If you can afford it, go with a garden tractor that has a horizontal shaft engine. If money was no object, I'd go with a Kubota B series diesel. Those things are pretty much bullet-proof. My neighbor has a John Deere gas tractor with horizontal shaft Kawasaki engine that has been very good to him, too. Either of these will probably be triple what the Husky costs but are in a whole different league than the vertical shaft engine class of lawn tractor.