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gregjo1948

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If you put 10hp on a full grown Ferris Z, it would have trouble turning the blades without mowing grass. These machines spin their blades extremely fast, travel over 10mph while mowing uphill, and weigh upwards of 3/4 of a ton. 10hp will work OK on a YT/GT with a 42" deck weighing 300lbs. mowing at 4mph but it'll take all day to mow a lawn that a 61" Ferris will do in 2 hours. Until you operate a Ferris with the totally independent suspension and mow, what used to be hay fields/pastures, you can't imagine how much better it rides than a YT/GT. YT/GT machines are good enough for a small city lawn and are handy to pull around a little yard cart but if you want to get large or many lawns mowed, a Z with bigger hp is the way to go. 10 hp engines won't work worth a hoot and won't last on a Z. That's why the manufacturers install the big hp twins, triples, and even diesel engines. Sorry about my rant but, 10 hp on a Z just struck me wrong!!!!
 
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ILENGINE

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The point I was trying to make was back about 30 years ago the garden tractors with 42-48 in decks were 10-16 hp gear or hydrostat. Even the Case 446 which was made by ingersoll was all hydraulic drive, and had a 4 foot tiller or rough cut mower available that were hydraulic drive like a skid steer attachment, And they were 16 hp, then sometimes around the early 2000's is when the HP took off and everything got bigger about the same time that EPA tier 1 came into play. I was working on 7.5 hp push mower engines fitted on 22 inch push mower that were just 5 years prior were 3.75 hp engines.

Some of the Z turns with 25-27 hp engines I have worked on the last few years are absolutely gutless in the power category. Top out at 12-14 mph and when the grass meets the blade can't cut more than 1.5-2 mph without killing the engine. How many of those 12 mph Z turn will actually mow at 12 mph, or is mowing speed a little closer to 4 mph The early 70's cub cadet 106-107 126-127 or JD 110-112 with a 10 or 12 hp engine and 42 in deck would out cut some of the high hp Z turn on the market today.

I have never owned a Z turn but have owned several GT over the years. Owned a 15.5 hp 42 inch tractor with a 6 speed and a 25 hp 54 inch tractor with the 6 speed and guess which tractor I could mow the yard faster with? The 42 inch 15.5 hp tractor by a half hour. I have repaired hundreds of Z turns over the last 20 some years and the number of those that I would consider owning 2. One was a Grasshopper front deck and the other was a Gravely
 
PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

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gregjo1948 said:
If you put 10hp on a full grown Ferris Z, it would have trouble turning the blades without mowing grass. These machines spin their blades extremely fast, travel over 10mph while mowing uphill, and weigh upwards of 3/4 of a ton. 10hp will work OK on a YT/GT with a 42" deck weighing 300lbs. mowing at 4mph but it'll take all day to mow a lawn that a 61" Ferris will do in 2 hours. Until you operate a Ferris with the totally independent suspension and mow, what used to be hay fields/pastures, you can't imagine how much better it rides than a YT/GT. YT/GT machines are good enough for a small city lawn and are handy to pull around a little yard cart but if you want to get large or many lawns mowed, a Z with bigger hp is the way to go. 10 hp engines won't work worth a hoot and won't last on a Z. That's why the manufacturers install the big hp twins, triples, and even diesel engines. Sorry about my rant but, 10 hp on a Z just struck me wrong!!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah those big ferris machines are like tanks. They're the Cadillac's of mowers. I can see how even a 18ish hp would have trouble holding up especially with some say 9 or 10" grass. But on a normal lawn, with few inclines, I think they'd do ok. If the engine was in descent shape.

Last year, my main gig was buying used, fixing and selling. I had a lot of folks trying to get $100 or more out of an L head 10 to 15hp engine on an older mower (that needed work). And I'd ask them why they were selling it. And the typical answer was they were going to get them a new one with at least a 20hp engine on it. In which I respond with, "everyone wants the high hp engines. And how hard it is to even sell an old mower, and make any profit out of it. Especially when I gotta put $100+ in it just in parts and labor.
 
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bertsmobile1

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ILENGINE said:
The point I was trying to make was back about 30 years ago the garden tractors with 42-48 in decks were 10-16 hp gear or hydrostat. Even the Case 446 which was made by ingersoll was all hydraulic drive, and had a 4 foot tiller or rough cut mower available that were hydraulic drive like a skid steer attachment, And they were 16 hp, then sometimes around the early 2000's is when the HP took off and everything got bigger about the same time that EPA tier 1 came into play. I was working on 7.5 hp push mower engines fitted on 22 inch push mower that were just 5 years prior were 3.75 hp engines.

Some of the Z turns with 25-27 hp engines I have worked on the last few years are absolutely gutless in the power category. Top out at 12-14 mph and when the grass meets the blade can't cut more than 1.5-2 mph without killing the engine. How many of those 12 mph Z turn will actually mow at 12 mph, or is mowing speed a little closer to 4 mph The early 70's cub cadet 106-107 126-127 or JD 110-112 with a 10 or 12 hp engine and 42 in deck would out cut some of the high hp Z turn on the market today.

I have never owned a Z turn but have owned several GT over the years. Owned a 15.5 hp 42 inch tractor with a 6 speed and a 25 hp 54 inch tractor with the 6 speed and guess which tractor I could mow the yard faster with? The 42 inch 15.5 hp tractor by a half hour. I have repaired hundreds of Z turns over the last 20 some years and the number of those that I would consider owning 2. One was a Grasshopper front deck and the other was a Gravely
Click to expand...

And I thought it was just me.
Yep the 8/32 gear & chain drive Rover makes an lot of 20Hp mowers look stupid.
It will out mow just about any residential made now days in both speed & quality of cut.
It will also run through 5' tall pasture that chokes all but the top end commercials .
Just like cars, the easiest way to make them look better is a bigger engine.
Abd despite being a side banger it will run 2 hours on a gallon of fuel.
 
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