I agree Zero turns speedup the big grass cutting job but I also see people who could easily cut their yard with a self propelled walk behind mower or conventional lawn tractor on zero turns. Since the commercial guy have gone to them they have become a status symbol in subdivisions like the F 250 dooly diesel pickup of years past when everyone wanted to play 18 wheeler driver to go 5 miles with no load or no trailer.
I have a Scag Wildcat 54" with either a 25 or 27 hp liquid cooled Kawasaki engine, purchased new in 2006. I mow 1 3/4 acres lots of trees ect too mow around. I did have a upper grade JD lawn tractor and it took almost 3 hours on it, now less than and hour and a half on the Scag. I had one service call on it, the electric blade clutch bearings failed at about the 3 year mark and had to be replaced, otherwise nothing else. Been running Mobil 1 10w40 in the engine. The hydraulics specify 20w50 and I replaced the factor fluid with syntetic in it quickly It's built like a tank, welded deck Three layers of steel where the spindle housings bolt on well over 1/2 inch thick there. Cannot remember at the moment but either 15 or 18 grease fittings, blade spindles, front wheels, front wheel swivel bearings, all the lift pivots, and main wheel brakes. to name a few. Some are very hard to access so over the years I axxo rigged extensions so I could reach them. Compared to the commercial guys my total hours on it are low. We are in a small town, there was a dealer with Scag, the other good dealer carried toro and their commercial mowers look good, but they would not deal even though I really preferred them for location and having bought a lot of other equipment from them. Some of the box stores like Tractor Supply and Atwoods here have Cub Cadet( had bad experience with them, so never again) and Bad Boy. I preferred to go with a local dealer who can provide service.
