I just bought a new house on 3.7 acres of land. We need to purchase a
new tractor to mow about 2-2.5 acres of it, as well as pull a cart.
There is a half acre grove of trees that needs to be mowed and some
reasonable size hills.

The last owner offered to sell us a 2 year old yard machines 17hp 42"
cut for $900. I am pretty sure this is not enough mower for the job
and I think she is asking to much. Am I right?

So... the hunt begins. We have from $1500 to $2500 MAX, I really want
a 48" cut. My hunt has lead me to Sears Craftman mowers. I was looking
at model 27324 a 25hp 48" automatic with cruise control and B&S
engine. This would cost after tax and delivery $2550. After reading
some of the lawn tractor threads here I see that craftsman may not be
all that I thought. Is the tractor I am looking at going to hack it?
Any ideas on tractors that will do the job and are within my price
range that would be a better choice?

Thanks in advance for all the advice!
Dan

I've got a Craftsman tractor with an 18 HP Kohler engine and I use it to
cut about 7 acres of prairie grass. It has more than enough power but
the 48" deck is a bummer. I think almost all of the 48" decks use three
blades and because of the way they are placed in the deck housing they
will not give a clean cut when the prairie grass gets over about 10" or
when you make a turn. I've decided to get another tractor with a 42"
cut because the blades are longer and I'm sure it will give me a better
cut, especially when you turn a corner. Almost all of the tractors
today use Briggs engines, and probably the same transmissions, so paying
a thousand dollars more for a brand name probably isn't worth it. I'll
buy the Sears brand again.
Bill

Bluetobb wrote:

I just bought a new house on 3.7 acres of land. We need to purchase a
new tractor to mow about 2-2.5 acres of it, as well as pull a cart.
There is a half acre grove of trees that needs to be mowed and some
reasonable size hills.

The last owner offered to sell us a 2 year old yard machines 17hp 42"
cut for $900. I am pretty sure this is not enough mower for the job
and I think she is asking to much. Am I right?

So... the hunt begins. We have from $1500 to $2500 MAX, I really want
a 48" cut. My hunt has lead me to Sears Craftman mowers. I was looking
at model 27324 a 25hp 48" automatic with cruise control and B&S
engine. This would cost after tax and delivery $2550. After reading
some of the lawn tractor threads here I see that craftsman may not be
all that I thought. Is the tractor I am looking at going to hack it?
Any ideas on tractors that will do the job and are within my price
range that would be a better choice?

Thanks in advance for all the advice!
Dan

In article , Bluetobb
wrote:

I also recently purchased a new house, but on 3.8 acres with more than
3 acres to cut (sloped at that). I similarly went through the search
process. I would recommend a trip to Home Depot to look at the John
Deere 100 series tractors. You can easily get a 48" cut tractor for
that budget. Good luck.

I just bought a new house on 3.7 acres of land. We need to purchase a
new tractor to mow about 2-2.5 acres of it, as well as pull a cart.
There is a half acre grove of trees that needs to be mowed and some
reasonable size hills.

The last owner offered to sell us a 2 year old yard machines 17hp 42"
cut for $900. I am pretty sure this is not enough mower for the job
and I think she is asking to much. Am I right?

So... the hunt begins. We have from $1500 to $2500 MAX, I really want
a 48" cut. My hunt has lead me to Sears Craftman mowers. I was looking
at model 27324 a 25hp 48" automatic with cruise control and B&S
engine. This would cost after tax and delivery $2550. After reading
some of the lawn tractor threads here I see that craftsman may not be
all that I thought. Is the tractor I am looking at going to hack it?
Any ideas on tractors that will do the job and are within my price
range that would be a better choice?

--
--Chip
remove dots in prefix to fix email address


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On 9 Apr 2003 11:26:13 -0700, (Bluetobb) wrote:

I just bought a new house on 3.7 acres of land. We need to purchase a
new tractor to mow about 2-2.5 acres of it, as well as pull a cart.
There is a half acre grove of trees that needs to be mowed and some
reasonable size hills.

The last owner offered to sell us a 2 year old yard machines 17hp 42"
cut for $900. I am pretty sure this is not enough mower for the job
and I think she is asking to much. Am I right?

If it were me I would pay about half what she's asking, and I agree
that this probably isn't enough mower for a couple acres of mowing.
I'd much rather have more mower than I think I need, so would only buy
the used mower if I thought I was getting a hell of a deal.


So... the hunt begins. We have from $1500 to $2500 MAX, I really want
a 48" cut. My hunt has lead me to Sears Craftman mowers. I was looking
at model 27324 a 25hp 48" automatic with cruise control and B&S
engine. This would cost after tax and delivery $2550. After reading
some of the lawn tractor threads here I see that craftsman may not be
all that I thought. Is the tractor I am looking at going to hack it?
Any ideas on tractors that will do the job and are within my price
range that would be a better choice?

Thanks in advance for all the advice!
Dan

Like you, I've seen those threads knocking craftsman. You get what you
pay for, so if it's at all in your budget I'd go for a JD. Also, with
cutting around trees, you may want to consider the turning radius, and
whether you should get one of the automatic transmissions.

On the craftmans question, I have two, a 15hp B&S and 17HP with the
kohler engine. The kohler is by for the better engine - which I guess
is why they cost more.
--
Steve Touchstone
email
home page http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html