Beast 54ZB Commercial ZTR

[lawnreaper]

Thanks dmodem

[bravesfan25]

Originally Posted by dmodem

I received my 54ZB last week, and I had the opportinity to use it for about an hour before the rains came for the past week. Although the majority of my 4 acres is too soggy to mow at present, I'm going to do a portion of the ground again tomorrow. Upon first use, the Beast worked and handled fine. It'll definitely cut down on mowing time from my previous JD tractor!....and it looks mean as hell to boot!

Do you have any pictures of the Beast?

[samendolaro]

Wow... and they had a $150 instant rebate 2 days ago. Add to that you can get another 5% cash back with a chase card would bring it down to about 3k. Thanks dmodem.. hope that code holds out another month.


Still waiting for a full review and mulching kit. Interesting thing is you have the Stanley mowers (Mulching kit available) and the Home deport 3 year joint venture Z-Beast ( Mulching kit available) But in reality no mulching kit available for either .


Gordon , have you guys tested any 3rd parties mulching kit ? If the blades are standard I should be able to adapt the mulching kits as well.

[twinturb089]

Originally Posted by dmodem

BATH350R9 gets $350 off.....use it - get one!

wow ,i could have used that code 9 days ago when i ordered mine.crap! I was suppose to receive my 54 z beast yesterday,yellowfreight called and said delivery schedule was light because of the holiday and it would arrive monday...... at least its pouring rain here and i couldn't have used it anyway.i cannot wait to get this thing. it looks like a german tank on the hd website.will post some pics monday when i get it.

[samendolaro]

FYI... Here is the location for the service and parts list for that 54" motor

http://robinamerica.com/pmanuals.aspx?pid=20

[twinturb089]

wow, is all i can say right now. i just ran home from work and met the yellow freight man to unload my new 54"beast.upon opening the back door of the yf truck, i thought evil kenevil was dead..... but not so. he is alive and well,and making skids/ramps for these "beast" mowers to travel the country side on. it is something you just have to see pics of.anyhow i got this thing off the snake river canyon jump ramp, and shimmied it sideways in the yf truck to get it onto the rear lift gate.it is now unloaded and in my yard,i made a few practice laps with it(after checking the oil,adding gas,and checking for any loose bolts,etc)it runs good and fast.i didnt try out the mowing portion yet ,as i had to get back to work. i ll keep you posted on the performance.......

[samendolaro]

This is what they make sick days for ...

Very interested in your observations. Power, speed while cutting , the cut itself. Also your impressions of the deck construction. Some comments were made about the deck thickness so if you are able to put those to rest it would be great as well.

Also does the deck extend past the wheels so you can trim around objects witout the wheels hitting.

Originally Posted by twinturb089

\,as i had to get back to work. i ll keep you posted on the performance.......

[twinturb089]

ok here goes.i couldnt wait to get home from work yesterday to try out this "beast".at first impressions, i thought if chuck norris,steven segal,and rambo made a mower.this was it.the deck feels thick enuff to be a bomb shelter,very nice bullnose edge in the front.looking underneath the deck, the towers for the spindles are huge.in other words the deck looks bad ass!The seat is comfy,and adjustable,although you seem to sit high on this machine.i jumped on the mower and cut about an acre of the 2 i own, my lawn is hilly.the mower seems to struggle,and def seem to bog down when the blades where engaged.i was mowing my lawn at 3.5 inches. and was really, if lucky, taking a 1/2 inch off as my lawn was cut by a lawn service last week ,due to me waiting on this one to be delivered.i am going to hd,lowes and some pros today to look at other mowers.maybe i am expecting too much from this mower.i am going to let my neighbor use my mower tonite or tommorow to see what he thinks.i am kinda upset so far with this. i was expecting much more,but my momma always said you get what you pay for. if anyone wants info feel free to email me, i ll even shoot you my phone #. or you can come try it out for yourself. be back here later after my afternoon looking at the competiton. bill email is twinturb089@aol.com

[samendolaro]

This is disappointing but kind of confirms the other report on the HD site about the 54" mower bogging down.
So when you say it bogged down was it only on the hills or anytime the blades were engauged ? and when it did bogg did it affect the mowers speed or was it just the sound ? Also how did it cut overall ? How long did it take you to finish that acre ?

Now imagine putting mulching blades on that and going through some st augestine . its a Shame

I am sure the Subru is a great engine and would work wonders on the 48" mower but It may just be too much for the 54". This is why I was still considering the 62". I don't need a cut that wide but the power is there. It is a shame there wasn't a different motor option for the 54..

[GordonwJackson]

Originally Posted by twinturb089

ok here goes.i couldnt wait to get home from work yesterday to try out this "beast".at first impressions, i thought if chuck norris,steven segal,and rambo made a mower.this was it.the deck feels thick enuff to be a bomb shelter,very nice bullnose edge in the front.looking underneath the deck, the towers for the spindles are huge.in other words the deck looks bad ass!The seat is comfy,and adjustable,although you seem to sit high on this machine.i jumped on the mower and cut about an acre of the 2 i own, my lawn is hilly.the mower seems to struggle,and def seem to bog down when the blades where engaged.i was mowing my lawn at 3.5 inches. and was really, if lucky, taking a 1/2 inch off as my lawn was cut by a lawn service last week ,due to me waiting on this one to be delivered.i am going to hd,lowes and some pros today to look at other mowers.maybe i am expecting too much from this mower.i am going to let my neighbor use my mower tonite or tommorow to see what he thinks.i am kinda upset so far with this. i was expecting much more,but my momma always said you get what you pay for. if anyone wants info feel free to email me, i ll even shoot you my phone #. or you can come try it out for yourself. be back here later after my afternoon looking at the competiton. bill email is twinturb089@aol.com

I have asked GXi Customer Service to contact you. I suspect maybe your engine RPM is a little low, based upon the symptoms you describe. Removing less than 1" of grass the mower should run like a hot knife through butter, even going up hill.

I have attempted to attach a quick video showing a demonstration we just did on the 54" Z-BEAST with the 22 hp Subaru. I was unable to get the video to attach to this message. I will have it posted elsewhere and share the link.

The test we did was on thick, uncut grass and weeds between 5 inches and 7 inches tall. The grass was wet. It rained about 30 minutes prior to this video. No load RPM was 3420 RPM. This mower can meet all specs at 3500 RPM so it can be turned up a bit, however we left it as is and ran it at 3420 RPM for the test.

The ground was flat.

The deck height was set at 2" so the average cut depth was about 4" of thick, wet grass and weeds. The range was from 3" to 5" of cut.

The mower was driven with a forward speed of about 8 mph.

About a 150 RPM drop was observed under this loading. The RPM drop would have been less had the grass been dry.

The resulting cut quality was clean and free of uncut grass.

We would consider the mower to be bogging down if it experienced a 300 to 400 RPM engine speed drop (more than 10% drop).

We were able to bog this mower down at 10 mph, under the above described conditions, when the wet grass height reached 8" and we were cutting it down to 2". If the grass were dry it could cut this depth on flat ground without a problem, but would bog down under similar conditions when going up a hill.

Please call GXi Customer Service and ask for Shawn. He can assist you with throttle adjustment if this is in fact the root cause.