How to choose a riding lawn mower?
What is best for about 1.5 acres? Conventional vs zero turn?
I assume larger diameter and bigger motors are better. What about drive speeds and gears..etc?
Anything else to consider? Thanks
Don't even bother with gears or the "automatic" drives. You will be thanking yourself if you go with a hydrostatic mower. Tractors and zero turns will mow the same open area at about the same time. Zero's really shine when it comes to turns and getting around obstacles. One word of caution, zero turn mowers will leave a small patch of grass torn up when the machine makes a sharp turn. Don't worry about horsepower, it is irrelevant when it comes down to it. The deck size is the most important thing. Make sure you don't get too big of a machine.
When you shop for a mower here are a few questions the salesperson should ask. How big is the yard? Do you have many obstacles? Do you have hills? Do you have a fenced in area and how big is the gate? What are you mowing with now? What do you like about you current mower? What don't you like? What size deck are you looking for? Have you ever ran or are you familiar with how a zero turn is operated? What price level are you looking at? If your sales person does not ask most of these questions, walk out the door. Do not just look at the big box stores, check out your local mower dealers. There are some good brands NOT sold in box stores.
Good luck and keep an open mind.
