Mowing with bar tread tires and a clutch question

[justanengineer]

Well fellas, Ive been intending to ask a few hypothetical questions for awhile now, but have simply been working too much at the career and on my 1250. The situation is, as much as I like my hydro 1250, Ive always harbored a secret desire for an early narrow frame as I have some distant childhood memories of test riding an uncle's Os, 70s, and 100s. Unfortunately, I cannot justify garage space for two mowers bc of other automotive and machining hobbies, so am trying to decide if I should stick with the 1250 or get a 100.

Now for the hypothetical question part. I grew up on a farm in the hills of NY and am no stranger to decent sized (100 hp) tractors and large construction equipment with clutches in hilly, muddy, and bad situations...but yet Im not sure how they really perform at relatively simple lawn mowing. My lawn is a fairly open 1.5 acres, a dozen or so trees and a bit hilly, but no super difficult mowing. Id like some feedback from members here about mowing with a clutch vs mowing with a hydro. How do you like it? PITA or no?

Also, Id like to find a tiller for next year's garden and have read that a manual trans and bar tread tires are "the" combination to have for tough soil. What is your experience with mowing with bar treads? Im sure Id like them for tilling as the soil here is pretty hard clay, but not sure about general mowing. Should I simply get a spare set of wheels and take the 2 mins to change them for tilling?

As always, thoughts, opinions, and feedback are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks.

[drglinski]

Here is what my history is with a similar situation.

My dad bought a property (the house I grew up in) that is 1.5 acres on a hill. He bought a 125 with turf tires to mow it with. Granted the hill was not very steep at all, but it would not climb it. It required chains, until he got fed up with those and put on ag tires (bar tires.)

I've mowed with it for 17 years or so with the ag tires and did not have an issue. This being said, dad then bought a 782 about 10 years ago with turf tires (that climbs the hill stubbornly and likes to slip a lot compared to the ag. tires on the 125) and I never noticed a difference in the lawn- I could not tell which one had mowed there. Keep in mind water does not stand on the property as it is very rocky under the soil.

We used the 125 for tilling our garden too; the ag tires worked good for this, plus they made the soil look great.


Fast forward to this spring. I bought a 147 with turf tires for my yard of .38 of an acre and my yard is swampy under heavy rainy conditions. I am hesitant to run ags in my yard under wet conditions as I am afraid of it tearing up my lawn.

I like your option on purchasing another set of wheels that way you can decide easier. I've thought about doing that for my 147; having a set of AGS and a set of turfs so I can work more effectively depending on what the job is or ground conditions are.


As far as the hydro/gear combo is concerned; all of the Cadets I've mowed with have been hydros, although I have run a few of my friend's off brand gear drives and I'd prefer a hydro any day, IMO.

[cubby102]

I personally prefur hydro for mowing. But I have a lot of trees and obsticals that require backing up and a lot of turning but I like the gear drives for the heavier jobs of pushing and pulling tuggin and what have you. I've tilled with both hydro and gear drive with a.creeper setup. I must say I like the gear drive much better for that

[Diz Jr.]

I love hydro's with Ag tires.
Ags are filled with windshield washer fluid plus i am running 90 lbs. of iron weights on each side as well.
This is my year around set up.
Mowing, pushing snow, plowing, and anything else that comes along.
Where i do a lot of mowing, there are pretty steep hills and trees.
Turf tires were always slipping, and even though they didn't rip the sod out, it would still leave that burn mark.
I very seldom ever slip with the ags.
They hydro is so nice going around the trees, or any spot the would require backing up and pulling forward several times.
Just my

[ajcombs]

Personally own both and mow with both but I would lean towards a hydro if you have lots of obstacles if not ive been known to mow in 3rd with my 1200, but that was a long flat yard with no weeds just nice grass! If you have to buy tires ags and weight is the only way to go! Just take it easy and it wont tear up the yard. But I like leaving burn marks on the highway so if I dig a tench somewhere I tend to grin and fix it later!

[Donovan M.]

My 100 is great to mow with. I love my 38in cast end deck on float, does a nice job. i got 6-12 ags on and two 75lb wheel weights on each side. never slips.

[Matt G.]

Mowing with a gear drive is a chore if you have trees or other obstacles. Lug tires, weights, etc. are unnecessary for tilling- all the tractor has to do is hold the tiller back, which the gear drives do better in my experience.