Sorry Folks

[John Deere]

Sorry to all who swear their mower is the best out there, but after a week at a lawn equipment show where I went with the intent to add another ZTR to our fleet, I now own the best 61" ZTR mower out there. Yes Exmark, Toro, Dixie Chopper and so on are big players in the lawn world and on this site, but I tried all of those out this week plus about 12 others and none of them could even touch the performance and durability of the one I bought. Just some background as well, we use to run 3 John Deere 665 Mid Ztracks. We still use them, but it will just be a matter of time until we weed them out. So what is this mower that I am raving about? Without a doubt if you mow alot of large accounts and "quality" is a must as it is for me, then the SCAG TURF TIGER is it! 61" Kawasaki 27 h.p. liquid cooled. Try one, you'll see!

[Eric ELM]

Good luck on your new purchase. From all the posts I've read on Lawnsite about wheel motors and pumps on them, I'll pass. Here is an example http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=13739

[Edited by Eric ELM on 05-04-2001 at 11:43 PM]

[KirbysLawn]

How did you judge durability in one weekend? Did you give the Great Dane Chariot a spin?

I did try a Scag, not impressed. I like being able to mow and scratch if needed. :D I can drive (not turn) my Chariot with one hand if needed. I also like not having handles over me, if for some reason I would need to jump, no obsticles in my way.

To each his own, hope the mower gives you years of great service. Will you be changing your screen name?

Ray

[Bassman]

I'm sure many different mowers will get the job done. There's no lack of opinion on the best, that's a fact.
I'm not a big time operator, just a solo business man. I started with Exmark Lazer and I can find no reason so far to fault my choice. "If it ain't broke, no need to fix it."
Good luck with your choice in mowers.

[Scag48]

When I was on vacation over spring break, I looked at some Scag walkbehinds. They looked pretty nice but I hear alot more people are using Exmark and Toro. Now I'm focusing more towards Exmark. I'm a Toro believer but I LOVE the new ECS system that Exmark has for their W/B's. So much better feeling then the pistols. I hope to get a Turf Tracer 48" in a year or so when I pay off my new dirt bike ;). Congrats on the new machine and have fun! :D

[Edited by Scag48 on 05-02-2001 at 11:51 PM]

[KirbysLawn]

Scag48, where have you been? We had you on the MIA list.

[65hoss]

If you can judge durability after 1 weekend your doing better than all of us.

Good luck, you'll probably need it.

[cos]

Now it sounds like there are two people will have to change their names. Maybe scag can give his to to john deere.

[lawnboy82]

i know some guys who are buying the 27 hp kawi turf tigers. they say that the machines run like "raped apes" they have plenty of power to boot. however i believe that they also come with a price tag of about 13000 with the grass catcher system. so you pay for that ape there. i have used the lazer z's before and it is a good machine. however if you get onto a tiger from that you can tell the difference. only thing i didnt like about the tiger the times i used it was that dropping the deck was a little hard for some reason. however the machine was only being used 1 day a week for about 15 large lawns. and the owner beat the living heck out of it. other than that they really are great machines. good luck.

[Craig Turf Management]

I have a 2000 Turf Tiger 25 KOH 61 Advantage deck. The machine works great for me, BUT it beats me to death. Needs some suspension in the seat. Congrats on your new purchase. Hope it works out great for you.
Bill Craig

[mdb landscaping]

If you weed out all your john deere ztrs youll have to change you lawnsite name lol

[Eng Mwr Guy]

Cool.

Now I only have to test my new walkbehinds for 48 hours. The money I will save will be incredible....haha. And here I was going to spend tons-o-money in testing...silly me.

Seriously, even though this may surprise you....I hope it works well for you for years. Grow your business and then switch to Gravely's.

Barry

[awm]

scag huh well i be darn , eric i guess you can close the forum down ,we ll just all run down and buy us a scag.
ill have to stop by the dump and put my exmark in the can
first.

[Ground Pounder]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion...I guess. But as for me, I will be RED till I'm dead!


http://www.libertylawncare.com/images/mst_logo.gif...and they mean Nobody!

[dhicks]

I sincerely hope your Scag works out for you and that it will cut grass so well that even Eric might consider a scag in the future. Unfortunately, I don't think so. My friend just bought the same machine and he is spitting bullets because of the poor quality cut. I own a Toro Z and even I encouraged him to go with the eXmark or DC. But like he said, the Scag has one pretty paint job and it looks like it's built for war. Again, I hope it works for you.

[jeffyr]

Hey Kirby,

What kind of cuttin are you doing that you have to scratch and bail out at any moment ?

hehehe.

jeffyr

[John Deere]

I see we have really progressed. Sad!

[cantoo]

Your surprised about the responses John Deere? Some of us here have thousands of hours sitting on our machines to back up our statements. I still stand by my statement that no one mower is the best, different conditions mean different mower types. We have Walkers, a Ransomes, a Toro and a brand new MTD Z Pro(yes it's a MTD) to use depending on the lawns we are doing at the time. We can jump on whatever mower we feel will do the best job for us.

[lee b]

John Deere, if you're ready to get rid of your M665's you can just give'em to me. I really like my M665, think I'll stick with it.

[Eric ELM]

I just don't understand how you can say they are the best ZTR out there and the most durable after just doing a demo. I have read about more guys complaining about the hydro system on them, from pumps or wheel motor failure, than I have read about anyone braging about the durability of them. From what I have read that other owners of this brand have said, they didn't seem nearly as happy as you are. I only know of one lawn service in this area that uses Turf Tigers and we heard a bang the other day and the next thing we noticed is, they had a chain hooked to it and pulled it up on the trailer. I realize all mowers can break down, but let us know in around 3,000 hours how it has held up, not after a couple of days.

I realize you are excited about your new purchase as would most new owners. What does your last post mean? "I see we have really progressed. Sad!" Could you explain that?

[MikeGA]

Must not have tried The new Hustler Z!! I haven't tried any of the others "in the Field", but I can't beat this Z I have. It has bounced along and hasn't let me down! My yards are ALL rough as rubb boards, hills, terraces and ditches, and it has gone along ground the rocks out of the way, and did an outstanding job of cutting the grass to boot!

[Charles]

John Deere, this whole post was a setup to get negative response. You knew there would be plenty on here who would disagree with you. You are the one who hasnt progressed in handleing different point of views while most of have graduated past that point a good while back.

[KirbysLawn]

Originally posted by John Deere
I see we have really progressed. Sad!

Please explain....

[65hoss]

Maybe he's out already working on it. :)

[watatrp]

Scags are good sound machines. I have a 52" Z. I've used it four seasons and have had no major problems. A lot depends on how you take care of your equipment. I also have a Great Dane that I have tons of problems with. I'm glad that I have the Scag as it is always reliable. It's built like a tank. I would probably buy an Exmark next but will have to try it out first. By the way, my Scag still has one of the original belts on it. The small one never seems to get any wear. It's my opinion that anyone in the topic can swear that they have the best piece of equipment. We don't have a way to accurately determine who is the best. The only parts that touch the ground are the tires and blades.

[MOW ED]

What I read in the above posts is that a name change is soon to happen for two of our members.

John Deere will have to change to something like EX-DEERE or TIGEReatsDEERE or mayby even Scag48+13=61 since this name should be available.

Accoding to his post, the newly reemerged Scag48 will have to become EXMARK48 or TURFTRACER48 to match his preference.

Of course this has nothing to do with the discussion on which mower is better, I'm just sitting around waiting for the rain to stop.

Now thats sad!

Fight nice, I have the best mower.

[Eric ELM]

MowEd, did you get a new Dixie Chopper? :D

That rain has just been going right on by us to the west. :mad:

With all the hot wind we have had this past week, it sure dried us out fast. We went from standing water in a lot of places, to dust in a week here.

[Finecut]

Yesterday I was trying to buy a new walk behind and the dealer said delivery would take awhile as he was busy setting up mowers for Brickman. They bought 250,000.00 worth of Skags. I don't own a Skag...but I would think Brickman could buy whatever they want and Skag was their choice. He also told me that he sold them their only Ferris Pro Cut Z and I know they are cheaper than Skags. So it doesn't seem to be a money issue. I guess whatever works for you is best!

[aklscape]

I realize that everyone has there preference when it comes to mowers, trucks, stereo equip etc. With that said.....

I just purchased a Turf Tiger 61" deck with the 27KA. It is awesome (and a spindle driven bagging system - very sweet). I can see that you spent the time to review the features and benefits of every mower out there and that's why you came to the same conclusion that I did.

Who is talking about Scag pumps and motors? Does anyone realize that they are the EXACT same units used on almost every other mower out there? Does the orange paint effect the internal hydraulic system somehow!?!

[Eng Mwr Guy]

<<(and a spindle driven bagging system - very sweet).>>

This isn't new.

<<Who is talking about Scag pumps and motors? Does anyone realize that they are the EXACT same units used on almost every other mower out there? Does the orange paint effect the internal hydraulic system somehow!?!>>

Not entirely accurate thinking. How the misc components are applied does make a difference. Speed the pumps are being driven, line sizing, filtration used and other issues have an effect on life of the system.

There is more to it than one might think.

Barry

[WILSON BROS.]

I believe you have a nice mower with the Scag TT. But I would put my green paint up against yellow any day. And I dont mean John Deere green either. Bobcat. Maybe the best, maybe not. But they work well for us. Exspecially for the price.

[aklscape]

Of course I realize there are many factors that affect the system. system temp, fluid type, maintenance etc. Remember also that every mower company has to have the pump engineers sign off on their system applications. The pump companies don't want to pay the warranty dollars on their product any more than they have to.

It seems if you look hard enough and read enough of these forum things, you can find someone who has had troubles of every sort with every color of mower.

[Eng Mwr Guy]

AKL

That is partially true. The pump mfg's look for basic application information. They have not tested in every condition. In short, they are not always the supposed experts that you might think and are sometimes wrong.

Frequently, the hundreds of small details that a pump mfg may be unaware of can make a big difference.

Then again, they get it right 98% of the time and that aint bad.

Barry
Gravely/Ariens Engineer

[Richard Martin]

Originally posted by aklscape
Who is talking about Scag pumps and motors? Does anyone realize that they are the EXACT same units used on almost every other mower out there?

Hardly. If they were the EXACT same pumps they would say Sundstrand on them and have the same part number as a Dixie Chopper. The only mower that shares the same wheel motor part number is the Landscaper (Black Rock). There would also be 4 (four) hoses on each wheel motor if they were EXACTLY like a Dixie Chopper. And they would have external cooling fans if they were EXACTLY like the Ferris wheel motors. I could go on but...