[donberry]

53 year old from middle tn. I own 3 acres, only mow about 1 - 1/2 of that. Had a John Deere Sabre with a Kohler engine for the last 12 years or so. Decided it was time for a new mower (toy) and just bought a Gravely ZT 50. Yea, yea, I know many say to spend the extra and get a XL, but an extra 800-900 is quite a bit for a mower for me. I figure if my sabre lasted this long (it still works), the ZT should do just fine, especially as I am embarrassed to admit it, but I took horrible care of my Sabre.
Biggie for me will I really hope I will be able to "drive" it ok. I am a disabled vet, my spine is totally fused and I have 2 fake hips (one is due for replacement again) so I am about the least mobile guy you will meet. I know just sitting on my new gravely, it isn't nearly as easy to get on and off since I don;t have the steering wheel to grab a hold of.
I did just add the flextender arm rests and am putting on the mulch kit right now.
Basically thought it was time for a new toy. I do know I plan on taking much better care of this mower.

 

[Mark / Ohio]

Welcome to the forum Don! :howdy:

 

[Five Points]

:welcome: Glad you joined the forum Don and thank you for your service. :ThumbUp:
12 years still sounds pretty good for a mower you neglected a bit. You'll be happy with a Zero and save a lot of time mowing. We look forward to hearing from you and your opinions of your new mower.

 

[Mark777]

:welcome: to the forum, Don :howdy:

Glad you joined us and hope you enjoy your visits here.

I can, to a lessor degree, share in your pain with a bad back and a rough ride. Must be something we veterans share.

 

[bwdbrn1]

:welcome: to the forum Don. Looking forward to hearing more from you. What are your plans for the Sabre now that you've got yourself a new toy?

 

[Austen]

Welcome to MLF, Don!

Thank you for the nice introduction.

That is one nice new mowing machine that you got. Quite the upgrade! It sounds like it has been more than you expected it to be and will be for many years to come.

 

[DrBailey]

Hey Don, Welcome to MLF, enjoy the forums

 

[donberry]

Thanks for the welcomes.
As for the sabre, I am going to keep it and use it as my "brush" mower and will probably still use it to pull the cart.
It still runs fine. The only problem there is it does not charge the battery. I messed with it last year and could never figure it out, so never did get it fixed. I discovered they use very little electricity once they are running, so I would just put it on a battery charger a couple times a month so it would start.
Biggest "problem" was the deck rusting. It was my fault as I took horrible care of it the last few years and it sat outside in many a rain. I would guess that basically I wanted a new mower so did not take the best care of it. But surprisingly it just kept chugging along.
Actually, I hope the new Gravely does as well as it did. Besides the charging problem, which was self inflicted as I forget why now, but I tore it down once and it never charged afterwards, but I never really had any problems at all with that mower.
Ironic actually. My neighbor bought a L110 a year after I got mine. He took great care of his mower, as he does with everything he owns, and I abused the heck out of mine.
Last year I saw a new mower in his yard and asked him about it. The transmission apparently pretty much blew apart on it and he was having some other problem, so he ended up getting a new mower.
My abused one - just kept chugging along.
So now it will hopefully save the spindles on the gravely and I will use it to cut my woods and a field I sometimes mow that has rocks strewn about.
I have zero bad things to say about a John Deere tho. Mine lasted 15 years and is still running despite being abused.