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I was all set on getting a Scag Tiger Cat with 61" deck, but recently came across the Snapper Pro S200. Anybody have some comparison insight between the two?

Sonders said:

I was all set on getting a Scag Tiger Cat with 61" deck, but recently came across the Snapper Pro S200. Anybody have some comparison insight between the two?

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The snapper pro s200xt is the top of snapper pro's line. You can get a big block vanguard, and zt5400 hydros for the cost of a tiger cat with a lesser drive train (approximately $8500). You can also get the s200xt with the fx series Kawasaki, or kohler Efi. The icd deck is a very good cutting deck as well. The s200xt is similar to a ferris is3200 without the suspension. My father has one, and it is a very good machine. I have a s150xt as well, and am very happy with it. No other brand offers a drive train like that for that price range. You can't beat the value.

The s200x will not have the same options as the s200xt. You won't get the flat free front tires. You will only get one 5 gallon fuel tank, instead of two five gallon tanks offered on the s200xt. The s200x also comes with the 27hp commercial turf, instead of the big block options offered with the S200xt. The price range should be around $7k for a new s200x though. It has the same zt5400 hydros and the same icd deck.

The Snapper I'm looking at is a 13' model with 70 hrs. Waiting to hear back from seller to see what engine it has on it.

How is the cut with them? They stripe fairly well? All the Scags I've been on stripe awesome.

Sonders said:

The Snapper I'm looking at is a 13' model with 70 hrs. Waiting to hear back from seller to see what engine it has on it.

How is the cut with them? They stripe fairly well? All the Scags I've been on stripe awesome.

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The icd deck comes standard with a striping kit. It is a rubber flap on the back of the deck. I have A bermuda lawn. It is difficult to stripe, but I cut it at 3.5 inches and you can see some striping. From what I have seen from other members on this site, you can make any mower stripe a lawn if you know what you are doing. There are a lot of variables. Such as cut height, type of striping kit on the mower, blade type, etc. The cut quality is very good. The velocity deck does cut a little better in wet grass imo, but I am very happy with the cut my mower leaves. A lot of lawn care professionals in my area use snapper pro mowers.

Sonders said:

I was all set on getting a Scag Tiger Cat with 61" deck, but recently came across the Snapper Pro S200. Anybody have some comparison insight between the two?

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I'd stay with your first choice and go with the Scag, first choice is always the best choice besides it's a lot better mower. It has better drives than the Snapper 5400 It has the dual 10cc pumps and large capacity wheel motors and there a lot more responsive than the Hydro gear stuff and you can get the Tiger cat with the Kawasaki FX engine and velocity deck which are better than the snapper has IMO. Besides that unless your mowing for a living you don't need 5400 drives for anything. The only thing the 5400 drives will do for you is get you a faster transport speed, it's not going to cut any faster. Transport speeds come in handy when your a mile or two from the truck and trailer mowing and you need to get back quicker, that's why the pro's use them. The other nice thing about the Scag is your resale will be better down the road if you should decide to sell it sometime.

Good points Ric. Have a buddy wanting to sell me a Turf Tiger as well. It has more hours on it than I'd like, but it's currently at dealer being gone completely through so I'm confident it will be a great mower for me.

Sonders said:

Good points Ric. Have a buddy wanting to sell me a Turf Tiger as well. It has more hours on it than I'd like, but it's currently at dealer being gone completely through so I'm confident it will be a great mower for me.

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What engine is it running and what year is the mower and I assume he is the original owner. If you know how it has been taken care of and you know how he used the mower and it sounds like you do I wouldn't worry about hours. You as a homeowner I assume, wont put that many hours a year on a mower. I'd find out what he used for oil and stay with it though and change the oil and filter on a regular schedule and it will last you years. I've been checking the Scags out down at my dealers and they make a real nice mower. The tiger Cat and Cheetah are nice and not bad priced.

It has Kawasaki 29 dfi engine, 11' model. I'm currently looking for whichever I can find best deal on either Turf Tiger or Tiger Cat.

Sonders said:

It has Kawasaki 29 dfi engine, 11' model. I'm currently looking for whichever I can find best deal on either Turf Tiger or Tiger Cat.

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Is that the water cooled engine ?

Sonders said:

The Snapper I'm looking at is a 13' model with 70 hrs. Waiting to hear back from seller to see what engine it has on it. How is the cut with them? They stripe fairly well? All the Scags I've been on stripe awesome.

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I'm assuming you live in Kentucky since I saw the exact same mower on Craigslist. It does look like a very clean mower. I live in Louisville and the main reason I went with a scag was because of dealer support. It also seems as though all the pro's in Louisville use scag.

whelch1 said:

I'm assuming you live in Kentucky since I saw the exact same mower on Craigslist. It does look like a very clean mower. I live in Louisville and the main reason I went with a scag was because of dealer support. It also seems as though all the pro's in Louisville use scag.

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They use the Scag's here also, them Toro, Exmark and Hustler all have good dealer support.

Ric said:

I'd stay with your first choice and go with the Scag, first choice is always the best choice besides it's a lot better mower. It has better drives than the Snapper 5400 It has the dual 10cc pumps and large capacity wheel motors and there a lot more responsive than the Hydro gear stuff and you can get the Tiger cat with the Kawasaki FX engine and velocity deck which are better than the snapper has IMO. Besides that unless your mowing for a living you don't need 5400 drives for anything. The only thing the 5400 drives will do for you is get you a faster transport speed, it's not going to cut any faster. Transport speeds come in handy when your a mile or two from the truck and trailer mowing and you need to get back quicker, that's why the pro's use them. The other nice thing about the Scag is your resale will be better down the road if you should decide to sell it sometime.

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You would have no idea which is the better mower because you have never used a snapper pro mower. Your opinion is biased and based solely on your hate for snapper pro's parent company Briggs & Stratton, and not on any actual experience with the machine.

Sonders said:

The Snapper I'm looking at is a 13' model with 70 hrs. Waiting to hear back from seller to see what engine it has on it.

How is the cut with them? They stripe fairly well? All the Scags I've been on stripe awesome.

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By looking at the pictures of the snapper pro mower on Craig's list, it appears as though it has a fx series Kawasaki engine. Most likely the fx801v. It has the twin fuel tanks and flat free front tires. It's not a 2013 model though. It looks like a 2012. The 2013 models and newer have a knob on the floor panel so it can be removed to get easy access to the top of the deck.

Haha, you guys are right, it's the one in Etown. Really clean looking mower. I was looking at the 125xt before settling on my Hustler that I just sold. I ran it around the local dealers back lot for a little bit. It didn't seem bad. Figured the 200 would be even better.
Looking at two different Turf Tigers right now. The one previously mentioned with 29 dfi Kawasaki and one with Vanguard 35 hp. Person with Snapper never responded.

I'm actually in Southern, IN and do not have dealer for either brand very close; close to an hr away. What I do like about Scag is I can order parts online pretty easy for them. There is a good mix of Scag and Hustler between the Pro's around here; also starting to see more Kubota's around.

A bunch of guys I work with live in southern Indiana. They all seem to be hustler and big dog fans. I do believe there is a scag dealer in Salem but I'm not sure if that is anywhere close to you.

Sonders said:

Haha, you guys are right, it's the one in Etown. Really clean looking mower. I was looking at the 125xt before settling on my Hustler that I just sold. I ran it around the local dealers back lot for a little bit. It didn't seem bad. Figured the 200 would be even better.
Looking at two different Turf Tigers right now. The one previously mentioned with 29 dfi Kawasaki and one with Vanguard 35 hp. Person with Snapper never responded.

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Do you know what deck the Turf Tiger has? Is it the Velocity Plus? The new machines have the VP and that thing is a real heavy well built deck.

Sonders said:

Haha, you guys are right, it's the one in Etown. Really clean looking mower. I was looking at the 125xt before settling on my Hustler that I just sold. I ran it around the local dealers back lot for a little bit. It didn't seem bad. Figured the 200 would be even better.
Looking at two different Turf Tigers right now. The one previously mentioned with 29 dfi Kawasaki and one with Vanguard 35 hp. Person with Snapper never responded.

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Sonders if you have a Scag dealer close I'd check that new Cheetah out. It runs between 9 and 10k but what a mower. It has the nice suspension platform, it's not as nice as the toro but it's sweet and would have a really nice ride.

Yeah. Salem Rental and Bluegrass over in Louisville are closest Scag dealers to me. Both Turf Tigers are 11' models with Velocity Plus deck. I have looked at the Cheetah as well, but haven't came across any descent used ones. I'm open to any commercial Scag mower; just been mentioning the ones I've actually found so far. Kind of tossing around the idea of settling for 52" deck if I have to. I've seen a few low hr machines in 52" just hated to drop down in size.

Ric said:

Sonders if you have a Scag dealer close I'd check that new Cheetah out. It runs between 9 and 10k but what a mower. It has the nice suspension platform, it's not as nice as the toro but it's sweet and would have a really nice ride.

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You do realize the cheetah and the s200xt run the exact same zt5400 hydros you claimed wasn't as good as the tiger cat don't you? Funny how it's all of a sudden a great machine with those hydros.

Nice catch haha.

Sonders said:

Nice catch haha.

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Ric knows a lot about mowers. He is just blindly biased and hates Briggs so much that he refuses to try or even believe that any brand affiliated with them is a good machine.

I'd still be interested in that Snapper since it's not that far from me, but I'm assuming it's sold and they just forgot to delete the post since they won't respond.

Sonders said:

Yeah. Salem Rental and Bluegrass over in Louisville are closest Scag dealers to me. Both Turf Tigers are 11' models with Velocity Plus deck. I have looked at the Cheetah as well, but haven't came across any descent used ones. I'm open to any commercial Scag mower; just been mentioning the ones I've actually found so far. Kind of tossing around the idea of settling for 52" deck if I have to. I've seen a few low hr machines in 52" just hated to drop down in size.

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If the Turf Tiger is all the machine any homeowner would ever need. The Cheetah I thought is kinda cool with the suspension seat but like I said the Toro is what I'd by if I was serious about the platform cause it's a better set up than the Scag. If those Turf Tigers have the velocity Plus decks there definitely a better built deck than whats on the Snappers, there a tri plate with 7 ga skirts and that's hard to beat. Just curious but have you considered or looked at the Toro Z Master series, the 3,5 and 6000 are real nice mowers.

Ric I have not considered Toro. I've never even seen a Toro in person. I'll have to do a dealer search; none of the dealers I've been to carry them.

Sonders said:

Ric I have not considered Toro. I've never even seen a Toro in person. I'll have to do a dealer search; none of the dealers I've been to carry them.

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If you don't have a Toro dealer close that you can get support for the mower I wouldn't worry about it. I guess I'm pretty lucky because I have a dealer 3 miles down the road that sells Toro, Hustler, Scag and Cub Cadet so I can get support for any of the four. I'd stay with Scag and your local Scag dealer and have their support.

Really want Tiger Cat with Kawi engine, but can't find a nice used one; guess that should tell me something.

Sonders said:

Really want Tiger Cat with Kawi engine, but can't find a nice used one; guess that should tell me something.

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Yeah it's saying the people who have them aren't giving them up and the problem is when you do find one they want an arm and leg for it and at that point you may want to consider a new Tiger Cat.

I'll keep looking. May have to borrow a mower for a few weeks until I find one.

Sonders said:

I'd still be interested in that Snapper since it's not that far from me, but I'm assuming it's sold and they just forgot to delete the post since they won't respond.

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If it hasn't sold that isn't a bad price for a low hour s200xt, but it's not a 2013 model. The owner may have purchased it in 2013 but it's a 2012 model or older. My dad was looking to trade his last season for a ferris (he wanted the suspension) and the dealer offered him $5k for his. He had 150 hours on it and thought their offer was low. He decided to keep his and put a suspension seat on it.

I would have offered them $5500 for it. Oh well. Guess I'll be sticking to Scag

Sonders said:

I would have offered them $5500 for it. Oh well. Guess I'll be sticking to Scag

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Nothing wrong with staying with what you know. It appears that you have experience with scag and their cut quality.

Sonders said:

Yeah. Salem Rental and Bluegrass over in Louisville are closest Scag dealers to me. Both Turf Tigers are 11' models with Velocity Plus deck. I have looked at the Cheetah as well, but haven't came across any descent used ones. I'm open to any commercial Scag mower; just been mentioning the ones I've actually found so far. Kind of tossing around the idea of settling for 52" deck if I have to. I've seen a few low hr machines in 52" just hated to drop down in size.

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Bluegrass is where I purchased mine from. I'm actually closer to Louisville tractor but I got a better deal at bluegrass. It did seem to me that Louisville tractor had more used units, if you haven't checked with them yet it may be worth your time.

Louisville Tractor had slightly better price on new ones. I actually work a mile or so from them apparently, so going to run over there on my lunch break today and look around.

Went to Louisville Tractor on lunch break and of course they didn't have any used machines in. Bad idea, because all that did was make me drool over the new ones sitting in the showroom.
In other news the person with the Snapper finally responded back. They do still have it and it has a Kawasaki FX730 on it. I may go check it out this weekend.

Sonders said:

Went to Louisville Tractor on lunch break and of course they didn't have any used machines in. Bad idea, because all that did was make me drool over the new ones sitting in the showroom.
In other news the person with the Snapper finally responded back. They do still have it and it has a Kawasaki FX730 on it. I may go check it out this weekend.

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While you were drooling at lunch did you happen to check the price on any of the Scag mowers by chance? Just looking for a comparison of the prices from there to here. Thought it mite be interesting.

The Tiger Cat with 61" deck and Kaw engine is on mid season special for $8279 and 0% for 48 mo

Sonders said:

The Tiger Cat with 61" deck and Kaw engine is on mid season special for $8279 and 0% for 48 mo

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Last Monday when I picked up my mower they were unpacking a Tiger Cat, I'll check the next time I go down and write some prices down for comparison.

You have to watch their 0% financing. They charge a few hundred dollar fee there. That's how bluegrass ended up being cheaper for me. They came off the price about $400 and didn't charge that extra fee. But with that being said, that does seem to be a pretty good price for that mower.

Yeah, cash price is $7900