Belt or Hydro?

[guest543]

My 16 year old son is cutting yards for money; and has been for 4 years now. I help him for no charge. I do this so I dont have to provide him money for the things he buys (gas, dates, sporting equipment, etc...). We cut 4 yards that take us approximately 2-3 hours each. He makes $40 for 3 of the yards, and $60 for the 4th yard. We have always used $100 Walmart mowers, a Stihl weedeater (12 years old), and a broom. We are thinking about upgrading to equipment that speeds things up a bit, without comprimising qualilty. We must do a fantastic job, as we have many neighbors asking us all the time if we could do their yards, but we just don't have enough time to handle more lawns on a consistant basis; (occassinally, we do cut other yards when time permits). I attribute this to using lightweight mowers. I have always liked the cut from small mowers. They leave no tire tracks, they are easy to handle, and because we both use the same type of mower, they cut the exact same height. In researching riding mowers, I've heard there is a major difference between belt driven and hydro transmissions. What exactly is the difference? I do know what belt driven is, but I don't know anything about hydro.

RT

[LB1234]

:confused: :confused: :confused: I didn't think there was anyone selling belt driven riders????:dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy:

[Dixie Rob]

Never seen a belt driven rider. However, if you are lookin for a walk behind for the weight issue, then there is belt and hydro. I have a belt driven and wish it was a hydro, because the grips you hold on to, to steer are pistol grips and wear you out very fast. I would do my yard and would feel like I've worked for 10 hours with my hands.

[jtkplc]

Use the search feature. There is a plethora of information on the "belt vs. hydro" topic.

[guest543]

:confused: :confused: :confused: I didn't think there was anyone selling belt driven riders????:dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy:


My bad. Earlier I posted a question here asking if $1200 was too high for a 7 year old, 36" deck, zero turn, stand behind mower. I assume a walk behind is the same thing as a stand behind, No? Anyway, someone here posted a question to me asking if it was belt driven or hydro, and I still don't know what hydro means.

[guest543]

I'm also wondering if I should look to purchase a new mower from places like Lowe's or Home Depot; or should I look at smaller businesses for a new mower.

[PTP]

As far as I know, there are no belt driven commercial ride-on mowers. You will find many commercial walk-behind mowers that are belt driven though. You can attach a velke to a walk behind mower so that you have something to stand on but we still call them walk behind mowers.

Think of a hydro as a transmission without gears - you never have to shift and can go at any speed you want up to the maximum speed. Each wheel is controlled seperately with hydros so you can have one tire turning forward and another tire turning backward - very handy.

At lowes or home depot, you will find homeowner quality mowers. They work fine for mowing 1 lawn per week. If you want commercial quality, then look in the yellow pages for a commercial dealer.

The mower from HD will serve you fine for a little while. The commercial mower will serve you fine for a really long time - thousands of hours.

[Signature Landscaping1]

I would say go for a hydro, but get what ever you can afford or want to spend on it.

[befnme]

he can get belt drive w/b and put a sit down sulkie on it ...

[guest543]

Thanks to all of you for your responses. A special thanks to PTP for the "extended version" response. I now have a much better idea of what is out there. I'm thinking we should go ahead and spend the extra money and purchase a hydro from a commercial dealership. Even if my son moves away for college in a couple of years, and he isn't around to grow his lawn care business, I will have a nice mower for years and years.

Now, are there any brands out there that I should avoid? From the little bit that I've read here so far, it seems that a test drive is the way to determine which fits us best.

[CAG]

Im not sure the hydro would be necessary, you said that you really don't have the time to take on many other lawns so without the option of expanding the biz it might be a waste. JMO

[prostriper]

If you only have 4 lawns going the hydro-way is a little overkill. I would stick with a belt drive. A hydro-walk-behind will run you $1200-2000 more brand new. The benifit of a hydro walk-behind is you have constant power ( due to no belt slippage ). But it comes at a premium on price. They both can utilize a sulky (belt drives and hills don't like sulky's at the same time) But you will go through belts a little faster. As far as brands to avoid, I would stay away from Bunton and Lesco, I have used both and was not real impressed. Real good brands are SCAG ( there virtually bulletproff), exmark Metros, ant Toro Prolines. SCAGS start at 36" cut and go to 60". Toro and exmark make walk-behinds from 32"-54". Get the biggest you can feasibly use and afford. If you don't plan on using them for a long time go with a used one with few hours on them (less than 500) to save some extra change.

[drumbo]

I run an Exmark Viking 48" Hydro and it works wonderfully. It was my first "big" mower and I still use it.
To further expand, a hydrostatically driven mower uses hydrolic pumps to drive each rear tire...individually. Each grip controls that side of the mower's tires. So, on my Exmark, as I release the right grip and squeeze the left grip, the right tire moves forward and the left tire moves in reverse...simultaneously. The speed is infinitely variable from stand-still to around 5-6 mph.

I used a John Deere belt-driven on a job one time and found myself running into obstacles and over-shooting the lawn and going up on the sidewalks. This is because to speed up or slow down, I had to reach down and squeeze the clutch and shift to the proper gear...a nightmare. Also, when the belts got wet, the tires wouldn't spin due to the slippage in the belts. And even when the belts were dry, if I was on an incline, they slipped due to the weight of the mower overpowering the grip of the belt on the pulleys...which is a VERY dangerous situation...a 750lb mower coming down the hill back at you!

Hydros are VERY reliable and don't have the replacement costs of belts, pulleys, etc. Plus, they are relatively low maintenance.

I would recommend getting a professional's hydro from either Exmark or even Scag (as I have heard they are very good on this forum). Toros are alright, however, if you compared them to the Exmarks, you would prefer Exmark. And I bet you could get a good used one for a reasonable price on Ebay or from someone on this forum...but since Toro bought Exmark, why not step up from the Toyota to the Lexus?

[Ric3077]

We cut 4 yards that take us approximately 2-3 hours each. He makes $40 for 3 of the yards, and $60 for the 4th yard. RT

WHAT! You cut 4 yards and they take 2-3 hours each WITH 2 MEN!!?! and you only charge $40 and $60?! :cry: I know those 21" mowers take longer but a $40 job should take about 25 minutes TOPS with 2 men and 40-45 min tops with 1 man. You are either charging WAY TO LITTLE or really taking your time cutting or BOTH! I don't see how you can justify a hydro working for pennies...:dizzy: