Any input would be greatly appreciated.
After having a lawn service take care of the grass cutting around the house I bought two years ago, I have decided to purchase a mower and do it myself. It is an acre with about twenty trees--a mix of oak and maple. There is a quite a bit of fallen leaves in the fall, so the mower will need to
vacuum/catch with ease. I have ruled out a lawn tractor since I have no need of attachments (snowplow, wagon, etc).
I have been looking at the ZTR mowers because of agility and speed. A 42" deck is sufficient for my needs. One mower I have considered is the Snapper Yard Cruiser 15 hp 42". This is residential equipment so the question is how long can it be expected to last before problems begin to appear. It will be used once a week during the summer and more often in the fall because of the leaves. It has a 3 year warranty but with lighter duty pumps and no hydro filter. I also wonder how well it will pick up leaves if traveling at any speed faster than a crawl. The best price for mower/bag is $4000. The other choice (currently) is the Encore Z42 with the 17 hp Kawasaki. Obviously, this will have a much longer life since it is built to commericial specifications. The collection system has an active vacuum which runs off the deck which should help with the pickup of leaves. Right?? The best price for mower/collection system is $6000. Any experience/comments on the Encore? How well does the collection system work? Is it a correct assumption that an extra $2000 up front (over the cost of the Snapper) may save me a lot more cash down the road with repairs? I would imagine that the increased complexity of the ZTR mower means more things to potentially fail and are very expensive to fix.
Funny, this whole adventure started as a search for the fastest/easiest method for taking care of the leaf problem and has grown out of control. Hmmmm...maybe cutting down all the trees.....
After having a lawn service take care of the grass cutting around the house I bought two years ago, I have decided to purchase a mower and do it myself. It is an acre with about twenty trees--a mix of oak and maple. There is a quite a bit of fallen leaves in the fall, so the mower will need to
vacuum/catch with ease. I have ruled out a lawn tractor since I have no need of attachments (snowplow, wagon, etc).
I have been looking at the ZTR mowers because of agility and speed. A 42" deck is sufficient for my needs. One mower I have considered is the Snapper Yard Cruiser 15 hp 42". This is residential equipment so the question is how long can it be expected to last before problems begin to appear. It will be used once a week during the summer and more often in the fall because of the leaves. It has a 3 year warranty but with lighter duty pumps and no hydro filter. I also wonder how well it will pick up leaves if traveling at any speed faster than a crawl. The best price for mower/bag is $4000. The other choice (currently) is the Encore Z42 with the 17 hp Kawasaki. Obviously, this will have a much longer life since it is built to commericial specifications. The collection system has an active vacuum which runs off the deck which should help with the pickup of leaves. Right?? The best price for mower/collection system is $6000. Any experience/comments on the Encore? How well does the collection system work? Is it a correct assumption that an extra $2000 up front (over the cost of the Snapper) may save me a lot more cash down the road with repairs? I would imagine that the increased complexity of the ZTR mower means more things to potentially fail and are very expensive to fix.
Funny, this whole adventure started as a search for the fastest/easiest method for taking care of the leaf problem and has grown out of control. Hmmmm...maybe cutting down all the trees.....
