After many months of deliberation, I finally went with a Tiger Cat II 52 22hp. While I am only around the 10hr mark, I still want to give my initial thoughts on it to help anyone else out that is considering it.
My biggest concern was that 22hp would not be enough engine. I've found it to be plenty powerful at least for what I am doing. I've cut some 3 week growth (northern grass and weeds) that was getting pretty thick and was wet without issue. I cut one yard that has a huge hill without issue (that was dry and only 1 week of growth). The mower bogged slightly a few times in both of these scenarios, but not enough to disrupt me. The 22hp is plenty in my opinion.
This thing is fast. It is nice to have "more to go" when you don't need it. This is what I like the most so far. The seat is comfortable, but you will still bounce a little when hitting rough areas.
The Velocity deck works very good. I would not declare it as awesome, but it does what it should and that is more than I can say about many products today. The deck keeps up with the machine. The Velocity deck is the primary reason I went with Scag.
The deck lift is not the greatest. It takes a lot of force to lift the deck. For the amount of money for the machine, I expected better there. But I suppose I will get used to it.
I will come back and add to this post when I have more to say. But so far, I love the machine and my only regret is not buying it sooner. Hope this thread helps someone in the mower buying process.
Are there better machines out there, sure, but at what cost. I never drove a Turf Tiger, but even as great as they are claimed to be, I don't think I would want one due to the weight. The Tiger Cat is almost too heavy for many of my applications. I also am glad I went with the 52in deck over the 61in as I have a lot of uneven yards and a few tight places to get into. But the right deck size for you depends on what you will be doing.
My biggest concern was that 22hp would not be enough engine. I've found it to be plenty powerful at least for what I am doing. I've cut some 3 week growth (northern grass and weeds) that was getting pretty thick and was wet without issue. I cut one yard that has a huge hill without issue (that was dry and only 1 week of growth). The mower bogged slightly a few times in both of these scenarios, but not enough to disrupt me. The 22hp is plenty in my opinion.
This thing is fast. It is nice to have "more to go" when you don't need it. This is what I like the most so far. The seat is comfortable, but you will still bounce a little when hitting rough areas.
The Velocity deck works very good. I would not declare it as awesome, but it does what it should and that is more than I can say about many products today. The deck keeps up with the machine. The Velocity deck is the primary reason I went with Scag.
The deck lift is not the greatest. It takes a lot of force to lift the deck. For the amount of money for the machine, I expected better there. But I suppose I will get used to it.
I will come back and add to this post when I have more to say. But so far, I love the machine and my only regret is not buying it sooner. Hope this thread helps someone in the mower buying process.
Are there better machines out there, sure, but at what cost. I never drove a Turf Tiger, but even as great as they are claimed to be, I don't think I would want one due to the weight. The Tiger Cat is almost too heavy for many of my applications. I also am glad I went with the 52in deck over the 61in as I have a lot of uneven yards and a few tight places to get into. But the right deck size for you depends on what you will be doing.
