Wright Stander 52”
If I’m not on your “ignore” list, you know I’m a big fan of the concept of a commercial grade stand on zero turn for slopes and other difficult terrain. I played with a Toro Grandstand and Hurricane blower belonging to my buddy who owns a landscaping company. after that I knew I had to have one for the slopes I have on my lawn now. So down to the Toro dealership I went. Needless to say, I drove home broken hearted with an empty trailer after learning the prices. Yikes! About $8k a few years ago.
I found this cream puff 52” Wright Stander on marketplace yesterday for a quite bit under 4 figures. It has under 100 hours on brand new engine, new tires, new battery, and like new grass catcher. 910 hours on the chassis (privately owned its whole life). I cannot say enough good things about the seller. He was honest, patient, reasonable, kept his word to hold it for me for about 12 hours until I could get down there (2 hour drive and my work day just started), and the machine was everything he said it was. Shout out to Brady if you find this! Thank you again!
Needs a few little things to be perfect (spindle bearings, cleanup, weird sticky left wheel control valve, I guess that’s about it), but usable as is.
I took it off the trailer and put it to the test on my soaking wet slopes. With the new tires it has on it (turfs), IT IS THE MOST SURE FOOTED MOWER I’VE EVER OPERATED. It just barely slides from WOT to dead stop going down hill. I can very easily change to whatever direction i want to travel in from whatever direction I’m traveling in. It steers exactly where I want it to go. It climbs and side hills like it’s built for it. I feel like I’m practically dancing performing every random maneuver I can think of.
Here’s a few pictures of what I’m working with. The hill is steeper than it looks in the pictures.
Stay tuned for updates after I work with and on it. It’s going to clean up really nice.
I found this cream puff 52” Wright Stander on marketplace yesterday for a quite bit under 4 figures. It has under 100 hours on brand new engine, new tires, new battery, and like new grass catcher. 910 hours on the chassis (privately owned its whole life). I cannot say enough good things about the seller. He was honest, patient, reasonable, kept his word to hold it for me for about 12 hours until I could get down there (2 hour drive and my work day just started), and the machine was everything he said it was. Shout out to Brady if you find this! Thank you again!
Needs a few little things to be perfect (spindle bearings, cleanup, weird sticky left wheel control valve, I guess that’s about it), but usable as is.
I took it off the trailer and put it to the test on my soaking wet slopes. With the new tires it has on it (turfs), IT IS THE MOST SURE FOOTED MOWER I’VE EVER OPERATED. It just barely slides from WOT to dead stop going down hill. I can very easily change to whatever direction i want to travel in from whatever direction I’m traveling in. It steers exactly where I want it to go. It climbs and side hills like it’s built for it. I feel like I’m practically dancing performing every random maneuver I can think of.
Here’s a few pictures of what I’m working with. The hill is steeper than it looks in the pictures.
Stay tuned for updates after I work with and on it. It’s going to clean up really nice.
Attachments
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
I see some of the landscaping companies around here with those style machines. Amazingly the Amish (maybe Mennonites) seem to like them too.
So I wrapped up mowing mine and dad’s lawns. This thing is a hoot! The down sides are that it’s painfully slow and that left control valve is crazy. It goes nice and straight wide open, but the left valve goes from wide open virtually to stop with very little speed difference throughout the range of travel until it gets to neutral position, but is fine from stop to full speed. Reverse on that side is slow. Not sure what’s going on with that valve.
Now that the spindle bearings are greased it’s somewhat quieter, but still a fuzz noisy.
Hour meter doesn’t work, so what I thought was only 910 could indeed be way more than that.
Grass catcher fills up really fast but empties easily.
This being 1st generation stand on, there’s a safety switch on the operator’s platform instead of on a control stick, so unfortunately if terrain gets really dicey I can’t walk behind it. I thought for sure it had a carb problem the first 5 minutes of using it. Come to find out I wasn’t standing on the platform in the correct place so the safety switch was intermittently shutting off the engine. I got into a sticky situation with it in a drainage gully and had to disengage the blades to help it out. However I was able to drive/push it out. My sit down zero turn would have needed help from another piece of equipment to pull it out.
Operator’s platform is not ergonomic. My body is fine after using it except for my feet. Might snag a piece of an anti fatigue mat from the garbage at work.
Kind of hard to hold a straight line. However, that’s probably due to the goofy control valve and my inexperience with this type of mower. With that malfunctioning control valve, I can’t easily subtly slow down the left side. So I adapted to not wide open on the left side so I can speed up / slow down the right wheel to adjust travel direction. Once that valve is fixed it’ll be a completely different mower.
Cut quality is maybe 7/10. New/sharpened blades might cure that but my lawn is still too crappy to obsess about.
Got some funny looks from neighbors and passers by while mowing with this crazy thing. Not sure if that’s good or bad
Now that the spindle bearings are greased it’s somewhat quieter, but still a fuzz noisy.
Hour meter doesn’t work, so what I thought was only 910 could indeed be way more than that.
Grass catcher fills up really fast but empties easily.
This being 1st generation stand on, there’s a safety switch on the operator’s platform instead of on a control stick, so unfortunately if terrain gets really dicey I can’t walk behind it. I thought for sure it had a carb problem the first 5 minutes of using it. Come to find out I wasn’t standing on the platform in the correct place so the safety switch was intermittently shutting off the engine. I got into a sticky situation with it in a drainage gully and had to disengage the blades to help it out. However I was able to drive/push it out. My sit down zero turn would have needed help from another piece of equipment to pull it out.
Operator’s platform is not ergonomic. My body is fine after using it except for my feet. Might snag a piece of an anti fatigue mat from the garbage at work.
Kind of hard to hold a straight line. However, that’s probably due to the goofy control valve and my inexperience with this type of mower. With that malfunctioning control valve, I can’t easily subtly slow down the left side. So I adapted to not wide open on the left side so I can speed up / slow down the right wheel to adjust travel direction. Once that valve is fixed it’ll be a completely different mower.
Cut quality is maybe 7/10. New/sharpened blades might cure that but my lawn is still too crappy to obsess about.
Got some funny looks from neighbors and passers by while mowing with this crazy thing. Not sure if that’s good or bad
I think it cleaned up ok just with a pressure washing.
Attachments
Back In 2008 My wife's Business Partners Husband Hand One of these and the Interesting thing about it was It had an attachment for the frame that Put a seat On it and it wasn't a sulky Looked Like a Giant Bicycle Banana seat I tried selling it for Him On my eBay account but that area of Tennessee commercial Mowers Just didn't seem to be Very Popular sellers at the time Didn't sell! I think It was a Model B. Don't see that seat Accessory On the website anymore
I picked on it a little more this evening.
Just little stuff suggested to me in another thread I made specific to the hydros. There’s quite a bit of wear on the linkages, such as the threaded adjuster things and bushings. I put a couple washers on the linkages where they pin on, so there’s fresh surfaces with very little play. It’ll last for many years that way. The pinching collar things that attach to the control input shafts on the hydros were loose, so they got tightened. The bushings are still worn and need to be replaced, so I’ll have to get some of them on order.
Just with what I did tonight made a difference to the point it feels like a completely different machine. The left motor reverse is still a little slower than the right, probably due to the bushings that are more worn on that side. The top speed is probably 25% faster, and the machine is MUCH more responsive to control stick input.
Lastly, I aired up the tires I didn’t realize only had a couple PSI in them.
Then I mowed around the barnyard and around the pig pen in some areas I’ve only brush hogged in the past. This mower handled it with ease, my legs acting as shock absorbers. I was on and off the platform probably 15 times in 20 minutes to move wood blocks, sticks, hoses, etc. MUCH easier than with a riding tractor or sit down zero turn. With the newly responsive controls, I was able to get in really close to stuff like inside corners and wiggle into an out of some really awkward situations with ease.
This thing is awesome!
Just little stuff suggested to me in another thread I made specific to the hydros. There’s quite a bit of wear on the linkages, such as the threaded adjuster things and bushings. I put a couple washers on the linkages where they pin on, so there’s fresh surfaces with very little play. It’ll last for many years that way. The pinching collar things that attach to the control input shafts on the hydros were loose, so they got tightened. The bushings are still worn and need to be replaced, so I’ll have to get some of them on order.
Just with what I did tonight made a difference to the point it feels like a completely different machine. The left motor reverse is still a little slower than the right, probably due to the bushings that are more worn on that side. The top speed is probably 25% faster, and the machine is MUCH more responsive to control stick input.
Lastly, I aired up the tires I didn’t realize only had a couple PSI in them.
Then I mowed around the barnyard and around the pig pen in some areas I’ve only brush hogged in the past. This mower handled it with ease, my legs acting as shock absorbers. I was on and off the platform probably 15 times in 20 minutes to move wood blocks, sticks, hoses, etc. MUCH easier than with a riding tractor or sit down zero turn. With the newly responsive controls, I was able to get in really close to stuff like inside corners and wiggle into an out of some really awkward situations with ease.
This thing is awesome!
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
