Hey all,
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I hope some of you guys that have experience with one or bith of these can confirm my research or offer thoughts on something i might have missed. I am writing this much in part to help save other people some of the time I spent researching these mowers. The ones I ruled out were all excellent mowers (strike that. I really didn't like the dixie). After a lot of research, I feel these two offer the best combination of quality parts and the best value. I do appreciate everyone's personal loyalties, but please focus on these machines.
I'm looking for pros and/or cons for these two mowers. I would like to pick it up on Monday the 17th (two days) so if you have thoughts please post ASAP. I have looked at, priced, and rode comprable mowers from scag, bad boy, toro, exmark, gravely, dixie, deere, huskvarna, ferris, and hustler. I am down to the ferris and the hustler. Both dealers were very helpful, seem well respected, and are about 20 minutes from home. The hustler dealer was a a bit more knowledgable, but not enough to push me there. The guys at the ferris shop we very good too. I will break down my observations below. I welcome any thoughts, corrections or feedback. I am leaning toward the ferris, but its close to a coin flip.
I will spend most of my time mowing my fairly small and flat yard. The reason I am looking at this grade mower is that I have four rental homes. I will not mow them regularly, but when I do, I'm sure it will be because the tenants fell behind and the grass will be very long. At home time is not really an issue (but quicker is always better). At the rentals I would prefer to get in and out as quickly as possible and not have to deal with a mower that is bogging down.
Here are my observations.
Price - advantage ferris (barely). $5500 on the hustler and $5800 on the ferris with free regular maintenance for the first year (200 value according to the dealer.) I am sure I could do it myself, but its worth something.
Ride - advantage ferris. It's hard to compare, since I was not on the same lawn with both and they were both good. I did feel like the shocks on the ferris worked as advertised though. It was heads and shoulders above most other mowers. For some reason the hustler felt pretty close though.
Engine - advantage hustler. The Kawasaki is an 800 upgrade on the ferris and is standard on the hustler. The ferris I would get does have the commercial 28hp Briggs with cyclonic filtering. Everyone online seems to think the Kawasaki is a big upgrade and it is an expensive one on the ferris. If not for this, I would probably just get the ferris and be done with it. HP is less on the Kawasaki, but from my research that has more to do with how they rate it than the actual power of the engine.
Trans - advantage ferris. 3400 vs 3100
Build quality - advantage hustler. I'm probably not qualified to say, but hustler seems to have done a better job with the details. It seems like the big stuff that would impact durability is great on both though with one possible exception. Do the additional moving parts in the suspension create issues in the long run? Ferris would argue they actually help prevent them, but there is more to break.
Deck - advantage ferris. This is actually pretty close but the ferris comes with a striping kit standard and it would be a minor upgrade on the hustler. The hustler is 2" bigger though. I don't feel like this is a huge deal in my situation. The ferris also lifts 5" vs 4.5". Negligible I'm sure, but this could make a difference in deep grass. I really don't know though. I think they are both 4" deep.
Cut quality - I don't know. They both seem excellent to me.
Speed - advantage ferris. 10mph vs 8mph top speed.
Wheels - advantage ferris. 22/13 vs 20/10
Warranties are basically the same for me (residential warranty).
Spindles - advantage ferris?? Greasable seems to be the preference, but it is something that I could forget to do and end up being a problem.
Overall look - advantage hustler. The ferris looked pretty cool to with the shocks, but the ferris just looked better. A e end of the day, not really a factor, but there you have it.
Misc items.
Hustler - dual gas tank, ROPS is fixed so i would probably remove it, no need for parking break (clever design), there were quite a few small design things that seemed nice like an easy way to take tension out of the belt, easy access to the top of the spindles, convenient oil drain, etc..
Ferris - adjustable ROPS so I would probably keep it on, they claim the suspension will help with longevity and I guess it makes sense, the floor pan comes up easily, on the hustler it comes up but it's a bit of a pain.
There you have it. That is my super long post. Hopefully it is helpful to others in my situation and I really hope you guys can fill in any details that I may have missed or or been misinformed on.
Thanks!!
Mowsley
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I hope some of you guys that have experience with one or bith of these can confirm my research or offer thoughts on something i might have missed. I am writing this much in part to help save other people some of the time I spent researching these mowers. The ones I ruled out were all excellent mowers (strike that. I really didn't like the dixie). After a lot of research, I feel these two offer the best combination of quality parts and the best value. I do appreciate everyone's personal loyalties, but please focus on these machines.
I'm looking for pros and/or cons for these two mowers. I would like to pick it up on Monday the 17th (two days) so if you have thoughts please post ASAP. I have looked at, priced, and rode comprable mowers from scag, bad boy, toro, exmark, gravely, dixie, deere, huskvarna, ferris, and hustler. I am down to the ferris and the hustler. Both dealers were very helpful, seem well respected, and are about 20 minutes from home. The hustler dealer was a a bit more knowledgable, but not enough to push me there. The guys at the ferris shop we very good too. I will break down my observations below. I welcome any thoughts, corrections or feedback. I am leaning toward the ferris, but its close to a coin flip.
I will spend most of my time mowing my fairly small and flat yard. The reason I am looking at this grade mower is that I have four rental homes. I will not mow them regularly, but when I do, I'm sure it will be because the tenants fell behind and the grass will be very long. At home time is not really an issue (but quicker is always better). At the rentals I would prefer to get in and out as quickly as possible and not have to deal with a mower that is bogging down.
Here are my observations.
Price - advantage ferris (barely). $5500 on the hustler and $5800 on the ferris with free regular maintenance for the first year (200 value according to the dealer.) I am sure I could do it myself, but its worth something.
Ride - advantage ferris. It's hard to compare, since I was not on the same lawn with both and they were both good. I did feel like the shocks on the ferris worked as advertised though. It was heads and shoulders above most other mowers. For some reason the hustler felt pretty close though.
Engine - advantage hustler. The Kawasaki is an 800 upgrade on the ferris and is standard on the hustler. The ferris I would get does have the commercial 28hp Briggs with cyclonic filtering. Everyone online seems to think the Kawasaki is a big upgrade and it is an expensive one on the ferris. If not for this, I would probably just get the ferris and be done with it. HP is less on the Kawasaki, but from my research that has more to do with how they rate it than the actual power of the engine.
Trans - advantage ferris. 3400 vs 3100
Build quality - advantage hustler. I'm probably not qualified to say, but hustler seems to have done a better job with the details. It seems like the big stuff that would impact durability is great on both though with one possible exception. Do the additional moving parts in the suspension create issues in the long run? Ferris would argue they actually help prevent them, but there is more to break.
Deck - advantage ferris. This is actually pretty close but the ferris comes with a striping kit standard and it would be a minor upgrade on the hustler. The hustler is 2" bigger though. I don't feel like this is a huge deal in my situation. The ferris also lifts 5" vs 4.5". Negligible I'm sure, but this could make a difference in deep grass. I really don't know though. I think they are both 4" deep.
Cut quality - I don't know. They both seem excellent to me.
Speed - advantage ferris. 10mph vs 8mph top speed.
Wheels - advantage ferris. 22/13 vs 20/10
Warranties are basically the same for me (residential warranty).
Spindles - advantage ferris?? Greasable seems to be the preference, but it is something that I could forget to do and end up being a problem.
Overall look - advantage hustler. The ferris looked pretty cool to with the shocks, but the ferris just looked better. A e end of the day, not really a factor, but there you have it.
Misc items.
Hustler - dual gas tank, ROPS is fixed so i would probably remove it, no need for parking break (clever design), there were quite a few small design things that seemed nice like an easy way to take tension out of the belt, easy access to the top of the spindles, convenient oil drain, etc..
Ferris - adjustable ROPS so I would probably keep it on, they claim the suspension will help with longevity and I guess it makes sense, the floor pan comes up easily, on the hustler it comes up but it's a bit of a pain.
There you have it. That is my super long post. Hopefully it is helpful to others in my situation and I really hope you guys can fill in any details that I may have missed or or been misinformed on.
Thanks!!
Mowsley