What brand & model for new home

[lobshot88]

Read several FAQs, didn't find my answer.

Just moved to rural Virginia. Have 4 acres of grass/weeds and 5 of bushes and trees. Mostly gently sloping, but some steeper sections and some small sections needing a push mower and/or weed whacker. Several trees (mayber 30).

Have been convinced by friends, family, and neighbors to forego the Z turns in favor of a lawn or garden tractor (JD staff want me to get a subcompact, but it's out of my price range). I do see the need to haul wood, mulch, plants, etc. Maybe clear snow from drive and manage the dirt and gravel.

Machines that appear to fit the bill are JD X345, JD X540 and some other JD's. Kubota gr 2120 looks great, but pricey. I am not averse to used with low hours, but feel concerned about buying anything older than 5 years. JD thinks I need 4wd - do I?

Are there other brands or models I should look at?

Have seen many seemingly good used JD x540's listed around the country, but shipping is always a problem. One company quoted me $1,740 to ship from Wisconsin to Virginia.

I need help fast or the yard will match the woods shortly.

Thanks in advance

 

[Rivets]

Seems that you are hooked on JD, but take a solid look at the kubota's. I know that some are a little pricey, but if you look part for part, you will see you are getting a better machine. If you do some looking you should find some go used K's in your price range.

 

[lobshot88]

Thanks for your reply "rivets". Must say I am shocked by the lack of response to my request for help on this matter in this forum.

Was it something I said?

 

[Rivets]

Two things could have caused that. The way you worded your post, it sounded like you sound like you just wanted someone to agree with you and not really looking at all the different unit available. Second many of the mechanic and dealers on this forum are very brand loyal. There have been many disagreements as to which units are the best and some of the posters are just wrench monkeys who have solved one tough problem and now think they know everything, but don't realize that brands are all different in some way. It's not worth our time to post, when someone (with little broad experience on different units) says to go with a low end unit, and the poster agrees. The better ones are brand loyal to a point, but will in the end agree that it many times two or three brand will serve the poster just fine. It is tough, because we do not have time to talk to the customer, to find out all the different things that go into the selection of a unit. Things as; who will use the unit, age and physical condition of the user, size of lawn, trees and bushes, hills, where poster is locales, past experience, etc. All these plus more are things that the owners like about and we try to sell to. Finally, if I can sell you a unit I get paid, here I will (75% of the time) just be blown off, the good posters here are part of the (PASS IT ON CLUB), we enjoy what we do and want to make sure that others get the help they need at our $$$$$.
Hope this helps you understand why you didn't get much info.

 

[txzrider]

Rivets, that was a really well spoken post about the dynamics of the way forums work especially with the technical ones, where their are so many that have so much hard earned experience to share. some people don't like Snapper Zriders with the joystick... yet I had 15 years with one that I loved. I was a little surprised when a ventrac owner did not pop up and explain the many benefits of a machine that can do anything and evolve to be anything (transformer of mowers) if you can afford it!! One of the best pieces of advice that I see repeated over and over again and frankly cannot be said enough is... "Go visit several dealers". I looked at several, many I had considered way out of my price range when I bought my snapper years ago... finally found the 1 mower that had a unique feature that really resonated with me and what I had experienced previously with my snapper... I wanted and easy to service deck! Of course without those years of mowing with the snapper... I would not have known what to look for...