I have been reading on here for a few weeks and just wanted to ask my first question. I have a mowing business during the summer and am wanting to get a new mower. I have 2 commercial honda 21" mowers that I have been using and want to upgrade to a 32"-36" wb. What do you guys suggest. I looked at the ferris HC32KAV13 32" but I want something I can put a sulky on. Also, I don't know if most of my yards will have large enough gates for a 36". Any and all advise will be appreciated. I have approx. 40 lawns and will be growing (hopefully) this summer.
I dont run any ferris so I cant help you there. Although I can say there has been very few gates I cant get through with a 36" I dont push mow so I would pass if I couldnt get through, but if your willing to push, add an extra 10.00 on the quote.
I would buy the 36" and if I encountered a gate in which it wouldn't fit through I make a little ramp to use on one side of the mower to tilt it through the gate. You would have to raise one side up about 11 inches for it to fit. This way you wouldn't have to charge anymore for the lawn, and you could get the most productive deck size for gated yards. As far as which brand, I've always heard good things about Exmark's walkbehinds. Whatever you do, demo before you buy.
I have a velke/sulky on my 32" WB Encore and it works great. I am about 260lbs and it pulls me around dang good. I found that a 32" fits in just about every prefab gate around. (that's JMO) I wanted to add if you are targeting residential I think a 32" is your best bet...
What brands does your dealer carry? You'll get better feedback if you can narrow the choices down a bit. Ferris is almost non-existent in my area, can't help you with that one.
All my mowers are great danes, not a very popular mower with others on the site. $3600 for my 36" still runs great and its about 4 years old. I did replace a clutch on it though.
The dealers close to me carry toro, honda, ferris, yazoo kees, and that's about it!! I did find that there is a exmark dealer pretty close but I am unfamiliar with this brand.
How bout a lesco, there prices are awsome, and the quality is awesome also!! Check out the site, www.lesco.com
