I'm about to buy a new commercial grade Z turn mower for my own use (about 8 acres). My local choices are John Deere and Kubota. One big difference between the two is that the John Deere has a belt drive mower and the Kubota uses a drive shaft. The drive shaft sounds better to me, but I would appreciate any other thoughts/ advice on this matter. Thanks in advance.
belt drive or drive shaft?
ANM
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I'm about to buy a new commercial grade Z turn mower for my own use (about 8 acres). My local choices are John Deere and Kubota. One big difference between the two is that the John Deere has a belt drive mower and the Kubota uses a drive shaft. The drive shaft sounds better to me, but I would appreciate any other thoughts/ advice on this matter. Thanks in advance.
Drive belts last for years (ours do anyway) and are relatively cheap to replace. Kubota is a good machine but if those two were the only choices I had, I'd buy the amercian made product.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the JD commercial ZTRs. They cut grass and hold up just as well as any of the others. Any edge the Kubota has is slim and certainly not enough to make me buy a japanese mower.
I don't own any JD mowers as I have 7-8 brands locally to choose from and we buy the most bang for the buck. Qaulity of construction, cut quality and price. Have to have all three and for us the Bobcat Predator Pro is the most bang for the money.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the JD commercial ZTRs. They cut grass and hold up just as well as any of the others. Any edge the Kubota has is slim and certainly not enough to make me buy a japanese mower.
I don't own any JD mowers as I have 7-8 brands locally to choose from and we buy the most bang for the buck. Qaulity of construction, cut quality and price. Have to have all three and for us the Bobcat Predator Pro is the most bang for the money.
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I guess I should have stated mine better. I'm was trying to lead mor etoward the machine that is really built. Here, there are very few JD ZTR's, I see more Kubota than the JD's. I just feel better about Kubota knowing that they would not make cheap products to sell to HD and Lowes like JD for the average consumer so they would not have to pay an arm and a leg. I mean if you have to go down in quality to get customers to buy, I just would not consider that brand.
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its funy cause your drive shaft is still driven by a belt on the scag lol, i know i know
:hammerhead:
i would buy whatever mower you like better yourself after they let you drive it arround and mow with it! personally i would not by a ztr mower for 8 acres of personal property! id have a nice tractor with a belly mower and a bucket loader and a backhoe, way better off. or a nice used bigger tractor with a tow behind 7ft or 8ft deck that will get it done in a hour!
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Drive shafts consume more power than belt drives. Kubota uses them because they're fool proof. If you want to avoid even more problems get the diesel model.
The question of driveshaft versus belt drive is interesting. There are advantages of both methods, but ultimately if you consider value, the belt drive wins, at least in my opinion, that's why most mowers are built that way.
Because the deck floats and the height of cut adjustment system is necessary, there are inherent alignment issues between the engine output and the deck drive. The driveshaft with universals is designed for misalignment and in theory can handle this misalignment better than a belt drive. However there are several downsides to the drive shaft system these related to the added number of parts and complexity. Complexity adds up to more potential failure points and higher cost. The drive shaft system may require a belt drive out of the engine. This belt drive would require an additional shaft and bearings for support. The drive shaft itself has many parts in the universal joints and universal joints in general are notorious as failure points. At the deck a ninety degree bevel gear box is required to change the drive direction and drive the deck belt. A deck drive belt is still required to drive the spindles although more reliable because it does not have to run misaligned. As someone else mentioned the driveshaft and additional gearbox increase the inefficiencies of the overall drive system which means less power to cut grass and higher fuel consumption.
The more misalignment in the system the greater the reduction in life of the drive. This is true for both the belt system and the driveshaft; however, the effect is probably more pronounced in the belt drive system. The conclusion may be that the driveshaft system is better if you are mostly running at the extremes of the height of cut system i.e. one inch or 5-1/2 inches. On the other hand the added cost of this system is significant and it is questionable that this added reliability is worth the extra cost.
Because the deck floats and the height of cut adjustment system is necessary, there are inherent alignment issues between the engine output and the deck drive. The driveshaft with universals is designed for misalignment and in theory can handle this misalignment better than a belt drive. However there are several downsides to the drive shaft system these related to the added number of parts and complexity. Complexity adds up to more potential failure points and higher cost. The drive shaft system may require a belt drive out of the engine. This belt drive would require an additional shaft and bearings for support. The drive shaft itself has many parts in the universal joints and universal joints in general are notorious as failure points. At the deck a ninety degree bevel gear box is required to change the drive direction and drive the deck belt. A deck drive belt is still required to drive the spindles although more reliable because it does not have to run misaligned. As someone else mentioned the driveshaft and additional gearbox increase the inefficiencies of the overall drive system which means less power to cut grass and higher fuel consumption.
The more misalignment in the system the greater the reduction in life of the drive. This is true for both the belt system and the driveshaft; however, the effect is probably more pronounced in the belt drive system. The conclusion may be that the driveshaft system is better if you are mostly running at the extremes of the height of cut system i.e. one inch or 5-1/2 inches. On the other hand the added cost of this system is significant and it is questionable that this added reliability is worth the extra cost.
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kubota makes a great tractor beyond a doubt and long lasting but im personally a fan of absolutely no belts. which narrows it down to john deere . if you want more affortable look for used john deere models 425 445 and 455 if you want new any x700 series is the way to go. all those models are the only ones ive found that when they say "shaft drive" its truly no belts. the kubotas and cub cadets i looked at said they were shaft drive but they used a belt off the engine to drive the pto shaft to the deck or blower but john deere has a shaft straight from the crank to the transmission and then the pto shaft comes off the trans strait to the deck or blower 100% belt free plus power steering and hydraulics come standard on all those models as well.
hope this helps
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Yes, I'm sure they're still pondering which way to go 16 YEARS LATER!!!
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