Does anyone make a NEW riding mower that doesn't suck? (2024)

I've thinned my herd from 4 to 1, and I'm still frustrated as all hell with my mower.

Before I go do something expensive and impulsive, do any companies make decent riding mowers for less than say 2 challenge cars?

I'm not even against a payment I can't really afford, I'm just afraid they'll explode the day the warranty runs out, or that I'll call for warranty support and be told to berkeley myself because I didn't use unicorn tear oil and fairy fart gear lube during annual maintenance.

I know to go straight to the dealer and avoid Lowes Depot. I REFUSE to even consider a John Deere. Otherwise, automatic, don't really care about mulching decks but would like to avoid if possible, no bagger, 42-48 inch deck, trailer hitch would be nice but not mandatory.

I want and need a garden tractor, but I feel like that's out of the question when used ones are selling for 2-3 challenge cars without accessories.

I don't do new for these types of things. I buy older commercial equipment that has good parts supplies and is built ruggedly.

example. This graveley.https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/grd/d/chicora-gravely-18g-tractor/7465009441.html

or this wheel horse.

https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/grd/d/new-kensington-wheel-horse-tractor/7474856672.html

cub lo boy will have all the power you need. Plus a 3pt and pto.

https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/for/d/new-cumberland-cub-lo-boy-tractor/7471399903.html

In reply to John Welsh :

Tow a trailer full of dirt, gravel, blocks. Unless they're putting actual PTOs on lawn tractors these days in which case, a tiller and possibly a cable burying tool.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

I'm sick and tired of playing repair boy. I can get used ones all day, but between fixing what previous owners have done and finding individual pieces that aren't still made, I want to be done with used.

I've repaired and rebuilt more than enough mowers to last me a lifetime, I just want to get on, cut the grass, and be done.

I also don't have cash on hand. I could maybe pull a grand together, so payments or continued weekly cursing are my only real options.

trucke SuperDork
4/25/22 11:02 a.m.

I hear your plight. I was going through this back in 2003. Bought a HustlerFastrak with a Honda V-Twin. Had to replace a coil pack last week. First time it failed to start since new. I think I've spent about $500 inmaintenance and repairs over the years.

Bite the bullet and go commercial! Cheaper in the long run!

After a few years, every brand new tractor is used. The question is, will it put up with the use you put it through, and when it does break will it be repairable?

That's why commercial units are good. Not because they never need fixed, but because they will stay fixed longer and parts are available to do the repair. After the initial honeymoon period with your new mower, it'll be used just like anything you'd buy for half the price off Craigslist.

I bought a 500 hour John Deere commercial mower in 2014. I've had to do a few minor repairs (mule drive spring, deck belt tensioner, and electromagnetic clutch for the PTO), but nothing more than I would expect for an 8 year old home grade unit. It was a $15k mower new, bought very lightly used for $5k. It's probably still worth close to $5k. Don't fall for the "I'll never have to work on it" siren song of a cheap new mower. You'll get a few years out of it, yes, then it's back to where you are now. Are a few years of hassle free lawn mowing worth thousands of dollars to you?

Maybe take your existing mower to a repair shop? Any good ones near you?

tuna55 MegaDork
4/25/22 11:36 a.m.

In reply to dculberson :

Yea the guy I got it from, who is currently in month 3 of 80 hour weeks on the other side of the state for a "quick in and out job". If you value your time and sanity, don't work for a fire alarm company in PA.

$2200 for a new cub cadet directly from cub cadet is looking promising. Wasn't expecting to see that.

I don't have enough land to justify spending almost as much as I did on the excursion just to cut the grass. At the old house, sure I'd have gone commercial any time, but my less than half acre doesn't need all the bells and whistles. If I didn't have the second biggest yard in the street I'd consider it and just mow for everybody except the douchenozzle.

The real solution is a bigger garden and put in a solar farm. Don't need to cut the grass if there isn't any.

I'm just frustrated. It was fine when the blades never shut off, I was ok with needing to jump start it every couple weeks, but now the blades are just random, I have to jump start off the excursion every time because of that, craftsman doesn't even have a record of making this mower so parts are sketchy at best when they can be found, and my time and money are better spent fixing the house and the excursion than the yard.

My only real issue other than cash on hand with getting another 70s tank of a mower is that decks rust, and often times cost more than the mower itself because nobody got into aftermarket decks because every company wanted to be unique and make them all different instead of universal. That's what finally did in my old IH Cub cadets, I couldn't find decks anymore.

In mt neck of the woods a half acre lawn will cost you about $30-35 a week to have it mowed professionally. 6 months, 4 times a month that is ~$750 a year. Makes nice mowers seem expensive.

I used to have my done when I was on the road for work. Now I am not and I do it myself but the prospect of having to buy a new mower would have me thinking about farming it out again. I am starting year 4 on a $300 CL Craftsman. The only thing I have done is oil changes so I am winning.

NY Nick said:

In mt neck of the woods a half acre lawn will cost you about $30-35 a week to have it mowed professionally. 6 months, 4 times a month that is ~$750 a year. Makes nice mowers seem expensive.

I used to have my done when I was on the road for work. Now I am not and I do it myself but the prospect of having to buy a new mower would have me thinking about farming it out again. I am starting year 4 on a $300 CL Craftsman. The only thing I have done is oil changes so I am winning.

That's what I pay for a 1/2 acre. It's one of my little life luxuries. Before this house (bought 10 years ago) we were in a condo for 8 years (with grass cuttingservice.) So, when we arrived, I had no mower, etc. I have since inherited a weed wacker both gas and electric but I rarely use them myself since its covered in the price.

My service includes bagging the grass, so when leaves start to fall, many leaves go away that way. I still do the raking otherwise. Just this weekend I had a whole full size pick up truck bed of additional "spring clean up" that I took to the county compose site. I have a lot of perimeter trees so I had a whole winter's worth of downed small limbs, pine cones and just general "annual deforesting." Spending one whole day on that makes me grateful that I don't have to mow the damn thing too. Generally, I hate yard work.

Edit: I own .59 Acre of total property but 25% is cover with house and another 25% is covered in concrete (really) so that just leaves me with about 1/4 acre to be mowed. But, given the amount of concrete there is a lot of edging and the whole wide backyard is on a downward slope which makes it a hassle to walk-mow.

NY Nick said:

In mt neck of the woods a half acre lawn will cost you about $30-35 a week to have it mowed professionally. 6 months, 4 times a month that is ~$750 a year. Makes nice mowers seem expensive.

I used to have my done when I was on the road for work. Now I am not and I do it myself but the prospect of having to buy a new mower would have me thinking about farming it out again. I am starting year 4 on a $300 CL Craftsman. The only thing I have done is oil changes so I am winning.

Man, if I could get my lawn mowed professionally for a reasonable price I would do it. But we've got 3.5 acres and I think it was $175/wk the last time I checked. No way. I could buy a new-used commercial mower every year and throw it away at the end of the season and just break even.

I think the short answer, unfortunately, is no, unless you want to spend several times Challenge budget. I was just in Lowes yesterday thinking 1) what happened to all the $1500 mowers, everything is priced $3-4k now and 2) somehow the $3-4k machines look even chintzier than the $1500 ones did. Made me feel a little better about the time I've spent wet sanding as I did half a repaint and full blown resto(yes, on a berkeleying lawn mower lol) on my JD 318 this spring.

What about a commercial walk behind? Those seem to be relatively reasonable in price compared to the ZT options, while still delivering the benefits in build quality and parts availability.Could maybe find (or fabricobble) one with a seat or standing platform on the back if your property is too much walking.

tuna55 said:

I have an old JD and am happy, but the next new mower I buy will be electric and automated. Why not go that route instead? It's less expensive than a decent ride on mower, and you don't have to do anything.

The automated ones aren't quite ready yet, in my mind. They can't handle the slopes in my yard that the rider and push can, and I've got 3 sections of grass separated by a driveway and major elevation changes. Until they switch from that underground invisible dog fence cable to something where I can import a satellite view or survey and tell it where to go, it's just not feasible. The ones I saw over the winter with GPS were almost triple the buried wire ones.

I spent most of the winter looking at them, comparing sizes and charge situations and stuff. If we were flat, I'd have bought myself one for Xmas. It sounds like return home to charge and waterproofing are where they need to be, but hills and slopes are still a deal breaker.

Would be great though, I tend to be the guy that cuts first them the rest of the street follows suit, so if my yard was perfect all the time it would drive everybody nuts.

The 22"push mower takes about 2 hours to do everything. My 38 and 42" riders take about 25 minutes. But now it's getting to be 20 minutes or so to get the rider going and an hour to mow because I need to go over spots more than once. The biggest and best automatic mowers will take 3-4 days just to do the flat spot, but they'd do it constantly.

In another surprise to me, electric riders can now be had under $5k. Still a lot of money, but another 10 years or so, they should be affordable.

If it wasn't for the wife and "oh it doesn't feel the same even though I'm NEVER in the yard in my bare feet" I'd bring in a few rolls of used football field and never mow again. I've priced it, $1500 and a trailer rental, couple cases of beer to pay my friends, and boom, year round 2.5"tall green grass.

For just grass, I'd be looking for something like this. Doesn't have to be green and yellow but bought used, it might be reasonable. In one year, you'renot going to put the strain on it that a pro crew puts on it in one week.

In reply to John Welsh :

That's a$8k walk behind. Well at least the Ferris version is, I would be surprised if that one is much different.

In reply to NY Nick :

Okay, $8k, new but will $1500-$2000 buy a decent used one?

tuna55 MegaDork
4/25/22 2:41 p.m.

In reply to RevRico :

Talk to your local Husqvarna dealer. They can do that now.

In reply to John Welsh :

Maybe, You see some that cheap but I think they are pretty trashed. We buy Ferris at work and they are mowing beasts but when they get up there in hours the repair bills are extreme. Things like hydro's or transaxles start to go and then repair bill can be thousands. There are a couple walk behinds like that at the local dealer now in good condition and they are $3.5-4K.

I passed the box store ones today and they were seriously expensive too.

We have a family friend with the Husqrobot mower thing like a Roomba vacuum. Its cool to see it out there every day make fresh lines and really small cuts. Not cheap but his is backed by home service and set up.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

I bought a brand new Husqvarna lawn mower with an automatic 2 years ago. I have 40 hours on it. I've already had to pull the trans axle to fix issues. And that's on a $2,000 mower. Their warranty was 90 days

That is specifically why I started this thread. I remember seeing it in the rant thread, and husqy is a brand I would usually trust with these sorts of things.

I'm going to take a ride by the cub cadet dealer this week and have the wife ask around local Facebook about a model they have. They've got 3 year "bumper to bumper" coverage at least.

I'm also going to look into the husqy robot mower, maybe they found a way to handle hills.

What kills me is there are parts of the yard I will be forever doing with a push mower or the weed wacker. Too steep and curved to get anything else up.

bobzilla MegaDork
4/25/22 3:12 p.m.

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