Recommend a used lawn tractor for 1 hilly acre?

Euclid

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Hi everyone,

Our JD LA 120 is pushing 300 hours, so we're considering selling it and spending up to $2,000 on a used lawn tractor. Can you suggest something that would be appropriate for these conditions?

* mow 1 acre
* bag hardwood leaves from 4 acres (this is "mowed" with a bush hog)
* yard is quite hilly
* quality of cut is not a priority
* occasionally pull a trailer
* needs to last a *long* time with low maintenance
* prefer HST

Thanks for the input.
 

Padroo

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Have you ever used a Zero turn mower, how rough is the ground.
I would buy a used commercial mower bought from an individual that was never used commercially.
The dealer only wanted to give me $750 for my old TORO on trade in and it was a $7,600 mower new.
 

BlazNT

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Hi everyone,

Our JD LA 120 is pushing 300 hours, so we're considering selling it and spending up to $2,000 on a used lawn tractor. Can you suggest something that would be appropriate for these conditions?

* mow 1 acre
* bag hardwood leaves from 4 acres (this is "mowed" with a bush hog)
* yard is quite hilly
* quality of cut is not a priority
* occasionally pull a trailer
* needs to last a *long* time with low maintenance
* prefer HST


Thanks for the input.

Your list of wants does not match your price range. Your wants list is a $3000.00 machine.
 

Euclid

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Have you ever used a Zero turn mower, how rough is the ground.
I would buy a used commercial mower bought from an individual that was never used commercially.
The dealer only wanted to give me $750 for my old TORO on trade in and it was a $7,600 mower new.

Yes, we've use a zero turn mower, and it was great. But we prefer a lawn tractor now.

The ground is fairly rough. We're out in the country. This is not a manicured lawn.
 

Euclid

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Your list of wants does not match your price range. Your wants list is a $3000.00 machine.

Yeah, isn't that the way it always works?

Okay, what would you suggest for that price? I get the impression that we don't want the ubiquitous K46 transmission because of our hills.

Thanks.
 

weathda

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If you have the time, look high and low for a JD 4XX series. There are deals to be had if you can catch one.

I was in the same boat as you at the end of 2017. Had a JD L120 with 240 hours on it and was ready to get rid of it due to new property with more mowing duties. I stumbled upon a 1999 JD 425 with AWS, 724 hours for $1500. An older widowed lady posted it on nextdoor.com and was selling it due to some maintenance items she just didn't want to spend the $$ on. I bought it 2 days after she posted. It just needed some minor TLC. It has run great all summer and saved me several thousands on what I was going to spend on a zero turn.

Sticks to inclines like a billy goat due to the widened rears. I sold the L120 for $650.
 

bertsmobile1

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If there are a lot of hills you will need to go with one of the mower, or better still garden tractors with a horizontal crank engine.
Garden tractors have a lot stronger transmissions than mowers so they handle hills a lot better, last a lot longer & usually have an external replacable filter.
Horizontal shaft engine can happily get tipped 45 degrees with little damage, do that to 3/4 of the vertical shaft engines and it will be good bye crankshaft.
Really rough ground dictates a fabricated deck or at least a very heavy pressed deck.

SO look for a 3000 series cub cadet but if you get one of them also look for some spindles as Cub discontinued support for these mowers in 2015.
Thus commercial users began dumping them, The 2000 series are also really tough but the decks are not as heavy as you would need thus require regular panel beating.

Then there is the Bolens GTX / Troybilt Duratrac there are thousands of them out there at less than a grand.
Again a downside is that Eatons no longer support them as they got out of mowers all together because they refused to downgrade their product to a price that mower makers would pay.
However because there were so many there is a lot of aftermarket parts and a couple of single model specialist who make parts for them.
Good side is I see them with anything from 5000 hours to 36,000 hours ( when the meter stopped working ) still running like a top .

Then there are the Hondas, Honda got out of tractor style mowers back in 1997 ( for the same reason as Eaton ) yet there are thousands of them still running strong, I have several in my service run & you just can not kill them.

Do not expect to get a pristine mower for the money you are willing to spend and be prepared to either live with a few niggles or do some repairs yourself.
The bonnets on most mowers is simply cosmetic so do not be afraid of buying one without a bonnet and they tend to go cheap.
 

Euclid

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Thanks, weathda and bertsmobile1. That's very helpful.

Here's my list of recommendations so far:

  • John Deere 4xx
  • Cub Cadet 3xxx
  • Cub Cadet 2xxx
  • Bolens GTX/Troybilt Duratec
  • Honda ?

Any other suggestions?
 
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