My comment about maintenance wasn't really about your time in the garage; being retired and having time to piddle about is a thing I yearn for! Allow me to clarify ...
I was commenting on two things. Maintenance and the relative cost of time.
The cost and efforts related specifically to liquid cooled equipment are one point of contention. At some point, you'll have coolant changes to deal with and hoses to change. Even some day, perhaps a water pump. The tight confines of the ZTRs make for some of this to be a PITB. And it all costs a lot more money versus the alternative. Certainly L/C engines tend to last a bit longer, and are a tad quieter, and can even be a bit more fuel efficient because they can run just a bit leaner. But a/c engines do very well, and generally take nothing more than plugs and oil/filter changes. L/C engines have those, but also have a whole host of stuff on top of it. Granted, you'll not have to change coolant every year, but eventually coolant and hoses and a pump will come due. Also, unless you're proactive and change out stuff before failure, L/C equipment has the ability to strand you. Never has an a/c engine stranded someone soley based upon a loss of cooling! I can see the value in L/C engines in commercial use. But your stated use (part time = not commercial) and smaller acreage just don't justify the "need" for L/C equipment. IMO, the efforts and risk outweigh the reward.
Also, your initial indication was you'd mow a 1 acre lot, but now you say you may do a bit more. I'll calculate on 1 acre and we can move out from there. The time difference saved by having a 61" deck versus a 52" deck is almost inconsequential when only mowing an acre or two. And as you said, you're retired, so it's not really fair to claim that you have infinite time for maintenance, but not for mowing ... if you have time to piddle, then you can piddle in the seat (no pun intended) as well as in the garage. But buying this much larger unit versus a decent TC with air cooled engine and 52" deck cost you big money. I estimate you could have got a smaller a/c powered unit for perhaps $2000 less. That's a big chunk of money that may only mean a savings of a few minutes worth of cut time per week.
Let's do some math on cut time.
- We'll presume an average speed of 5mph = 440 ft/min.
- If you were to mow 1 acre square, that's a tad under 44,000 square feet, so I based my calculation on a lot of 210'x210'.
The difference between a 61" mower deck and a 52" mower deck would only mean the bigger unit make only 8 fewer passes; it would be done 4 minutes sooner. That's it; just 4 minutes. Aren't you the guy that has time to piddle? For every acre you mow, you'll only save about 4 minutes with the larger deck for your 1 acre lot. Even if you are mowing for someone else, and add a few more acres (now mowing 3 acres), you'd only get done about 12 minutes quicker with the bigger deck. But you spent about $2000 to get a bigger deck to get done early? For a commerical operation running several crews serving many accounts over hundreds of acres, that means a lot. But for a guy who has time to piddle, is it worth two thouand bucks to get your own lawn done 4 minutes sooner?
So you purchased a unit that will cost a lot more money to maintain, and then you paid $2000 to get done 4 minutes early/acre each week, when you already have piddle time to spare anyway. That is why I said you overbought. I'm not tyring to pick on you or make you feel bad about the purchase. I hope I haven't offended you; that's not my intent. But perhaps this is a lesson that someone else could learn from? Maybe someone is out there trying to decide what to buy, and they can apply some calculations and find what would be a best fit for them?
As I said before, considering what you bought didn't get you ripped off; it was a fair purchase for the unit you now have.
And I also said, what matters most is that you're happy. Again, congratulations.
