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lawn tractor suggestions

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  • May 31st, 2011 9:56 pm
Jr. Member
Dec 14, 2008
146 posts
25 upvotes

lawn tractor suggestions

Hey everyone,
I have 1/2 acre and i'm getting really tired of mowing it every 2 weeks hehe... so I was looking for a basic ride on lawnmower, and I didnt want to realy spend more than $1,200... however all the mowers under that price seem to be you get what you pay for and they seem to have a lot of issues... (correct me if i'm wrong)
i saw the john deere d110 for 1,699... is this worth it? or do you guys know if there's a better deal out there... i'd really like to spend as little as possible since it's a flat surface and just a few trees

Thanks!
6 replies
Sr. Member
May 17, 2006
605 posts
191 upvotes
indep wrote: Hey everyone,
I have 1/2 acre and i'm getting really tired of mowing it every 2 weeks hehe... so I was looking for a basic ride on lawnmower, and I didnt want to realy spend more than $1,200... however all the mowers under that price seem to be you get what you pay for and they seem to have a lot of issues... (correct me if i'm wrong)
i saw the john deere d110 for 1,699... is this worth it? or do you guys know if there's a better deal out there... i'd really like to spend as little as possible since it's a flat surface and just a few trees

Thanks!

I was in the same boat as you last year. I researched the hell out of it. I was offered a JD LA120 for $1,200, but didn't bite as I was weary of the big box versions of any of the tractors. Read all the reviews on all the sites, went to all the forums (mytractorforum.com is a great start). Really liked this one: http://www.snappernxt.com/, but can't get it in Canada yet.

I would've bought higher end from sears, as I've had nothing but good service from them. In the end, I opted for quality over price, and went with a Kubota 2080 that can serve me for years with lots of attachment options. Wanted the higher quality frame and axle, and the supposed better quality Kohler engine.

You'll drive yourself crazy with specs. If it's light duty mowing only, you can't go wrong with most of the big box stuff, as long as you stay away from the really low end from Walmart, CT, etc. The JD d110 looks decent enough, with a Briggs engine. Again, for mowing lawns, don't think you can go wrong with it.
Jr. Member
Dec 14, 2008
146 posts
25 upvotes
wow the next looks pretty sweet hehe...
you said you got a john deere for $1,200? may I ask how
Deal Addict
Dec 31, 2009
1568 posts
154 upvotes
Brrr wrote: You'll drive yourself crazy with specs.
Tell me about it. I bought a house in 08 with about an acre and a quarter and in the first year I spent more time researching riders than actually cutting the lawn.

As red-necky as it sounds, we have an annual get-together/street party for the sub-division I'm in and among the men the topic of riding lawn mowers always comes up. The general concensus? They're all pretty much the same, it's the service that's the most important thing to consider. Keep in mind nobody really does anything heavy duty with our riders (and we all have one) other than the occasional cart pulling a yard or two of soil, or sticking on a bagger, or an aerator, or a dethatcher, or a roller. A few guys have snowplow attachments for winter, and one guy has the snowblower attachment (that I know of.)

I ended up going with Sears. A 20HP with 46" cut. I went and looked at it, then went home and bought it online during an airmilesshops 10x event. It was the previous years model so it was on sale from $1999 to $1299. I went to the store the next day and there was my name stuck to the very tractor I was actually sitting on, now located in the "sold" row. They delivered it a couple days later. I got the bagger directly from Sears during an online half-price sale about a week later.

But you know what? 20HP is more than I need. My next-door neighbour has a lot size that is just a little smaller than mine and he's been using some cheap MTD 12.5HP 36"cut and he plows thru his lawn like there's no tomorrow. It's a pretty quiet machine too and he says he can do his yard 3 times without having to put more gas in (I can barely get 2 cuts from a tank in my rider.) He pulls every attachment I can think of. The only time it showed its relative weakness was when he borrowed my lawn roller that weighs 300lbs when full. He found his rider struggled a little bit with it when coming up the gentle slope of our backyards. The guy beside him went and bought the cheapest Yarkworks he could find at Canadian Tire about the same time I bought mine. It's a 14HP 42" cut, if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure he paid for it with all the Canadian Tire money he saved up over the years. Mind you it's a brute. It's big. It's ugly. It's loud. But it's proud. It pulled my 300lb roller without nary a whimper. The only problem he's had with it is that it would backfire whenever he shut it off. The loudest backfire humanly possible. It did it for the first few months he owned it and the repairman that Can. Tire sent couldn't figure it out. The entire neighbourhood would prepare for the inevitable explosion whenever he cut his lawn. Long story short: it turned out he was putting 91 octane gas in it (why? I don't know) and it wasn't burning entirely and the fumes would accumulate in the muffler assembly. When he shut if off the heat of the muffler would ignite these fumes...and KA-BANG. Once he switched to regular 87 octane the problem was immediately solved.

So my advice to you is to just go with your budget. All riders are not all the same. The quality varies among them, even the big name brands, but not enough to warrant spending more than you can afford just to get a John Deere label. But in the end, they're all built well enough to give you years of use. (The neighbourhood concensus of John Deere? Good riders, but very overpriced.)
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Oct 12, 2007
9732 posts
9502 upvotes
Winchester
I have ~ 3/4 of lawn in our forested estate lot and our starter tractor was a cheap POS we bought at Costco many many years ago. It ran okay but the parts just didn't hold up - it was chintzy as all heck and underpowered. In '03, we bought a 25hp V twin 46" cut with a triple bagger for a snick under $1800 taxes in - it was an August clearance sale. Absolutely everything on this mower still works - and the power is a godsend in the fall when I use it to suck up the leaves that carpet our lawn (why a bagger is a must for us). Is it too much power? Almost definitely. BTW, I also only get ~3 cuts per gerry can.
Sr. Member
May 17, 2006
605 posts
191 upvotes
indep wrote: wow the next looks pretty sweet hehe...
you said you got a john deere for $1,200? may I ask how

Was a colleague selling it privately.

Keep an eye out on Kijiji...that's where I found my Kubota for 1/2 price with less than an hour on it. Guy won it in a draw and already had 2 tractors. Agree with the others...set a budget and look in that price range. To me, it was worth paying extra for what I believe (and hope!) is a higher quality product that will outlast my location. Good point on waiting for extra point promos and such...ie: HD don't pay for 6 months on their house CC, or Sears 24 equal payments no interest.

Feel free to run some suggestions by me and I'll give you my honest but limited opinion. Good luck!

BTW, I'll get about 5 cuts (2/3 acre) out of my tank, 20HP V-twin Kohler.
Sr. Member
Jul 26, 2010
927 posts
89 upvotes
eastern Ontario
if you treat it right that little $1200 unit will cut your 1/2 acre for years and years. Everybody thinks you need big horse power but you can only cut so fast because the blades turn the same speed irrespective of HP and the lawn is only so smooth. HP will let you cut a bit wider per pass but it's usually only about 6 inches wider cut . I have a total 1/2 acre lot and I have cut it for 15 years with a 11hp MTD mower built in 1981. I also cut an even larger area of county road allowance for the past 10 years and with just a 12 HP 39" built in the 90's . Key is make sure you don't let it get low on oil or oil too dirty. On a new unit use synthetic oil. If you use conventional oil always use straight wt 30 heavy duty , not the non detergent 30w and not 10w30. Use fresh stabilized gas. (marine stabil) .Always have a fuel shutoff valve installed and USE it. Have blades sharpened or replaced regularly. make sure no mice make nests in the cooling fins of the engine and no grass builds up there. Don't tried to make it cut faster or heavier. If grass is long or wet just take it slow.
And about the shutdown backfire. Newer mowers have a solenoid on the carb to prevent this, with varying degrees of success. If you let it idle a bit before shutdown it helps and using synthetic oil may help. It's from gas being drawn in as the engine still rotates after you kill the spark. The raw gas enters the hot muffler and 'bang'. Surprised that higher octane gas would make it worse.

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