The Total Piece o' Shit Murray 40504x92 40" is nearly kaput. Because of abundant trees, slopes, and ditches, I don't want a Zero-Turn nor do I want much (if any) more than 42". I have a John Deere, a Sears (Craftsman), and a Sutherland's (mostly Troy-Built) in my town. There's also a 2001 60" John Deere 445 with a hydraulic snow plow for $4600. For other dealerships I'd have to go 50-60 miles.
Personally, I'd go with the JD or even a Husky. Most all other mowers are built by MTD. I still have a 20 year old craftsman 42" that does the job and an old 38" murray that I picked up for $0 on craigslist that I rebuilt. Those mow my 2 acre field just fine. My next mower will be a JD 54".
I have a craftsman (built by husky) and it works pretty good. John Deere is crap until you get to the real ones (2000$+)
http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-...drostatic-yard-tractor/p-07128856000P?prdNo=9 I said fuck it and bought (coincidently) the 42" Craftsman YT4000 for $1799 after being pleasantly surprised by the shiny silver Husqvarna sticker under the seat. I took the one there at the store and they'll deliver it tomorrow. After reading up some I'm sort of glad I took the store one because they had to have done most of the post-crate/pre-operation hoo-hah (though I still intend to check it out) I'm going to take the Total Piece of Shit Murray to drag the cart around and pick up branches and shit to get ready for the real mower. BTW, my little cart or wagon or whatever is made by Tupperware. Whodathunkit.
I am now in push-mower land for the rest of my foreseeable future. It has power assist which occasionally assists.
One cool little feature I wouldn't have thought of in a million years: The deck has a nozzle on top for attaching a garden hose. When you're done, you hook it up, turn on the water, crank up the mower, engage the blades, and viola, you've washed the underside of the deck; no crusty build-up.
It's becoming a standard feature on push mowers too. It makes up for the inefficient deck designs that look cool, but won't flush clippings as well as the un-cool old designs did. It's an easy fix to the problem and it works OK.
