- Joined
- Apr 14, 2014
- Messages
- 3,132
I'm not a fan of zero turn mowers, especially on soft, damp, and/or hilly ground. My brother in law has a lawn service that uses them. They have all but destroyed his yard. They may turn on a dime, but when they do it at high speeds they leave marks similar to turning a skid loader. The wheel on the inside of the turn leaves a nice big gouge in a finished lawn. In addition the "turf saver" tires have a tendency to spin on uphill grades especially if the grass is damp. For some reason it seems like everybody I see using these machines has to run them at full speed regardless of the terrain. It's more like lawnmower racing than mowing lawn. It might be a function of the operators more than the machines, but the end results are pretty dismal.
The operators may well be getting their information on how to operate them from some TV adds. I recently saw a JD one where the theme was "It's not how fast you mow, It's how well you mow fast". All the time during the add I think the operators spent at least half the time in the air bouncing off the seat. I can't imagine what the lawn looked like, or how long the machine would last doing that all day.
My JD445 AWS has a pedal (red button) on the right running board to lock the differential. Rather than having a tire spin and rip up the lawn I just depress the pedal and both rear wheels are powered. With both wheels powered I've yet to loose traction and tear up a lawn. It doesn't turn as sharp as a zero turn, but with the all wheel steering it's pretty close.
The operators may well be getting their information on how to operate them from some TV adds. I recently saw a JD one where the theme was "It's not how fast you mow, It's how well you mow fast". All the time during the add I think the operators spent at least half the time in the air bouncing off the seat. I can't imagine what the lawn looked like, or how long the machine would last doing that all day.
My JD445 AWS has a pedal (red button) on the right running board to lock the differential. Rather than having a tire spin and rip up the lawn I just depress the pedal and both rear wheels are powered. With both wheels powered I've yet to loose traction and tear up a lawn. It doesn't turn as sharp as a zero turn, but with the all wheel steering it's pretty close.
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