I figure this is garage/workshop related.

I should have bought this mower years ago. It's amazing.

Anyways, here's the back story. Back in '12 I bought the property I live on now. It's an acre with about 100 small to medium/large oak trees. It makes mowing and weedeating fun. I ran an old MTD 42" riding mower for a few years and then in '15 I bought a relative nice (for a riding mower) Craftsman 46" rider. The Craftsman had a unique feature that appealed to me which was a "tight turn" capability where the front tires would essentially turn nearly perpendicular to the rear tires allowing it to just about pivot on the back inside tire. Not a zero turn, but a reasonable compromise.

Around that same time a coworker and my cousin both recommended Grasshopper mowers. I looked once and when I saw the price I basically said eff that and moved on. That Craftsman I bought was about 2k btw. Anyways, mowing with that Craftsman was OK but still took about 3hrs to mow the whole yard with all the trees. All of my coworkers mocked me for not investing in a zero turn. Looking back on it, I definitely should have. Would have saved soooo much time.

The Craftsman has lasted me but it really hasn't held up. I could be a little better with chassis maintenance and upkeep but I didn't do much more that grease the zerk fittings. I do take really good care of the engine but that's about the only part of the machine that has held up. The rest is just beat so around the beginning of the year I started to look around.

Actually, what really pushed me to begin looking was that I borrowed my dad's Bad Boy zero turn. It was so efficient I just couldn't believe it. I began looking at just buying the exact same thing he had but one option I really wanted was a leaf bagging system and the more I looked at them, the more the name Grasshopper popped up. I reached back out to my cousin and coworker who both have been running Grasshoppers for probably 20 years each now and picked their brains. My cousin threw the term "buy once, cry once" at me almost immediately and said to just freaking buy one lol. My coworker basically said the same thing so with that, I began calling dealerships to pick their brains.

I started off looking at the cheapest ones but the big boys with liquid-cooled engines just kept whispering to me so before I knew it I had ordered the 329 with the Kubota gas engine and 52" deck (nimble for getting around trees) and the Power Vac system. I know some people go nuts over the diesel BUT the dealerships I spoke to plus many forum members I spoke to in various lawn sites all said to go with the gas and let me tell you, I'm glad I did. This thing is a monster, especially on a 52" deck. I don't have crazy thick grass in general but it doesn't even bat an eye at what I'm throwing at it. I brought it out to my dad's where he has 5 acres of coastal he maintains and it was just a blast. Cut beautifully and didn't even flinch no matter how hard I pushed it.

Here's a pic of it loaded up on the way to my dad's a few days ago.

 

I bought the 329 with the Vanguard Briggs, and have had zero issues. I bought it about 8-9 years ago, and I mow approximately 4 acres. Anytime someone asks about buying a zero turn, I recommend Grasshopper!