Hi everyone..I had a quite embarassing story with my lawn mowers, and ended up killing one, and the other is now in the shop. I need to buy a new commercial mower. I'm looking for a 48" commercial walk behind. I will have my hands on approx. $4600. I am not sure what to get, hydro? gear? belt? All too confusing right now. I want to get a mower that I can get serviced near by, as the last one I bought, I have to drive 400 miles to get it serviced easily. I need to get the mower by the end of the week as I have 12 lawns I need to do this weekend. Should I buy a brand new one in the area? or should I buy a used one in the classifieds? I absolutely need a mower, and have some money to get it. What do you think I should do? What are your recomendations on equipment names? THANSK A LOT!

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Perfect Lawn Services

My local dealers carry Cub Cadet, Toro, Exmark, Scag. I've been looking at the Cub Cadet ZTRs from Tractor Supply Co. It is 3599 and is a 44" 20HP Koehler Hydro ZTR with a 2 year (homeowner) 1 year (commercial) warranty. It looks pretty nice, and I'll be testing one out this afternoon. Thanks for your input.

I agree with Perfect Lawn. You need to find one that your dealers can work on so you can save the drive time. Some dealers will work on brands they do not service. Talk to them about this. If that is the case I would look in the classifieds to find one. I have always been partial to buying used equip and a big fan of toro up until 2001. This is when they changed things up a little and there equip is not as good, IMO. Belt driven is what I have always used because of the ease of repair. Exmark makes a good unit. I do not use the pistol grip control as this slows productivity and is more fatigue. Scag's deck is extremely thick, but i don't think u will need something that heavy duty to do residential yards once a week. If you can stick with the Kawasaki engines. More reliable.

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OK, I went on my first instinct for buying a mower. I bought a Cub Cadet ZTR with a 23 HP Kohler engine and a 50" cutting deck. I also bought the four year warranty. The total for the warranty and mower was 4640. I mowed my lawn today, at a total of 10" thick grass....and it cut with NO problem whatsoever. It even handled the wet areas with ease. The four year warranty covers EVERYTHING (used residential..like me...;-)...)and if it needs more than three repairs over the four years...I get a BRAND NEW one free. Another great thing, is that the repair shops out here, are all within 10 miles of my home, so excellent area. I also got my walk behind mower fixed...which makes me extremey happy. I now have my 50" ZTR and a 32" Walk Behind for fenced back yards. Thanks everyone for your input!!!

Nick Herweck

I bought a 21" Lawn Boy Commercial self propelled used. I only have around 17 customers, and pursuing more. It cuts very nice, but it takes a long time to mow all them once a week. It's nice not to have the overhead of 3+ grand, especially since i don't have that many customers. But I want to get something larger. All my customers have small lawns with steep hills around our lakes area. So i really need a walkbehind. What do you have for your 32"? I was looking at a 36" toro, but new is 3600!!! So yeah, looking for used. I also just bought a trailer (small 6-8, but does the job for what i'm using).

Hey, I purchased a Bradley Commercial Walk Behind. It is a 10.5 horse 32" belt driven. The site you can buy it on is www.MowTownUSA.com . I think they are about 1500 or 1600. I honestly really like them. I'd recomend getting it set up before you receive it, to make sure everything is set up and install correctly, as you have to assemble it a bit when it comes. I'd also recomend the Better Quick 36 by BetterOutdoorProducts.com . They look to be really nice machines, and come with a lot of extras. Best of luck to you.

Nick

I'm looking for a 48" since i'm getting over booked and don't want to turn away customers. But i don't want to over buy a mower that i'll not get a return on with less than 20 customers.