Need a new mower

Mark E Smith

Member
Messages
190
Location
Arkansas
Well looks like my old Murray 38" rider is about to get retired, starting to have one thing after another going wrong, getting tired of fixing it. Been a good old gal over 20 yrs old, it's one of the old Murrays, came out from them when they were made in Canada, before the company went belly up ,then re-opened. So looking at some new riding mowers, and looking real hard at the new Ryobi electric. Have had the Ryobi electric 20" push now for about three years. absolutely love it, really like the no belt, plugs, gas oil...basically no maintenance, so moving into the new Rider is very appealing, but $2499 price tag...oh my...lol. I know it is very new just coming out this year, but anyone got some experience or know some one with one of these. Still kicking it around, haven't made up my mind yet. The 38" deck is perfect, my old Murray is 38", it's about as big as I want to go, lots of rock gardens, trees etc...that pretty much only have the room for a 38" to fit between, usually takes me about 45 mins to do the yard, so the electric has more then enough to do it. The push is pretty much only used in the fence in portion of the back yard, small area, way too many thing in the way for a rider, rider needed for the balk of the open area yard which would take for ever with a push and way more then I would want to take on, hence need for the rider. Any comments opinions welcome


Ryobi riding mower
 
Same boat as Dave, No suggestions or info.....
I mow about an acre that's either up hill or down hill, so an electric is out of the question. My neighbor uses a zero turn mower, but I can't use one of those either... first time I spin one on the hill behind the house I'll probably land on the back porch. The very back side of my lot is at an elevation that's about 20-30 feet higher than my house.

I use a Troy-bilt that's about 20 years old, not sure what year model it is, it was a return to Lowe's the year we moved to Tennessee in 2005... I've managed to puncture the original gas tank, tore the cowling loose on the motor, changed belts about 4 times, changed the motor once and it keeps on running. I have a bank that's about 10' wide/high that runs from a ditch along the side of the road up to the first level of my yard that I mow straight up and down, just ride up to the edge and over into the ditch, then turn around in the road and ride back up the hill... my son brought me his Toro when he gave up mowing is yard and just hired it done, it wouldn't go up the hill, borrowed my neighbor's John Deere, it wouldn't climb the bank either, so as long as it will run, gonna keep the Troy.
 
I am kinda anti-battery. The batteries go bad and need (expensive) replacement. My Craftsman rider has had hard, year round use for over 15 years with no major issues. My property is hilly and rocky. I replaced the rear tires with a tractor tread type and that cut an hour from my mowing time. As for the zero turn jobs, my son was nearly killed when one he was using turned over. I recommend any well known brand standard garden tractor with a gas engine. Get a 42 to 48" cut.
 
I looked at a few riders, as I do't have the oomph to push a mower around even my suburban lawn without resting 6 or 7 times. At 2500 that was a bit too rich for me. I considered a used one for less than $1000, but then I would have to store it, fuel it, mainiain it, etc. So I've made a deal with a local guy who has good equipment, and will do my lawns for $35 a crack. If he comes every two weeks on average. that will be $525 a year. I can afford that.
 
...I've made a deal with a local guy who has good equipment, and will do my lawns for $35 a crack. If he comes every two weeks on average. that will be $525 a year. I can afford that.

So far this Spring, I've been mowing my yard twice a week. By mid-Summer, I'll be down to once a week, then come Fall, I'll be mowing and dragging the leaf vacuum trailer around about three times a week.

I think your frequency/cost estimate may be a bit off.
 
The electric mower might sound great, but... One thing to consider is battery cost - yes they will need to be replaced. We had an electric golf car with a similar 48V arrangement. The deep cycle batteries cost about $200 each, so I had to hand over $800 plus tax a couple of years ago for a new set. If one battery goes belly-up, you really need to replace the entire set - all four batteries - for balance. We recently traded it in for a new Yamaha EFI gas engine model.

When our rider gave up two years ago this Summer, the only thing we considered was a ZTR. After using it the first time, I was sorry we hadn't gotten one a few years earlier. A ZTR takes virtually no effort to steer. We have about an acre and I would take two breaks when using the regular rider. With the ZTR, I have the entire lawn done in under an hour and could keep going if I had to!
 
So far this Spring, I've been mowing my yard twice a week. By mid-Summer, I'll be down to once a week, then come Fall, I'll be mowing and dragging the leaf vacuum trailer around about three times a week.

I think your frequency/cost estimate may be a bit off.

Not to start an argument, but every two weeks worked for us last year. It's every week just now, as it's growing season. Besides, if I had to mow the damn lawn that often, I'd put down Astroturf. :p
 
Give me diesel or give me gas!!! I agree on the battery R&R situation. Not an option to me. When I mow down the pastures at a friend's place I do the areas around his barn with an older diesel powered Grasshopper zero turn. Fantastic to use. Have to keep the air screen for the radiator real clean, though. I guess I knock out about 2 1/2 acres with it before I am done because I also mow down the grass on his large stock tank berm because the angle for it is too much for a tractor. The Grasshopper gets around all over it like nothing, all angles and dangles. Great piece of equipment and easy to steer. Actually I don't use anything cordless even in the shop. Maybe I'm old fashioned or hardheaded. I just don't like batteries running my tools out there. I'll put up with the cords, no problem. If you wire your work area right, the cords aren't in the way, anyway. It's not beyond me to move an outlet if I determine I put it in the wrong place to start with. I'll shut up now.:D
 
We have a Honda 3810 lawn tractor that is close to 30 years old that won't quit and I refuse to give up on. Some family members have tried hard to destroy it, but so far Donnie, my small engine wizard keeps it going. If I could find a used one in good shape I'd buy it in a heartbeat. We also have a commercial grade self propelled Honda walk behind that does a lot of work, including the electric fence lines for the pastures. I don't mind using the walk behind as it's a good offset for the amount of sitting I necessarily do in the run of the work week. I might eventually get a zero turn and put the Honda into semi-retirement just for leaf vacuuming.
The 3810 actually did a lot of the pasture clipping until we got a proper 7' finish mower for the farm tractor.
I have no experience with battery powered yard equipment, but I think their day is coming.
 
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Why would it take forever with a push mower? You already have a size you know that works and they have commercial mowers that effectively use those same decks, as walk behinds.
Personally, I would be really leary about being an early adopter of a battery powered rider.
How about a goat?
 
Why would it take forever with a push mower? You already have a size you know that works and they have commercial mowers that effectively use those same decks, as walk behinds.
Personally, I would be really leary about being an early adopter of a battery powered rider.
How about a goat?

Because I have COPD I get out of breath quickly, even the small fenced in area with the push I have to take breaks, no room for a rider in there. The rest , doing a half acre with the push is simply NOT possible, unless I wish to take a full day and stop 20 or 30 times...hence the need for a rider. I have pretty much decided to get the Ryobi, I don't mind being a gennie pig, some body has to test this thing out, and the no maintenance, no gas smell etc...is appealing to me. The obvious question? why don't I just pay some one to do it for me...I need the exercise, I just don't want to kill myself doing it, even on the rider I am outside doing some thing. COPD is also why I can take a simple weekend project and turn it into a month or so...lol...but it keeps me active. I'll update this thread later and let folks know how the new mower works out. It has great reviews, but as you said it's early, first year for them on the rider.
 
Just goes to show you, sometimes you can jinx yourself.... I was just bragging on what a great mower I had in my Troy-bilt... I made two passes across the front of the yard, then on third pass notice I wasn't throwing any grass out... stopped and listened, then got down and checked, I had broken the PTO belt, so no blades turning.... today was the first day I've been able to mow, and the last day I cold mow before sometime next week because Dianne goes into hospital tomorrow for a day procedure on her leg and likely I'll need to stay close by to help her up and about for a couple of days... and tomorrow and Tuesday it's supposed to rain which would make it too wet to mow on Wednesday and maybe Thursday, depending on how much rain, Friday I have to load out and get ready for market on Saturday...so on and so on.... so I got out my little 22" push mower and mowed front yard anyway.... the back hill will just have to wait... but front half is at least 1/2 acre plus... got my walking exercise in for this year...
 
You will be posting a video of you stealth mowing your lawn with the new electric mower, right?

lol...absolutely, that's the whole point, I'll quietly cut my grass and the neighbors will never know, they well just see it was done and wonder when it happened or I'll show it to my neighbors and you know they well want to try it, might get a couple mowing in by them before the newness wares off..you know the old huck fin fence painting deal..lol..I'll just stand around and watch...
 
Got the mower

Well the Ryobi got here earlier this week, love this rider, and it has some serious power goes like a race car, was surprised at the speed it has. I mowed at a normal speed, great having cruise control. Well probably have to see one day if I can mow real fast..lol...took a little getting use to having a brake pedal.

Now for the bad, HD doesn't ship this thing they use Eates trucking and they delivered it on a pallet, and that was the beginning of the nightmare. This comes from Ryobi in it's own steel crate which has forklift access ports underneath it and it is the perfect height to drive the mower off of it, sitting on a pallet, now it is too high and ramps are needed, no lifting this thing off, weights 700 lbs. So of course Estes doesn't use forklifts, they use pallet jacks. Pallet jacks don't work on the Ryobi crate, so onto the pallets they go, of course it is way bigger then the pallet so it is half on half off and the little forklift ports..yep crushed flat so now there is no way to get it off the pallet...next, you have to take the steel crate apart before you can even think about getting it off, and there must be 50 bolts you have to remove to take the uprights, support bars and wheel straps off. They didn't use just any bolts, you know like the right length where you just just crack it loose then take off the nuts with your fingers....NNOOOOOooo...they used the longest bolts they could find and used nylon shoulder nuts, requiring you to wrench it off the whole way the entire length of the bolts, took half the afternoon just breaking down the crate. Remember the pallet deal and the crushed forklift port, guess how they put the bolts for the wheel straps on...yep bolt in from bottom nut on top, so behind every tire a bolts was sticking up because the steel frame is sitting on the pallet, no way to remove the bolt, try moving mower and your gonna poke a hole in your tires. So had to cut off every one those bolts off then grind down the nubs. So once all that was done, I had some 50 lb sand bags for a project I was doing, used about half a dozen and made a temp ramp, worked pretty good. Had to show these pics...took these after i got most of the uprights and support bars, wheel straps off. I guess the bright side is I got a whole bunch of bolts now and a lot of steel to build some thing, have no idea what...lol



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Mower lift, for sharpening the blades.

Sears example: Item # 07105994000P Model # TML

Not sure how that would have gotten the mower and crate off the pallet, but it's a moot point now, already got it off, as to sharpening the blades, the Ryobi's deck can be removed pretty easy. Drop down to lowest position, disconnect two screw together power leads to the motors, pull a couple keeper pins and slide the whole thing out from under the mower...full access for cleaning or blade replacement, no need for a lift. This is a very well thought out machine, very impressed with it so far...
 
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