Drives for pulling lawn accessories

Gabbyp

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I have a Hustler Sport 42 with the EZT drive and for the last 3 seasons I have pulled my Cyclone Rake leaf vacuum with no problems. I now have a 40" plug aerator and de thatcher and want to upgrade my machine. I have found very little information on pulling. My local SCAG dealer told me that the Freedom Z with ZT 2800 would not work. I then looked at ZTR's with ZT 3100 drives as they are commercial and HD. Every Mfgr has machines in the $5K and plus range with these drives. By chance I was on the Gravely site looking at their ZT HD machine and saw their ZT XL spec sheet. It uses the ZT 2800 drives and on their accessories page they list a 48" plug aerator to use. Now I am perplexed as to what machine to up grade to. Any thoughts or experience on this would be appreciated.
 

1striper1

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Larry at Excel (Hustler) advised me not to pull more than 500 lbs with my XOne. It has separate Parker pump(s?) and motors.

Maybe this will help?
 

bertsmobile1

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The pulling is not the problem.
It is the stability of the mower, the center of gravity in relation to the position of the tow hitch, the effctive ground force of the tyres and what type of brakes the mower has.

Some ZTRs are very light on the front wheels and can flip when trying to pull an impliment that has a large drag load.
Torro's & Deer's fit counter weights to the front of the mower for towing to counteract the flipping forces.
To reduce lawn damage a lot of ZTR;s have very low effective ground force on the wheels so can become uncontrollable like pulling a 4 ton trailer behind a compact car.
Sales people are in general not particularly technically savvy , even the "good" ones are usually people persons rather than technical persons.
So the simple thing that most customes will accapt with out much thought is "the tranny can't cope"
 

Shughes717

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The pulling is not the problem.
It is the stability of the mower, the center of gravity in relation to the position of the tow hitch, the effctive ground force of the tyres and what type of brakes the mower has.

Some ZTRs are very light on the front wheels and can flip when trying to pull an impliment that has a large drag load.
Torro's & Deer's fit counter weights to the front of the mower for towing to counteract the flipping forces.
To reduce lawn damage a lot of ZTR;s have very low effective ground force on the wheels so can become uncontrollable like pulling a 4 ton trailer behind a compact car.
Sales people are in general not particularly technically savvy , even the "good" ones are usually people persons rather than technical persons.
So the simple thing that most customes will accapt with out much thought is "the tranny can't cope"

Ezt transmissions won't last long if they are used for towing. Hydrogear's web site has the info needed to calculate how much each pump can tow. Such as torque ratings for each model. Take the total available torque, subtract the weight of the machine and the individual riding it and you should know how much extra weight the pumps are rated to pull.
 

Carscw

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The myth that EZT drives do not last long and last even shorter if you pull things. Is just that a myth.
99% of the people that say they won't last. Have never used them.
I just did a conversion kit on my toro that has the EZT drives. First time they have been opened. It is a 2006 with well over 2000 hard up and down thru the woods use. The oil looked like it was just put in. Nice and brown.

My other one is a 2007 timecutters with no deck. We use it to move non running vehicles around.
Never a problem with the drives.
 

Carscw

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The problem is people just repeat what they read or hear. If you never have used a mower for what someone else wants to use it for. Then how can you say it won't or can not do it?

I was told a cub cadet riding mower would not last a 6 months. Cutting cutting 50 one acre yards a week.
Well it lasted the year with over 700 hours on it.
And still ran and cut like new.
 

Shughes717

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The problem is people just repeat what they read or hear. If you never have used a mower for what someone else wants to use it for. Then how can you say it won't or can not do it?

I was told a cub cadet riding mower would not last a 6 months. Cutting cutting 50 one acre yards a week.
Well it lasted the year with over 700 hours on it.
And still ran and cut like new.

Glad you have had luck with yours. Ezt transmissions aren't rated to pull such loads. Btw, I have never had good luck with them but I have used them.
 

Gabbyp

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Thanks for the inputs especially Shughes. I went to Hydro Gears site and looked up their specs. They rate each unit in max torque which is in Ft-lbs. but also lists the gross vehicle weight (GVW) for each unit used.

The EZT unit torque is 215 ft-lbs for a GVW of 900 lbs. My Hustler Sport is 500 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 200 lbs left to pull.
ZT 2800 unit torque is 300 ft-lbs and GVW is 1000 lbs. SCAG Freedom Z is 745 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 55 lbs let to pull.
ZT 3100 unit torque is 350 ft-lbs and GVW is 1200 lbs. Snapper Pro S50xt is 724 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 276 lbs left to pull.

I hope my examples and understanding is correct. I was surprised at the SCAG Freedom Z. Maybe that is why the SCAG dealer did not recommend any pulling. I have not calculated other mowers but I suspect that are similar.

By the way in my area, the Snapper Pro S50xt appears to meet my requirements ( 48" deck, Kawasaki engine, ZT3100 trans) and it was the least expensive of most of the mowers I looked at. Thanks Shughes.
 

Shughes717

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Thanks for the inputs especially Shughes. I went to Hydro Gears site and looked up their specs. They rate each unit in max torque which is in Ft-lbs. but also lists the gross vehicle weight (GVW) for each unit used.

The EZT unit torque is 215 ft-lbs for a GVW of 900 lbs. My Hustler Sport is 500 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 200 lbs left to pull.
ZT 2800 unit torque is 300 ft-lbs and GVW is 1000 lbs. SCAG Freedom Z is 745 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 55 lbs let to pull.
ZT 3100 unit torque is 350 ft-lbs and GVW is 1200 lbs. Snapper Pro S50xt is 724 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 276 lbs left to pull.

I hope my examples and understanding is correct. I was surprised at the SCAG Freedom Z. Maybe that is why the SCAG dealer did not recommend any pulling. I have not calculated other mowers but I suspect that are similar.

By the way in my area, the Snapper Pro S50xt appears to meet my requirements ( 48" deck, Kawasaki engine, ZT3100 trans) and it was the least expensive of most of the mowers I looked at. Thanks Shughes.

You are very welcome. I really like my snapper pro. Very well built mowers.
 

macadameane

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Thanks for the inputs especially Shughes. I went to Hydro Gears site and looked up their specs. They rate each unit in max torque which is in Ft-lbs. but also lists the gross vehicle weight (GVW) for each unit used.

The EZT unit torque is 215 ft-lbs for a GVW of 900 lbs. My Hustler Sport is 500 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 200 lbs left to pull.
ZT 2800 unit torque is 300 ft-lbs and GVW is 1000 lbs. SCAG Freedom Z is 745 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 55 lbs let to pull.
ZT 3100 unit torque is 350 ft-lbs and GVW is 1200 lbs. Snapper Pro S50xt is 724 lbs + driver 200 lbs = 276 lbs left to pull.

I hope my examples and understanding is correct. I was surprised at the SCAG Freedom Z. Maybe that is why the SCAG dealer did not recommend any pulling. I have not calculated other mowers but I suspect that are similar.

By the way in my area, the Snapper Pro S50xt appears to meet my requirements ( 48" deck, Kawasaki engine, ZT3100 trans) and it was the least expensive of most of the mowers I looked at. Thanks Shughes.
Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but information about this topic is hard to come by. I have verified the GVW of the ZT 2800, as I just bought a Cub Cadet ZT2 for mowing and some hauling. The above numbers seem to only account for a single transmission. Is this correct. Zero turns generally have a pair of transmissions, correct?

The ZT2 60" is 640 lbs + ~200lbs for a driver. This would leave about 160 lbs for a 1000 lbs GVW. Are these specs on the transmission assuming the pair, or each trans individually?
 
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