Your Ideal Mower?

I work for a mower OEM manufacturer. I'm getting my feet wet with this app and wanted to ask a question. As you can imagine, we do a lot of thinking about mowers around here, both for pros and homeowners.

One thing we'd love to know is... If you could design the perfect riding/zero turn mower, what three features would it have? You could include specific features about safety, electronics, power, high-tech - the sky's the limit here.

I'll check back periodically to see your ideas.

Thanks!

These are the additions that should be added to particularly commercial ZTR's

A deck with a substantial offset to the left to allow close mowing along fence lines .
A rack o hold a trimmer
A rack to hold a weed sprayer with 12V power take off.


These are the idiot design faults that should be rectified.
1) Oil filters that are inaccessible or do not have swing room for wrench. About 75% of new mowers suffer from this.
2) Oil filters with no way of getting any type of drip try under them & spill oil all over the floor and usually the belts , About 80% suffer this.
3) Belt tensioners in inaccessable positions, around 50 %
4) lap controls without both forward & reverse adjustments ( 3 to 4 holes do not cut the mustard ), must be a screw.
5) Lap / pedal controls without a sensitivity adjustment

rwraysmith said:

I work for a mower OEM manufacturer. I'm getting my feet wet with this app and wanted to ask a question. As you can imagine, we do a lot of thinking about mowers around here, both for pros and homeowners.

One thing we'd love to know is... If you could design the perfect riding/zero turn mower, what three features would it have? You could include specific features about safety, electronics, power, high-tech - the sky's the limit here.

I'll check back periodically to see your ideas.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I don't know if anyone can give an answer or have an answer for the Ideal mower. Everyone will have complaints and think this or that needs to be changed or this or that added and to what he or she thinks will be the ideal mower.
Most of the Pro's or guys that are making a living in lawn-care like myself want something simple and don't worry about buying all the bells and whistles that you can get on a lot of the mowers out there today. The more you add the more the price goes up and it's just more stuff to go on the fritz. The thing that they do look at is cut quality and discharge. I'd look for ways to improve what's already there and not adding more B&W.

This thread smells a little fishy. How about identifying your company and we will tell you what improvements you can make to your units.

Rivets said:

This thread smells a little fishy. How about identifying your company and we will tell you what improvements you can make to your units.

Click to expand...

Rivets, like I said, I don't work for a mower manufacturer directly. I work for an OEM, an original equipment manufacturer. We make parts for mowers, not the mowers themselves. We make parts for all the mowers out there.

That said, you sound like you have some experience in the area. What features would you like to see on a mower of the future?

Rivets said:

This thread smells a little fishy. How about identifying your company and we will tell you what improvements you can make to your units.

Click to expand...

Don't be a kill joy, vent the spleen.
Yu must have an encyclopedia's wort of idiot things that a !/2 intelligent engineer would not let the marketing & design consultants get away with.

OTOH less is better definitely goes for mowers.
I can not get enough 1/2 good old varidrive / cone clutch ride ons to satisfy the demand for them and the old mowers with the old Peerless boxs sell the instant I put one on the street.

Bert, I call them as I see them. I know how to post info that everyone can understand without using a thousand miss spelled words, abbreviations, or extra long explanations that are so wordy no one understands which point you are trying to make. I give you credit, from the posts you make that I can understand, you are an expienced mechanic and probably one of the best techs on this forum. Your problem is that your ability to communicate your knowledge to others is at the bottom of the scale.

To the OP, in post #1 you say "I work for a mower OEM manufacturer", to me that means that you manufacture equipment. Now you say you work for a parts manufacturer, big difference. I doubt you are building engine parts. Are you building chassis, decks, seats, operating controls, etc? I have talked to and worked with engineers in the industry who have shown me designs which would make it easier to work on a piece of equipment, but cost cuts by the "Brand Manufacturer" are not allowed to be implemented.

You really want to know how to make your parts better, get away from your desk, smart phone and computer. Spend some time working along side the people who use and repair your parts. Put on the safety glasses, rip a pair of pants and a couple of shirts, get some grease, oil mud, fertilizer and crap under your nails and have your body hurt when you go home. After 30 days of doing this you will have more ideas of how to make your product better, than this or any forum will give you in a year.

Still smell an off oder??

Gees Rivs, I thought my typing was getting a whole lot better.

No arguement that the OP's post smells funny

OTOH I would imagine some one in the design / marketing departments of every mower company reads this ( and most other ) mower forums.
Unlike Robert @ Honda, either they just lurk or choose not to identify themselves.
So if we are lucky, some of them might take the posts to heart and actually make improvements that matter.

You guys... This is a way to collect market research, which is what I'm doing. Of course I get away from my desk. Every chance I get I do. And we are talking to a lot of people. What's fishy about asking for your opinion? It may be naive to say, but your opinion is very important to manufacturers like us. Any one that says otherwise won't last long.

We are talking to the landscape guys, but we're also talking to the dealers and other folks who make the parts we don't. You'd be surprised by the different answer we get. Landscape managers and owners want different things from their workers. Equipment dealers want different things than landscapers. And some manufacturers want to bury their heads in the sand and never innovate.

We don't want to be in that group. I know it may sound "fishy" to want to know what's on your mind, but that's all I'm after. Your opinion, plus anybody else's who happens along...

Tell me, are you guys dealers, landscapers...?

Well do some research on the only 2 who bothered to reply and you will see which part of the industry we are in