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Front-cut Mowers


bkassulke

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I was owndering if a front cut mower would be better than a mower with the deck below the middle of a tractor. I am asking because in Norfolk we have a small Vanguard front cut mower. It also has a bag collection on the back. What are these worth and do they have any advantages or disadvantages over the other kinds of tractors.
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I would be interested in the replies to this post...I have seen several of those Simplicity Sunrunners for sale here in my area...I bet they would be nice for mowing under the trees with low branches...
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I've got an older Simplicity CFC20L zeroturn where the deck is out front. It's ok on gently sloping terrain, but is best on relatively flat ground. It is a lot of fun to operate, and you can nose the front of the mower in and out of 'dead' corners. Final string trimming is usually one-pass. I do keep a push mower for a steep embankment where the zero turn can't cut it. The newer ZTs have different weight loading, regarding engine/wheel placement, so I don't know about them.
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Well, I looked at a Deutz Allis front cut on the internetfor sale for around $800.00 dollars canadian. Front cuts are good for going around trees and cutting small lawns because they have a tight turning radius. Also they are ment for flat lawns and not hilly terrain or that is what my dealer says. My dealer also told me to stay away from front cut simplicity's because they go through more belts then a mid mounted simplicity tractor! Acording to my dealer they loss traction when the grass is wet and they are built lightly or that is what my dealer says. A Simplicity Sunrunner would not be good if you want to put a blower on the front because they are way to light! If you plan on doing more then cutting grass go with a mid- deck mounted tractor, but if you are just going to cut grass, then a front cut would be OK, this is just my opinion on Simplicity front cuts! Take Care Jason
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Hi, We have Sunrunners that we sold in the 80s that are still going. They are good reliable mowers, and work well with turbo systems. The disadvanatage of all front cuts it the traction going up hill. They will back up a very steep bank. If you put an imagianary line vertical line through your body when you are going up hill you would notice that the weight shift is almost to the steer wheels. The front deck weight is carried in large amount by the front casters. The second edition Front cuts had a long lever and a lift spring that you could pull to transfer some of the deck weight to the drive wheels, helped a lot going up hill. Grasshopper uses a constant spring tension to lift on the deck and transfer weight to the drive wheels. The weight transfer is really the only shortcoming of a front cut mower. One other thing. In hot dirty mowing you bolw the dirt out ahead of you and they can be somewhat dirtier in these conditions. My 2 cents worth and its free, value accordingly. Al Eden. Note we have 2 new catcher units for the Sun Runners.
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Where I work we have a Ransome 723D with a 72" front deck. It is ok on hills great for doing ball fields. It is a lot dirtier in the mid summer like Al said. We also have a Hustler superZ (zero turn) With a 72" deck It is a blast to run made grass cutting fun again. I have ran it across some steep hills with no problem as long as the grass is not wet. The front deck is great for trimming under trees and fences. But the zero turn will cut more grass in a shorter time from my experience. But they do not have the quality of the Simplicity and A/C cut. Just my two cents.
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The JD 935s and the same basic size in a Toro are great machines. The JD has a hydro deck lift and locking Pos to help with hill traction ( And we are talking some fair hills in my neck of the woods ). The Toros we had didn't have the locking drive axle but would out climb the JDs anyway. But we are talking machines that had stickers around 15 grand. Few machines will outcut them in even a fairly open lawn IMO. To bad Simplicity don't make something that heavy in a frt cut.
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Snapper makes a front cut that is real popular in my area. The people I have talked to say that it has a traction problem on hills also. This sounds like a common problem with front cuts.
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