OT best riding lawn mower

Hi
I need advice on the best riding lawn mower. I need a very heavy duty mower to cut heavy grass and brush around my farm. I already have a tractor and bushes but need something with a 2-3 ft cut and pretty good traction as we have pretty uneven ground.

Any advice would be appreciated

The very best is a JD. all-wheel-steer like I have. Hey, you asked!

Anyone with knowledge of the Raven 7100S hybrid electric direct drive mower/generator?

Ariens or JD. To add traction for the uneven ground, I added fluid to the drive wheels like farm tractors use and that was a big improvement.

I don't think you will find any "very heavy duty" riding lawn mowers.

Riding lawn mowers are lawn mowers. They are not designed to cut brush.

Dean

There were massive problems with the Ravens...

No first hand experience, but looks like a toy and anything but heavy duty. The original Raven was plagued by problems.

SOMETHING AT LEAST 20 years old !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gravely makes a really good heavy duty zero turn. Solid built deck, not a stamped deck, stay away from anything with a stamped deck they will not hold up. Most of the mowers these days not built to be abused, like was mentioned they are lawn mowers, not brush cutters. DR makes a walk behind that can handle brush.

This is part of a post from lawnsite.com about the deere 7-Iron & stamped decks in general.
I use an Edge HC deck, which is a 9-guage copy of the 7-Iron.

You either have a bias towards the deck type you learned on, or just haven't done your homework. The ONLY reason all manu's do not use a stamped deck for their commercial mowers is because none of them can afford the huge and extremely expensive press and dies to make their decks stamped. If any of the manu's that make the claim that their deck is better because it is "fabbed" could actually make their decks stamped as well, they'd do it in a heartbeat. It is faster to produce, much more consistent in shape, less chance of getting one that is slightly warped from the factory, has nowhere near the number of places for rust to form, or metal to crack from fatigue etc. A square corner is never as strong as a rounded one. The Romans knew that several thousand years ago. Grass does not stick to the underside of a stamped deck nearly as badly nor as quickly as it can and usually does to a fabbed deck. Of course other manu's will say fabbed is better, because what else can they say? "This is s good as we can make it on our budget right now?"

Stamped 7 gauge steel is still 7 gauge steel, and is more than a lot of manu's actually use for the entire deck such as the decks made by Ferris , Exmark etc that are partial 10 ga and partial 7 ga.

Do a search here of most desirable commercial decks for any type of cutting and the stamped JD deck is one of the top two rated decks to have.

Do you know why most HO grade stamped decks of any manu you see at BB stores are rotted out in short order? It is becvause the people that buy them, do so for their own use, more often than not they are not mechanically inclines, are lazy and just want the grass cut, or let their kids do it for them while they are at work. In any of those cases, the decks get abused, and little to no care at all, and usually the blades are duller than dull. You seldom see an HO get down and clean under the deck. If HO grade mowers sold at BB stores had fabbed decks of the same gauge steel, they'd be rotted out in short order too, and for the same reasons. You cannot legitimately claim that a stamped deck is bad because some HO doesn't take care of it, especially since there are NO fabbed decks on HO grade mowers to compare to.

Here is a pic of a plain, ordinary JD garden tractor with a 12 gauge stamped steel deck. It is almost 27 years old now, and still mowing grass. It has mowed an enormous amount of grass in its lifetime, and it has been fairly well taken care of at the same time. It is not rotted out, and cuts and stripes beautifully-

Your combination of a heavy duty rider with a 2 to 3 foot cut really doesn't exist. The narrowest decks on heavy duty riders will start at more like 4 foot and go up. And, until you get into an expensive sub-compact utility style of tractor you aren't going to find anything really heavy duty anyway. Vintage garden tractors are built stout but typically the mower decks on these old machines leave a lot to be desired in heavy grass and weeds and aren't made to handle brush at all. There are good walk-behind mowers that would fit your description (other than the "riding" part, of course!) such as the mentioned DR field and brush mower. Sticking with the walking theme the best of the best would be a Gravely with the 30" rotary mower attachment - those things are built like tanks and can mow down just about anything. Sulkies were also available for the Gravely to convert it to a riding style of machine.

wally,
If you want a brush cutter google pull behind brush mowers. There are many available. They look like a strong deck. You can adjust height. A riding mower is lucky to get more than 3 inches height. Not work on uneven ground.

Remove mower deck from riding mover so you can go over ruff uneven ground. Then install garden tractor tires, bar tires for traction.

I made my own brush cutter to mow 5 inches and used an old craftsman riding mower with tractor tires to pull it.
pull behind brush cutter

Original Cub Cadet

The "Original" really wasn't that good with its cogged belts. I would say the high point of IH cubs came with the Quietline series. Up to that point the goal was to make it better and it showed with each new series. After that the goal was to make it cheaper.

I have to agree with JD. NOT the crap sold at the box stores, the lt series from the JD dealers are a good mower. I use mine to mow trails in the timber, yes that includes mowing over a few saplings. had the last 1 7 years.

For a better ride and traction, I would look for wide, soft, low pressure tires that have a lot of "give". I'm not sure you will find that on a heavy duty mower unless you modify it yourself. Those soft tires might be prone to get flats if you run then over a lot of cutoff brush stumps.

Before you invest a lot of money in a mower you may not use much, can you hire someone else to clear the brush until it is clean enough for a sickle mower or a lawn mower to work?

We bought a new JD zero-turn last summer and the deck does not float on rough ground as well as out Husqvarna tractor mower, but it does mow faster. So my solution is to make the lawn smoother!

One more answer. If you really like your Husqvarna, I have two of them, look in to getting one with a Fabricated deck. Super heavy duty and almost impossible to brake. Costs more but worth it. My big Husqvadrna has a 54 inch deck that is 10ga. And this tractor was an Estate model. Tough and rugged little rig. Those are 25 inch ATV bar tires on the rear. 25 bucks at the flea market.

Scag

Cub Lowboy- landscape version of regular Cub with slightly lower clearance, made with offset seat, drive and center seal and drive train. For newer tractor- brother has the green Yamnars calling themselves John Deeres- 430 with big mowing deck and 950 with a loader that gets occasional brush hog quick mounted- diesel powered. New 'Big' Cub Cadet made by MTD still fairly strong and at $5,000.00 somewhat less than the orange Ks. Could train a 4 hitch of Dorpers to pull a small wagon maybe, have a tractor seat on it like Amish Sulky rig. RN

I have been around a few different brands of mowers, including Cub Cadet, Dixon, Grasshopper, Woods, Allis Chalmers, John Deere, etc, but most were in earlier years. I have my second Deere Lawn and Garden tractor. I had a 318 with a 52 inch cutting deck. I liked that tractor as it was built well. The mower deck was Deere's deepest deck available at the time, as I recall, but it would leave streaks in the lawn, mostly in tall conditions. I was planning to repower that tractor with a new engine until I tried out a 425 with a 54 inch deck. The engine on the 425 is far better than the Onan that was on the 318, and the cutting deck is a huge improvement over the prior tractor. It does not leave streaks and the blades turn a lot faster. It does a very good job cutting grass! I also opted for the All Wheel Steering, which has a tighter turn radius. I think the Grasshopper is a very good machine, too, and I think the underside of the deck, due to its design, is more prone to stay clean from grass buildup under wet conditions, plus it is easier to clean the underside. The only complaint I can offer about the performance of the Grasshopper, is the deck "floats" debris up behind the front mount deck and onto the operator's lap under dry cutting conditions.

I bought a 54" Husqvarna about 3 yrs ago, and didn't like it from the start. Reason:: very noisy,
very rough riding, and couldn't get the deck as high as I wanted it. Had a stamped deck, and after
hitting a small stump (1 1/2")at a slow speed, it tweaked the deck so that I couldn't get it over
2 1/2" off the ground. Sold it.
Bought a Kubota 54" welded deck. Loved it from Day One! Very nice riding. Has the large rear wheels
with wide tires, narrow front tires for easier steering(this is a ZTR mower), Has a cushy seat with
good spring suspension,4 1/2" high setting for the deck, and the mower will spit out grass and leaves
at 15 feet. Haven't used it yet for moist green grass yet, so I don't know how well the deck cleans.

Flying b.---------I agree that the mower that you mention is one of the best. I have one

like you mention----over 900 hrs on it, and it still runs very well. One thing wrong:: the

rear end is squirrely since I've had about 400 trees to go around on a 3-1/2 acre area. So

I bought a new Kubota ZTR mower.

My Dixie Chopper is very comfortable. As for cutting brush, what size brush are you talking about? Lawn mowers are designed to cut grass. A heavy duty commercial duty mower will cut small brush, but its not a bush hog, or brush hog for you guys in the midwest. My Dixie Chopper will cut small brush but I try not to.

KEH

I use my riding mower as a brush cutter. I'm not going to argue that it's the best tool, but it works. It does leave some, but cuts halfway decently. JD STX38.

dixie chopper is the best all around mower, that i've ever been around. that said, i buy new JD ZTR's. why u ask; i buy them new, get a 4yr warrenty and sell them easily at the end of 4yrs.

I like my Dixie Chopper. With the 27HP engine & super flow deck it will cut tall,thick Johnson grass with no problems. I think I'll refrain from attempting to cut brush with it.