I've had my commercial walk behind since '94. ~$2200 yup great investment.
the yard at our previous house had a steep hill in the front that meant no riding mower.
and of course if it's got an engine I've got all of the other lawn power toys as well. well except for the trailer. can't hook a trailer on a walk behind.
I did think about getting a sulky though.
My neighbor had a big 58" zero turn. damn it was fast, scared the crap out of me.
but remember, ' it's not how fast you mow, it's how well you mow fast. "

 

While we enjoy puttering in the yard, I can't imagine HAVING to spend 1 1/2 -2 hours weekly mowing. Thankfully, our little postage stamp of a lawn can be mowed in 45 minutes or less.

I guess it's all in how you want to spend your $ and time. You can't buy time, but you can buy someone to mow your lawn! My brother in law hired someone to mow his (not so large) lawn until he retired.

The good thing about a small yard is should one be unable to mow, it won't break the bank to have it done. Ready to downsize yet, Jerry?

 

The commercial mower has an hour meter on it. I hate looking at it. I average 50 ish hours per summer. My old mower had 1200 hours on it when I sold it.

 

I really like the zero-turn mowers EXCEPT you can't pull a lawn cart behind them. We use our cart a lot hauling stuff around in the spring, after storms, etc.

 

I pull a lawn cart or a 5'x8' aluminum trailer behind mine on a regular basis. I don't have any hills, and I try not to have too much weight on them, but recently moved 15, 3 cu ft bags of mulch with ease.

 

I suspect you have a larger one then as the normal yard ones I tried out at John Deere didn't pull anything as I recall.

 

My oldest grandson was over for father’s day. He is working for a landscaping company while going to college. He learned a valuable lesson about maintenance on lawn equipment. I don’t recall the exact item, perhaps something to do with digging, but the parking brake hung up on it during a job and it cost the company $1,500 to have someone come out and free things up. He said the entire expense could have been avoided by following the owners manual and grease the line, etc.

I had to do a little chest pounding and showed him my maintenance record/schedule in the garage that lists every single lawn item I own and shows what was done when and what needs done when.

 

You are obviously not in the "fix it when it breaks" category of people. We have no such records in our shed or home. Rick maintains stuff pretty well. The cars are well maintained but he kind of keeps stuff in his head until he tells me it's time to get something done. I do hang on to the various receipts when the work is done or parts are purchased, but you'd cringe at my lack of organization and no spread sheet either.

 

I'd brag how long I've kept stuff running but I know better!!!!! Did that about my 20 year old truck A/C and damn, not a week later, the clutch on the compressor went out. I am a quick learner, no bragging.

 

it is amazing how quick time flashes by though.
I got the spindle repaired two years ago although I thought it was just last year.
I could see keeping a book to know that it was last year and not 5 or 6 years ago.