I have a John Deere L115 tractor that I regret buying as I really want a zero turn such as the JD Z225.

Anyone have a zero turn that can comment on the advantage/disadvantages? Do you wish you had a regular tractor? I have a few slopes to mow that the L115 handles without issues but would having slopes alter your choice?

I may have to sell my tractor and just cough up the difference. My daughter is off to college next year so if I have any chance of getting a new toy, it has too be now.

I just got a JD Z425 this year. I had a L111 that I regretted buying, not because it wasn't a great lawn mower for it's price point, just that severe tradeoffs were made to make it affordable. A ZTR for my property is kind of overkill. only 15,000 sq.ft. But I justified it because the cut quality is a lot better and mowing is fun for me and the ZTR makes it that much more fun. I do give up the ability to do some light pulling (ie. core aerating), but given the potential weed problems, I don't think I'll miss it. I also had a bagger for my L111 and the kit for the Z445 is prohibitively expensive, so I lose out on that too. My property is pretty flat but at times I've gone down a gentle slope--look out! The momentum just carries you and you can easily lose control on a bigger hill. I think you are supposed to tackle a hill going down it's side.

Also, if I were you, I'd save up and get the Z425. The separate Kanzaki pump/Parker wheel motors are more like commercial units. The engine is also an Extended Life Series (ELS) Briggs.

The problem is justifying a couple grand for a new mower when the one I have is 1) paid for and 2) cuts OK

Telling the wife I want her to go make a withdrawal (she's a banker) to feed my lawn addiction won't get me very far.

How did you sell your old tractor? I know the JD dealers take trades but I suspect the bath would be worse than private sale. I bought my tractor as a discounted "leftover" and had a 20% coupon. I only paid $1200 for the L115. I should have just bought the ZTR to begin with.

My biggest concern is I do have a fairly steep slope to work with in a section of my lawn and have to mow it on an angle. It's about 2000 sq ft area.

Who owns a zero turn mower?

The person who paid for it.

Sorry. Other than that, I got nuthin'.

Yeah, tough situation. You want it but don't need it. $1200 for the L115 sounds like a deal!

I gave my dad my old tractor and traded his POS snapper RER for chump change. Ah well. No regrets. The z425 is an awesome machine. I don't care if the 48C deck is stamped...it cuts great and gets good reviews from every machine it's put on. If anything, if I should somehow wreck the deck, it shouldn't be too hard finding a replacement.

Got a picture of this slope?

Here's the slope. Note this is the area I'm renovating and you can see the delineation of the property line in the dead grass.

what you need is a Walker model MB mower Click here for more information.

I'd love one of the walker machines too. Kinda like a garage for mowers instead of cars.

Click here for more information

Fixed link.

My walk behind is zero turn. In fact it's negative turn if I want it to be.

I discussed this with the JD dealer. I'm looking at a $1700 price delta with trading in my machine on a Z225. He estimates my trade-in value to be $1000 so only losing $200 for a machine that's about 15 months old isn't too bad. Kinda crazy to do it as I gain the ZTR (and the fun of perfect striping I can't do with my tractor) but the deck is the same as what I have now. The cost of admission to the ZTR game is steep.

The look my wife gave me when I mentioned "needing" a new mower doesn't give me much hope. And they "but it's my hobby" ain't going to work either. That ended about 10 hobbies ago. Now if I could only turn my R/C airplane into a airborne fertilizer/sprayer, that would totally rock the house!

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:My walk behind is zero turn. In fact it's negative turn if I want it to be.

Seriously, I thought of going to a used commerical walk-behind. I've seen some of those in respectable condition for cheap money. This may be my answer.

We own both a JD GX345 lawn tractor and a Scag z-turn. We love both. Each has an advantage over the other. Our scag is made for mowing, lots of mowing. The seat is like a leather la-z-boy. We use it on ditches next to road ways, it's kinda tricky sometimes but you learn the technique pretty quickly. We already have 150 hours on it and just bought it in April. Our GX345 is also a wonderful machine, we love the power-steering and sharp steering. It's not an all-wheel steer but still turns pretty sharp. We can use this with our sprayer, spreader, tiller, roller, snowblower & etc. I handles nicely on the roadway ditches also. The seat is definitely less quality than the scag. When you are on a mower for several hours every day, the seat matters!! We are happy with them both when it comes to mowing quality. The scag has a heavier deck. They both have Kawasaki engines with plenty of power. If we could do one thing over, we would have gotten the scag with a 52 inch deck instead of the 48 because when you go around utility poles or smaller trees, the deck is only as wide as the mower, so you either rub the back tire on the object or you have to back up a bit. I'm certain a larger deck would eliminate that problem. Thinking about trading up next year.

Edited to add: just checked ConsumerReports.org and both the LA115 and Z225 are rated as a best-buy or recommended. Not sure if that tidbit helps at all or not!

IWIG, going to the mowers you have is a quantum leap above what I need. I only have ~23k sq ft

The JD dealer has a lot of used commerical walk behinds that I am going to look at (as well as craigslist). I may be able to spend far less money and end up with both a ZTR and not lose the tractor features.

One knock I have about the LA115 is I don't like the hydro speed being controlled by my foot. I like my old mower that you controlled the hydro speed with a lever next to the seat. You could just set it where you wanted it and then drove around in "cruise control". If I wanted to speed up a tiny bit, I just nudged the level a wee bit and carried on my way. Now I have to drive and constantly hold a steady speed 100% of the time via the foot pedal.

lawnandgarden wrote:Now if I could only turn my R/C airplane into a airborne fertilizer/sprayer, that would totally rock the house!

Sure, a 1/4 scale STOL Piper J-3 is all you need!!

You may know this but some R/C airplanes require a private pilots license. I'm not sure about the 1/3 scale. I have two planes and they were just "ready to fly" models. Fun hobby and easier than it looks to fly. My trainer plane has done more cartwheels during take off and landing than I care to admit.

I have a Gravely 148Z bought it new in '06. It was expensive for home use, I have heard to many horror stories with cheap $2,000 mowers. The mower is a commercial built. I figure It should last the rest of my life. Cuttting is a breeze. Very relible. You do have to be carefull with scalping because of the turning radius and on banks. If you have steep hills you have to be careful about the size of the mower wider is better, so you don't flip.