that was ready for its third engine
2002 Scotts L17.542 with bagger - reduced work picking up leaves
2014 John Deere X360 with 47” snowblower - no more walking during snow removal after retiring
2015 Husqvarna GTH27V52LS - tractor for use in helping an elderly widow mow flat 3 acre lawn, didn’t have to trailer my tractor, intended on selling it to the widow which happened 4 yrs later
2015 Cyclone Rake - on the Scotts to reduce number of times on/off tractor during leaf pick up
2017 John Deere X738 with 54” shaft driven snowblower - get rid of problem throwing snowblower belt on the X360 and handle a lot more snow, mounted the Cyclone Rake to it to hand slopes with sliding sideways when loaded.

All were the right choices at the time because of finances, physical strain, overall satisfaction.

 

1984 moved into our house on almost an acre. Mostly flat but gets a ton of fall leaves. 85 foot driveway.

Started with my 1968 Sears Suburban Super 12 that gave only so so cut results and plowed the drive OK. Deck rusted beyond repair in 1996.

1996 Bought a new Craftsman mower 46" deck and that did a pretty good job for a lot of years, although built a lot cheaper than the SS 12. Bought a snow blower one winter after a blizzard, and used it until 2014.

June 2015 I bought a new X500 with 48" deck. Bought the 48" blade in the fall of 2015. Best lawn I've ever had. Blade works very well, so gave the snow blower to my son.

2016 bought a Cyclone Rake for the leaves. Now I use it every mowing and the yard looks like its manicured. well, in my opinion anyway. Second best equipment investment after the JD X500.

So, 1984 to 2015 is about 31 years to figure it all out. But always had a good time doing it even when the Craftsman frame cracked several times where the front axle mount cut out is, and the front engine bolts are.

My equipment is now the right size, bullet proof, and above all else, this equipment just WORKS!

 

Just an observation. Looking at MyTractorForum.Com, I'd say that most of us are really enjoying the journey a lot more than the destination. I guess it's what makes life interesting.

 

Also, our situations do change. Our physical abilities, for one. Power steering has really been a blessing as I'm doing my 70's!

 

There is no single "best tractor" for my property. We bought the house in 2001 and bought a Scott's "Made by John Deere" L2548, which was a lawn tractor. It lasted a little over 7 years when the engine threw both rods. By then I knew that I needed a real Garden Tractor for my hilly almost 2 acres, so I got the JD X500, and it has been the perfect tractor for mowing my property ever since. Along the way my mother-in-law moved in next door and she had a lot of tight spaces to mow between trees on her 3/4 of an acre, so we got an X304 to mow all of the tight spaces and that was the perfect tractor for that, but then she went and had most of the trees taken out, so we traded the X304 in on an X530. My wife an I both mow now so it takes less time, around an hour and a half for a little over 2 acres.

When we first moved in we had a lot of problems with standing water in low spots and drainage in general, so we bought the Kubota BX25D TLB which has been the perfect tractor for digging the trenches for putting in the perforated drainage pipe to take care of the drainage problems.

FOr the snow I have a 48" plow blade for the X500 and a 50" blower for the front of the BX25D, and between them they are the perfect tractor for snow removal on my property. I use the plow blade on the snowfalls of 6 inches or less and the blower on anything deeper.

 

I'm still working on it. Bought a Montgomery Ward "Signature 2000" 18hp/42"/7speed when we bought the house in 1993. It was actually a pretty strong little mower! Got the LA165 in 2008 (kept the MW for about 3 more years and then gave it away). The LA165 does a pretty good job but I'm shooting for the X5 series next time around for better performance on my hilly yard, more pulling power, locking diff for snow blowing, etc. Maybe in a couple more years...

 

Started with a Craftsman ZTS 7500 in August 2015, but quickly realized it wasn't the right fit of me and sold it..

A month later a LX 280 with bagger showed up and it worked well.. however once I knew I wanted to blow snow with it also, I realized I wanted a 4x5 series.. By that fall the 425 showed up..

Then in January 2016 the 455 with MCS arrived and I was in love!

So about 5 months!!

 

Haha, depends what year. In 2012 I thought I found when I bought the Snapper Pro ZTR. Then in 2015 I thought I found it with my Scag Turf Tiger. Late in 2017 I got my x758 and have been really satisfied. Bought a 3ph that I still have not installed. Just ordered mc519 MCS system for it. Have the click n go brackets on the rear and bought the JD sprayer. Also have the front quick attach and 54" blade. A nice package and I can use it for multiple jobs. For sure give up a little of the mowing ability of the Scag Turf Tiger, but gained a ton of versatility.

Now I really really could use a subcompact with backhoe in the near future and that purchase might not be in the too distant future. However that would be to complement the x758.

Next year may be different.....

 

Another have not got there. Just have not found it yet. I am real pleased with the Ariens GT20 it has done almost everything asked of it.

 

Bought this place fall of 2010 we have .45 of an acre the Craftsman GT6000 I had was too much. (Still wish I hadn't sold it) little more than I wanted to push with non self propelled mower I had. I picked up a self propelled John Deere . 2112 my tiller died so I splurged on a Grillo walking tractor with a tiller and mower deck sold everything else didn't like needing to change from mower to tiller all the time so I bought a craftsman 22 inch self propelled mower good mower as long as you burn good gasoline. Somewhere I bought the neighbors troybuilt rider mainly to help her out. I also somewhere in there bought a craftsman vac/chipper I bought a craftsman snow blower when we bought the house. In may I was given a gravely professional 12 walk behind tractor I have found a 40 inch finish mower deck and a 30 inch bushhog deck. So 9 years gravely for mowing Grillo for tilling craftsman snow blower for snow and chipper/vac for leaves and clean up . One of these days I would like a snow blower attachment for my Grillo . I couldn't justify a snow blower attachment when I bought the Grillo because the craftsman was less than 2 years old at the time

 

I'm still looking for the right one. My 165 Hydro (12.5 hp FB460V, 38" deck) just isn't enough mower for the 1.5-2 acre yard, especially since I don't feel like doing it every week. Even with a fresh .030-over rebuild, I have to crawl through the heavy sections that are in full sunlight. Wondering what the next size up might be...

 

I build my house in 1974 and 1975 got the yard finished in 1976. Used my dad's old 30" Snapper that fall. April 1977 I bought a C-120 Wheel Horse with a 48" deck. I'm still using it today. It's had a few modifications over the years. I have added A couple more Wheel Horses a 312-8 in 2014 and a 520-H in February.I use both the C-120 and the 520-H. The 520-H is fast and the old C-120 with a 18 HP Vanguard is as sure footed as a Mountain Goat. I'll have to say I got it right the first time. I did have to run wheel weights with the 23x8.50x12 Turf Savers. I changed to Turf Masters 23x10.50x 12 and remover the wheel weights. It does better than the Turf Savers with 80# in each wheel.

 

I must say that I thought I'd found the winning combination about ten years ago. I had the 1994 LX178 (still have) and the CCGT2550 w/50inch deck. But as time went on the heat was starting to get to the 22 hp kohler command. Often, I'd mow for 3 or four hours in 100* temps and it's hard to "air cool" an engine with that hot air. That's when I started the search for another liquid cooled model. Now, with the 445 w/60 inch deck, life is much better. I wonder what will be in the future if either one dies! Sometimes we think we're all set and then things happen!

 

I started with a brand new from the dealer GT235 in 2003 for my acre and a third. It was just fine and did the job great, loved that tractor, but then I had my mid-life crisis in 2013 and opted for a 2001 445. I wish I had kept the GT235 because it was super well maintained but I have a first right of refusal to get it back from my father-in-law:tango_face_wink:

As you can tell from my signature, I had tractor fever bad and attachment fever as well, I'm using the 16D to mow right now because I've turned my 445 into a tractor tractor with Rear PTO, 3pth and loader. I know you can still mow with the loader on it, but I'm afraid of hitting all sorts of crap. However, that 60" is un-matched for cut quality and taking the job from around an hour to 45 minutes. And despite it's size and big deck, the 445 (minus loader) does as good as any of the other tractors. Also the 60 gets "under" shrubs easier without putting the tractor under the shrubs. I often remark that the problem with all my other tractors is that I have a 445:tango_face_smile:

The Fords and 445/425 are easy to use, the 140's are for fun really, ergonomically they are terrible. I mowed once with one of my 140's, never again:tango_face_sad: But I have a tiller, blade and other such things for them and they look so cool:tango_face_grin:

 

Isn't the 445 a beast? Mine is a dedicated mower.....I even bought plug covers because no attachments will ever get plugged into them. I know that the FEL on my larger Nortrak with rear blade can easily take things out quickly if not watching where you're going!

 

I've been through several mowers in the 35+ years we've lived here, finally settled on a JD F725 for the home yard and a 755 for the farm finish mowing:

 

3 years. Started with a Husqvarna ez4824 zero turn. Nice mower at$4400 , but deck discharge inadequate especially for 3 acres of thick grass. Upgraded to a used 72” Husqvarna pz7234 with 31hp Kawasaki and 72” deck. Does an acre in about 12 minutes. Perfect for my wide open space