Help Choosing Mower for Residential 11 acres

jmunick1

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Hello Everyone, this is my first post. I'm looking forward to hearing what all of you experts have to say!

My wife and I are buying a property with 27 acres. Today, 11 acres are cleared and need to be mowed. I've been looking around, however I haven't found a salesman who has been able to answer all of my questions to my satisfaction.

However, at this point I believe I have narrowed down my choices to a Scagg Tiger Cat 2 or Turf Tiger 2. I'm considering a 61" deck on either because I want to easily be able to get up close around certain areas, such as my fence, well, tighter areas, etc.

Here are some criteria I'm looking at. Anything else you think I should consider I would appreciate the feedback. In no particular order, however comfort is important.
1) Comfort. I'm going to be cutting 11 acres every 1-2 weeks from March to November. I have some back problems, so I don't want to be "beat up" every time I cut the grass.
2) Easily Adjustable for the Driver. My wife, my son, and I will all be using this mower. We are all very different sizes, heights, weights, etc. The TT2 seems to have an edge here from what I've seen, however, would love to hear everyone's opinions.
3) Longevity. I'm 41, and I would prefer to never have to buy another mower. On the Scaggs, I'm looking at the Kowasaki DFI liquid cooled engines.
4) Speed. I would prefer to not spend my entire weekend cutting the grass. Also, not having to stop and fill up on gas a lot would be ideal.
5) Cut. I'm considering the hurricane plus mulching system instead of the velocity plus to take advantage of what mulching brings. It is important to me the grass is healthy, however, I don't need 11 manicured acres. Let me know if I'm crazy.
6) Effectiveness on a slight hill. While the majority of my lot is flat or small rolling hills, my front yard does have a slope. It isn't steep, but I would definitely be cutting on an angle if I went across the yard instead of up and down. If going up and down, stopping control would be a concern.

Please let me know what you think. I really have zero experience here. I'm going from less than 1 acre to this lot so this is very new to me. Also, I'd love to hear opinions on other mowers I should be considering.

Thanks so much for your help!
 

DK35vince

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11 acres is a big lawn.
Personally I would want 35 HP and 72" deck. (that's what I have for an 8 acres lawn and wouldn't what any less)
I would skip the mulching, but that's just my opinion.
 

MowLife

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Look into 72 in. toro groundmaster’s. They will run all day long with minimal wear. I wouldn’t go with a zero turn with that much acreage....I think you will just wear it out.
 

bertsmobile1

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1) get a mower with an air suspension seat or have one fitted.
2) Not going to happen with a ZTR, the lap bars do not adjust easily or quickly
3) Also not going to happen, all hydros have a very limited service life, ones with removable oil filters & easy access fillers will last longer but the designs are cheap & nasty
4) fastest method is to throw and the further the better so it does not make windrows, mulching is slow
5) mulching is slow throwing using Gator type blades will do almost the same thing as the uniform sheet of grass clippings vanish in a day or two.
In the height of the season you will need to mow every 2 days if you want to mulch
6) Mowers with an out front deck give a lot more control on slopes than a belly mounted deck.

As you will be spending a goodly amount of cash , leave the purchase for a season.
Get the local mowing companies to do the big mowing once or twice each, note what they use, how long it takes & what it looks like.
Bring your old mower with you to do the front lawn with.
 

SeniorCitizen

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O P QUOTE: 3) Longevity. I'm 41, and I would prefer to never have to buy another mower. On the Scaggs, I'm looking at the Kowasaki DFI liquid cooled engines.
4) Speed. I would prefer to not spend my entire weekend cutting the grass. Also, not having to stop and fill up on gas a lot would be ideal.
5) Cut. I'm considering the hurricane plus mulching system instead of the velocity plus to take advantage of what mulching brings. It is important to me the grass is healthy, however, I don't need 11 manicured acres. Let me know if I'm crazy.
********************************************************************
No, you are not crazy because I've seen this many many times with new property ownership. I commend people with big goals but those goals all too often seem to quickly fade more than persist over a 10-20 year period. I've seen folks change their mind about mowing that much acreage in as little as 1-2 years.

So, this is my recommendation. Purchase a garden ( not lawn tractor ) with a 48" or 52" deck suitable for pulling 2 tow behind mowers of 44 or 48 inch width. This could be a 148" cutting swath. Don't hang up on me just yet.:laughing:

Now after a year of this mowing or possibly 2-3 years, you are sick of mowing and you've determined a better way to spend your time with those acres, your tow behinds will still be worth a considerable amount of the purchase price so sell those and consider it a lesson well learned although possibly seeming a expensive lesson.

I wish you and your family well.
 

bertsmobile1

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And the alternative I meant to add yesterday,
A quad bike or ATV with a tow behind or up front mower.
In that line, flail mowers are the fastest , give the best cut and distribute the clippings best because they are a variation of the reel mower so the clippings don't get bunched up like a rotary will.
That is why better golf courses use massive wide reel mowers to cut the fairways.

Wise words also from Senior citizen.
My workshop is on the rural fringe of Sydney .
Lots of old farms 10 to 1000 acres bought by executives who are going to do wonders with them till the first time we get 3 or 4 rainy weekends in a row & the greenery gets to 6' + tall
Most end up with 1 or 2 acres fenced in then some livestock on the rest or one of the refugee groups hand farming the balance.

However if you are sure you know what you are going to do then I should have mentioned a used golf course fairway mower.
Keeping the reels sharp is a regular maintenance chore, but a 10' wide mower will knock over your 11 acres in reasonable time.
Not many finish mowers will do better than 2 to 3 acres/hr and the ones that can do 4+ acres an hour are rough cut mowers and don't do a nice cut.

All of the cutting speeds publishes are theory, not reality and done by multiplying the width of the deck in feet by the top speed in feet /minute thus giving you the area the deck can cover,
In reality you only cut 3/4 of the deck width because firstly big decks all cut narrower , particularly at speed and you need to overlap unless your 11 acres are only 72" wide.

I still feel you would be best served by getting all of the locals to do your acreage for a month & time them.
They are professionals so you can double the time they take for you doing the same job at the same quality.
After all you are about to commit something around $ 20,000 and that is a lot of money for a white elephant.
 

ILENGINE

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If it is within the budget I wouldn't overlook the compact and sub-compact tractors with either a belly mower or rear mower. If you have a lot of stuff to mower around this may not be the right choice, but if you are going to spend hours mowing and you will spend hours diesel is about the only option without replacing the mower every few years.
 

jmunick1

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Thanks so much for the information so far everyone! It is greatly appreciated.
 
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