With all the rain Arkansas, Louisiana, East Texas and the lower center of the US. I mowed my yard yesterday at full deck lift. It was so full and overgrown after two weeks of rain I ran the mower at about 6 mph with the deflector in the up position and ate about 90 pounds of wet Bermuda. Between the mower and myself, we appeared to be wearing a Gilley suit. At WOT and depending upon the density of the grass, there were a few passes that left about a half inch higher stand from the middle blade. I slowed about a mph and the cut evened back out.
My mower is the RSD60 and thus far, I love the 60 inch deck other than walking around it. Takes a good half hour (sic) to make a single lap on foot. Ok, that may be a bit of a stretch, however, when building the new Garage Mahal, I only allowed 6 foot between the rear wall and an interior wall for a mower depository. I have to park it at a ninety degree angle to fit it into the parking space. Turns out, even a shorty doesn't fit by backing or pulling it directly in front or rear. So far, all the Z's I've had drop by to check out the Garage Mahal and have me diagnose their mower problems, none of them fit any better front to rear. Sideways, the narrower decks does leave a bit more room. However the 60 inch deck is nice due to the shorter time I have to sit in the saddle, the better.
Everyone in the neighborhood likes to compare minimum mowing time. So far, I hold the title with the slightly largest lot! {Two lots put together.} I think that comes from running WOT more than their inability to mow as fast. They just don't move their mowers at top speed. I'm also the next oldest in the neighborhood. All the others are from 10 to 25 years younger. Strange they are afraid to run their equipment at top speed.
I don't think there will be any problems with the lift mechanism on my SD. If so, I'll fix it. But, for all my neighbors, not likely they'll ever experience any problems with any of their mowers due to wear and the primary brand in my hood is Hustler. Most of those are the overpriced commercials that do the very same job as the RSD. They cut grass. My 1996 MTD All Wheel Steer does a beautiful job so I believe purchasing a more expensive mower is just a waste of money.