Long time lurker and enjoy getting tips and ideas from this forum. I am in the market for a zero turn mower and am looking at either a Scag Liberty Z or a Gravely HD. Mowing 2 acres with a mix of St. Augustine around my home and pasture land in the back (semi-rough terrain). Any recommendations or opinions?

TIA

Have you looked at Exmark? Those are some pretty stout mowers.

I looked at everything for 6 months and the Scag is the one I picked. It is heavy duty, smooth and extremely fast. So fast you have to use the low speed settings
Hands down the best mower I have ever used.

Scag.........on name alone. I'm out scaging the lawn.

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Scag

#1 Scag, #2 Gravely.... Exmark not even in the same league!

1997aggies said:

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#1 Scag, #2 Gravely.... Exmark not even in the same league!

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Lol

I have a Gravely and mow a little over an acre plus I'll hit fence lines and bar ditch. This is my third year mowing with it and I've been pleased.

I'm on year 7 of my Scag Freedom Z 52 with the 23HP Kawasaki. Been incredibly happy with it. I've replaced one anti-scalp wheel and that's the only "issue" I have had with it. Other than that its new oil, spark plug and filters every 2 years.

My pops and grandpops didn't have as good of luck with their gravelys, although, they were residential models.

On year 13 of my Scag Tiger Cub. It's a commercial mower. I doubt I'll ever have to buy another mower.

This has been torturing me too lately. I have a 14 year old residential model husqvarna with 1100 hours on it that I might have killed on the last mowing. As much as I want to buy a Scag, I can't justify it. I've been looking at on mowers direct at around the 3k level. One guy recommended the Ariens XD.

I have a successful lawn business so lol at you!

Cool. I see plenty of successful lawn companies running Scag, Hustler, JD, Exmark....

So what is the great differentiator between scag/gravely and the rest?

Lawn guys/experts: Where do Grasshopper zero turns rank on your list?

In that range I'd look close at the Hustler SD series.

Love my diesel Grasshopper. Beginning 4th year.

Cub Cadet zero turn with the steering wheel. You can drink a beer as you go.

Been using a Gravely ZT HD with the 48 inch deck for about 3 years now. Thing is a beast.

Looks like there are lots of good quality zero turns out there these days. Probably not realistic for most of us to say one is better than the others since we really haven't had seat time on most of them. Maybe it would be better for people to post on the problems they've personally had with a certain brand/model and why they would go a different direction. Might be more helpful?

Which scag and which gravely? The commercial grade scag mowers are hard to beat but I am guessing you will get more mower for your dollar by running gravely.

I've got a Scag Liberty w/ Kawasaki engine that's a few years old. If I recall correctly, Scag produced this line to try and get into the residential zero turn market at a residential price point.

It seems comparable to the gravely's price point and I think the gravely 48" offers the same Kawasaki engine. Scag has a 5yr/750 hr warranty and gravely has a 4 yr/500 hr warranty.

so with that, I found a 2018 Scag Liberty Z with only 20 hours for $3,750. Is that a good price?

I'd compare the metal gauge of the deck, bearings, hydros, etc against what's available at that price point from the other brands. Liberty Z is I believe the consumer-grade Scag.

Watch out for riding lawnmower scams. As bad as trailers and cars. I got divorced, fixing to be deployed and can ship it to you, common story. Usually you ask for pictures then poke them in Google image search and you can file the ones they dug up on the internet. Maybe its real, be be careful.

Thank y'all. Didn't realize mower sales would be a scam. Makes sense when thinking about it.

It definitely is the consumer grade version. I'll have to check it out since it's 3 hours away.

I paid ~4,500 new for a 2018 48" Liberty from the dealer.

Edit: Is it from a dealer? Could be discounted in an attempt to dump old stock. The 20 hrs could be accumulated from the dealer moving the mower in and out of shop day for display.

No. It's an individual seller. I'll definitely check out the dealers though. I like the idea of a warranty.

I was in your boat when I decided to buy new from dealer. Last mower I purchased was a used JD X300 via craigslist for a decent price. Didn't realize mower deck was bent near one of the spindles causing an uneven cut until after I drove back home with it. Beat it with a BFH and was still nearly 1/4" difference when blades met in the middle.

Same story as someone else mentioned, they claimed to be moving, no longer needed a bigger mower, and needed cash for down payment on new house. Realized after that they damn sure knew about it based on how willing/quick they were to accept a lower offer when I met with them to look at it.

If you're trying to save cash, you may call around and see what each dealer has in their inventory. Most will cut a deal on last year's mower model to get rid of it. I think only difference between my 2018 and a 2019 was a black piece of steel added to the front of the platform where your boots rest.

I think Scag has a dealer locater on their website. There are quite a few small engine shops that are also dealers if you want to call around and see about last years model. I think it's still early enough in season there may be a few left out there.

I can pop wheelies on my Scag for what its worth.