[Gifix]

My boss is thinking about buying an i Series ZTT42 for his property and asking for my recommendations. Since it's small (he now mows it with a push mower) he thinks the 42" deck should be sufficient...he's going to get the bagger option as he's got tons of trees. The question is this. He'd also like to put a 42" blower on it for his appox 400 ft paved driveway (on a appox 25 degree slope). The dealer suggests this mower should be sufficient as both rear wheels drive and suggests that with chains this tractor is up to the task. I don't have that much experience with these tractors, so I figured that i'd ask the helpful people here. Does anyone have any advice / recommendations / reviews that might be helpful to me? Thanks :thanku:

 

[Sergeant]

One of are members has a snowblower mounted on his I series and It does rather well for him. I'm sure he will be along shortly to give you a review of the I series:thThumbsU

 

[JMoe]

I think you'll find anyone who owns one to be happy with their purchase. I haven't read of any major complaints on them over the years. Are they still being made for 2011? You may have to rely on 2010's or older.

Joel

 

[Canawler]

I think you'll find anyone who owns one to be happy with their purchase. I haven't read of any major complaints on them over the years. Are they still being made for 2011? You may have to rely on 2010's or older.

Joel

They're still selling 42" and 50" models.
Are they still making them? Who knows???

I was looking at them last fall and did a lot of research. From what I read, there was a huge backlog and no '09s were built. Don't know how accurate that is but there were several threads on here and other forums about people buying them "new" and discovering they were '07s or '08s.

Sure enough, I waited to see one the local dealer was getting in (September '09) and the build date was early '07. Decided to pass on "new" as there have been several very low hour used ones on CL in my area for $1500 or less. Of course, I never ended up getting one anyway.

 

[Toolin]

My boss is thinking about buying an i Series ZTT42 for his property and asking for my recommendations. ...

Gifix,

I've got the 50" model and use it on about a half-acre yard. In fact the 50" deck was probably overkill for this size yard -- the 42" model would have been just fine, and a bit easier to maneuver and put on a trailer, get through 48" wide openings, etc). There's also a 46" model.

I've got tons of trees too.. in fact leaf pickup was the reason I bought a lawn tractor in the first place (was always a push mower prior to this yard). I drag a leaf vacuum for this purpose (Cyclone Rake). I probably collect about 10 cubic yards of *mulched* leaves each season. A bagger simply wouldn't have cut it.. too many stops to empty. Plus baggers do clog frequently. A used CR is not much more than a new bagger attachment anyway. I got my CR for $550 used, although they're a bit hard to find because people tend to hang on to them.

I did hook up a 42" snow blower to it (among other things). Required some modification since it wasn't made for this tractor but ended up working out.

See the various links in my sig for adventures with these attachments (blower, cyclone, etc).

As for slope, 25 degrees is actually quite steep.. in the owner's manual MTD recommends only doing 15 degrees max with the i-Series. Did your boss actually measure the slope to get 25 degrees or just by eyeball? It's easy to overestimate ground slope by eye.

Easy way to check.. he can use a 3-foot level and tape measure. At 15 degrees the free end of the level will be about 10 inches above the ground vertically. At 25 degrees it will be 18 inches off.

Regardless, the i-Series is a good hill climber and very stable given it's low CG and wide track. And if he's wants even more stability he can add weight like gcbailey did with his Cub GT. Turf tires and chains work well for winter traction, even better if wheel weights are added or the tires are loaded.

For general reviews of the i-Series, try this thread, and this one.

Come back with any questions.. I'd be happy to comment further.

 

[Sergeant]

Sorry Toolin for the life of me I could not remember your screen name. Glad You came along:thThumbsU

 

[markwb]

I've had very reliable service from my 1042. The only concern I've had lately is I'm thinking this Kohler may be consuming more oil than I'd like it to. I'll keep my eye on it.

 

[Gifix]

Thanks for the input everyone...very much appreciated!!