I do a bit of mowing too, at my old place(10ac or 44000m2 for you cityboys) I brought a 38" COX lawnboss(green model)with the bigblock 18hp B/S(16hp normally)its done 6 seasons so far apart from 3 blade changes and a battery never had any trouble with it... especially since it was a lot more cash than the equivalent MF or Masport you would hope so!
At the new place(16ac) I inherited an 8hr old 50" Country Clipper zero turn 23.5hp Kohler V-twin.
I think the Cox has a better more even cut but is way slower on the big mow(yearly fire break creation)compared to the Clipper, Im putting it down to the blade set up the Clipper is like most larger units with multiple cutter heads(3 in this case)and the Cox has a single flywheel set up with 4 swing blades.
Im thinking the Cox blades are running at a lot higher velocity due to the 30" wide flywheel(plus blade length 8") compared to the 18" of the Clipper.
The Clipper is way more movable(obviously being a ZT)but its very hard to control being a single stick steer and its a big unit so doesnt fit in many places, plus if your like me and have big trees and ground covered in sticks as nature intended it "bumpy as F%^&" you have trouble keeping it in a straight line :(
You can see why these ZT units are starting to have suspension nowdays.
Had a Oh F%^& discovery on my Cox a few weeks ago, was mowing down the paddock near my sheds through very dry wheat/tall grass about 3 ft tall, was getting very dark so I drove back to the shed and noticed a blue flame shooting from the exhaust at higher revs... its about 2 foot off the ground pointing straight out the side right into that tall dry grass, god knows how it didnt ignite the paddock
