Opinions on Scag Patriot for 2 acre homeowner

Scag offers 0% financing you know. https://www.scag.com/financing.html

Edit: oops, looks like that deal expired, but maybe there's a new one? A lot of pros, including myself finance with Sheffield Financial.

Darryl G said:

Scag offers 0% financing you know. https://www.scag.com/financing.html

Edit: oops, looks like that deal expired, but maybe there's a new one? A lot of pros, including myself finance with Sheffield Financial.

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Yeah, but I have the money and I'd rather not finance if I don't have to. And yeah, at 0% I could invest the money and have it make me some more money, but I'd rather just have it paid for. It might be because I'm old but it just doesn't seem right to finance a mower that's just used for your own yard. :biggrin:

JPE said:

Yeah, but I have the money and I'd rather not finance if I don't have to. And yeah, at 0% I could invest the money and have it make me some more money, but I'd rather just have it paid for. It might be because I'm old but it just doesn't seem right to finance a mower that's just used for your own yard. :biggrin:

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Well no reason to feel like that.
When powered mowers were new, they were made well and thus had a mark up sufficient to maintain a lot of factories.
Dad bought his first powered mower for our 1/2 acre in 1963 . It was around 59 gunieas ( 59 pound 59 shillings & 59 pence )
We paid it off over 3 years by which time the price had doubled with interest but day earned £ 8 / week which was the minimum basic wage in those days.
The story for the fridge that replaced the ice box was the same .

There is no shame to finance , particularly if it is for a long term piece of equipment.

Oh & my sister still has that mower.
She lives in a 3 floor walk up ( apartments to some ) and the ground keeper uses it to mow the common grounds for her block & the block next door as they ripped down the fence to make a nice sized yard for kids to run around in.

Finance for a piece of trash that ends up in landfill before it is paid off is a crime but if you need to do it for well made equipment, then it is an investment.
It helps the shop to clear stock before they have to go into overdraft to pay for it & it helps the factory so every one benefits.

bertsmobile1, certainly no shame in financing a quality piece of gear that will last decades. It’s just a personal thing with me, I’d rather pay for my equipment outright. Having said that though, my house has a mortgage and 1 of my two cars has payments because I financed it.

It’s not that I don’t think a TigerCat II would be nice and is worth the money for a lot of people. It’s just that I can’t justify the step up from a Patriot to a TC II for a 2 acre lawn. Many people on this forum can justify it, and for them that’s great.

JPE said:

Yeah, but I have the money and I'd rather not finance if I don't have to. And yeah, at 0% I could invest the money and have it make me some more money, but I'd rather just have it paid for. It might be because I'm old but it just doesn't seem right to finance a mower that's just used for your own yard. :biggrin:

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OK, I just thought I'd mention it.

FYI, the next door neighbor to one of my mowing accounts has a Freedom Z Pro, which I believe became the Patriot, and it leaves a very nice cut and he has been very happy with it. I looked it over when he first got it and have watched him mow with it and it seems like a fine machine.

I think you're being unrealistic to think you'll cut 2 acres in a half hour, but it should have no trouble knocking it out "quickly". Those acre per hour productivity numbers given by manufacturers are best case at full speed and are just not realistic in my experience.

Personally I give you credit for wanting to buy an entry level commercial machine from a dealer rather than doing what I feel too many homeowners with large lawns do...buy a residential Z mower from a big box store.

Darryl G said:

OK, I just thought I'd mention it.

FYI, the next door neighbor to one of my mowing accounts has a Freedom Z Pro, which I believe became the Patriot, and it leaves a very nice cut and he has been very happy with it. I looked it over when he first got it and have watched him mow with it and it seems like a fine machine.

I think you're being unrealistic to think you'll cut 2 acres in a half hour, but it should have no trouble knocking it out "quickly". Those acre per hour productivity numbers given by manufacturers are best case at full speed and are just not realistic in my experience.

Personally I give you credit for wanting to buy an entry level commercial machine from a dealer rather than doing what I feel too many homeowners with large lawns do...buy a residential Z mower from a big box store.

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Fair enough, but even if it takes me 45 minutes to an hour to mow the 2 acres (did I mention flat with almost no trees? :smile: ) I still figure that's quick enough to get in a weekly mowing. It's not like I'd be tempted to let the lawn get out of control because "I just don't have the time right now". That's really all I was trying to say.

And I admit I was looking at big box store stuff but a good friend said he went through 2 big box store ZTRs which broke down after a couple of seasons before he bought his Ferris. He advised me to spend a little more once than try to cheap out and spend it many times. Also, another friend has a Scag that he's run with no problems for 10 years. That was enough to convince me to buy quality gear once rather than cheaper stuff many times.

As for residential ZTRs, apart from the JD's & the Time Cutters everything else I have seen is pure trash.
The McCullochs, can' remember the models, vibrated themselves to death in under 3 years,
Frames were all cracked, can't remember how many spindle housing they went through but at least 1 pair a season per mower.
Got 2 RT Husqvarnas , total trash and both of the customers are regretting their purchases.
Luckily both of them kept their tractors or they would need to be accompanied by big game hunters going from the garage to the front gate.

A nice thing about the Patriot is that they have a choice of both powered and non-powered rear baggers for it, should you decide to add one. The powered ones are pricey so it's nice to have the option in case you just want to be able to pick up leaves in the fall or something.

The lifetime of any machine is determined by the availability of replacement parts. Once the manufacturer puts "no longer available" in the description of parts, you're relegated to scrounging for hopefully NOS parts but sometimes used parts will be all that's available. It doesn't matter whether you bought the "commercial" unit or the "homeowner" model, things wear out on both. Sometimes time does as much damage to a machine as use.

Darryl G said:

A nice thing about the Patriot is that they have a choice of both powered and non-powered rear baggers for it, should you decide to add one. The powered ones are pricey so it's nice to have the option in case you just want to be able to pick up leaves in the fall or something.

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Did I mention not a lot of trees? :smile: And not a lot of trees in the neighbors' properties. There's a stand of trees running along a creek but 600ft. away from the edge of my property. Here's a picture of my lot: