Okay, earlier I asked about the JD 332 diesel tractors as a possibility for my yard as well as some commercial mowing next year. My yard dosen't work with this type of unit. I've researched and operated a number of Woods/Grasshopper out-front deck units, and there seems to be one close to me that's a fairly good deal overall. It's a Model 6250, mid '90's, 1140 hours wiht a Kubota Liquid-cooled gas engine and a 60" deck for $1995. Most others I've seen for this price are Briggs engined units. Anyone had experance with these units overall? The hydros, mowing deck, and engine are strong. I would prefer a diesel, but they are twice the price and hard to come by. New this unit as a Grasshopper runs right around $11k...

 

Brother ran one for a while in his landscaping business. Heres my take on it from running it when I helped him. Great leaf vaccum system one of best actually for leaves, mows well, stripes well good on fuel. But dont get in a hurry. The JDs and toros will mow circles around it speed wise. He only had a problem with one hydrostatic motor but it had several hours on it as well. It was about the same mowing time wise as his 455 mid mount JD. He replaced the grasshopper with a larger JD mid Z but again it was more than the grasshopper new but worth it. After all that. Its not a bad mower if you get a good deal on it but there are other front mounts out there that are better and faster if you are planning on doing alot of commercial work it.

 

I have two identical JD 932 series front deck, 72", mowers, one has a gas motor the other a diesel. Power wise I really don't notice a difference but the diesel is noticeably better on fuel. However if you aren't mowing commercially then you wouldn't notice the difference. I even barely notice the difference. The resell on the diesel units is WAY higher though.

Save your money and buy the gas unit.

 

Yep - this isn't a problem as I don't need much speed. Heck, this unit feels far faster and smoother than both of my old Dixon ZTR's (cone-drive uints) that I used to run. This won't be a full-time business, just a few yards I'm picking up to use to pay for the mower over the course of a year.

Also in regard to fuel use, I really doubt I would even notice much differance at all. And wiht the shape of other units I've looked at for under $3k, resale, even after several years and more hours, should be no problem at all.

Again the main thing I want to avoid is buying a consumer-grade ZTR form Home Depot or Sears, somehting that will essentially fall apart in 4-6 years. The tractor I'm mowing with now is a friends' 54" 26-hp Craftsman that has 18 hours on it, and already feels pretty "worn." he spent more on it than I will on the Woods, and evne if I have to do work to the Woods, it's still a commercial machine with some value left in it. The Craftsman tractor, which drives farily well for what it is, would probably have nearly no value on a trade even with 18 hours on it.

 

It should work great for you if thats what you will be doing with it and be night and day diffrence from what you are using now. Its def not a consumer grade zero turn mower.