Grasshopper 725DT

[EastTexFrank]

Does anyone know anything about them?

Just before leaving for vacation in Colorado a month ago my Befco 60" RFM on the B2400 broke, actually wore out a spindle, after 12 years trouble free service. Usually it's not a problem, hook up the trailer to the truck and borrow the S-I-L's Z326 diesel zero turn. Only, right now, I don't have a truck, blown turbocharger, so no back-up. The grass in the yard is so tall you could cut it and bale it. It's driving me nuts.

I need an answer fast. I've decided on a commercial grade diesel machine. I had looked at front mount mowers but a price tag of around $25K is getting a bit steep. I had pretty much decided on a Z326 like my S-I-L's but I have a lot of tree limbs to mow under. That was until I found the Grasshopper 725DT front mount diesel zero turn. It looks as if it might suit my needs better but I don't know anything about them. I'll probably be putting a couple of hundred hours a year on this machine.

Any opinions and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[muleman]

Ask Dargo. I think he has several of them. The Bota's are nice but pricey.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Grasshoppers have a great rep. I doubt you could go wrong with them.

 

[300 H and H]

Agreed, they are great machines that will run along time. Commercial grade for sure. Is there a dealer near bye? This would be a big help in case you need blades belts ect...

Regards, Kirk

 

[EastTexFrank]

Agreed, they are great machines that will run along time. Commercial grade for sure. Is there a dealer near bye? This would be a big help in case you need blades belts ect...

Regards, Kirk

Yea, there's one about 14 miles away. It's a little 2 man place but they handle Grasshopper and Dixie Chopper. They carry all the consumables and the more common spares. They had a selection of the center mount deck ztr mowers in the yard but no front mounts or diesels. They seemed to be sturdily built and I played around for a few minutes. I'm not too worried about the engine, it's a Kubota, but I wanted to know if the front mount was worth the extra money over the center mount or if there was any reason to be looking at something else.

Where's Dargo when you need him????

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

If you have to work around trees or hedges then a front mounted deck is the way to go. I had a center deck ZTR and I wasn't that happy with it when I had to go around trees.

 

[Doc]

I am happy with my mid mount ZTR, especially for going around trees and what not. Easy Peezy. I see the advantage of the front mount is that it can get the inside corners that a mid mount cannot get to.
Grasshoppers do have a great rep. I don't think you can go wrong with one.

 

[300 H and H]

Yea, there's one about 14 miles away. It's a little 2 man place but they handle Grasshopper and Dixie Chopper. They carry all the consumables and the more common spares. They had a selection of the center mount deck ztr mowers in the yard but no front mounts or diesels. They seemed to be sturdily built and I played around for a few minutes. I'm not too worried about the engine, it's a Kubota, but I wanted to know if the front mount was worth the extra money over the center mount or if there was any reason to be looking at something else.

I have used both a definately if you have trees and shrubs, bushes exetera, the ability to go under these wtih the deck is a big deal. Especially if your not fond of line trimmers!

Regards, Kirk

 

[EastTexFrank]

Thanks guys, your thinking seems to reflect mine. It's just that I am a little reluctant to plonk down a chunk of change on a machine that I haven't sat on and piddled around with for a little while. I don't want to make an expensive mistake but I don't mind spending the money on a good piece of equipment that I'm going to use a lot.

I'm going to price a Kubota F2680E on Monday afternoon and I also found a Country Clipper dealer that's not too far. Anyway, one way or another I'm going to order something on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. I can't stand looking at my yard any longer.

I managed to track down my buddy yesterday. The asshhat turned off his phone and went fishing but he'll be back the middle of next week. I can use his truck to pull my trailer to get my S-I-L's Z326. Family and friends, we'd be stuck without them. Finally, something is going right.

 

[ArDonnie]

I have owned 4 front mount grasshoppers. They are great. I currently have a 725 with a kubota gas engine, 52 inch deck, electric lift. I also have a mid mount. I would rather run the front mount any day. The only thing I would do differently is getting the Diesel engine, but this one was such a bargain I couldn't pass it up. It is plenty powerful and purrs like a kitten. I live in the south so I did install a five blade fan that really helps with the cooling.(i don't have to clean the screen as frequently)

 

[EastTexFrank]

I have owned 4 front mount grasshoppers. They are great. I currently have a 725 with a kubota gas engine, 52 inch deck, electric lift. I also have a mid mount. I would rather run the front mount any day. The only thing I would do differently is getting the Diesel engine, but this one was such a bargain I couldn't pass it up. It is plenty powerful and purrs like a kitten. I live in the south so I did install a five blade fan that really helps with the cooling.(i don't have to clean the screen as frequently)

Thanks ArDonnie and welcome to FF.

I ended up getting the Kubota F2680 with 60" deck mainly because of the dealer back-up around me. It's the smallest of the Kubota front mounts and is the only 2-wheel drive in the series, the two larger ones are 4-wheel drive, but you can lock the drive wheels for extra traction. I've never missed not having 4-wheel drive. If it starts to lose traction, you just nudge the deck up for an instant and drop it back down. It's one heck of a mowing machine and built like a tank. I've been very pleased with it. The only criticism that I've got is that the deck only moves in two axis, up and down and front to back. If you're using it on uneven ground across slopes the cut is not quite so good but that's a criticism that you could level at every large deck mowing machine out there. Someday, somebody is going to invent a deck that runs on a center mount knuckle joint that will move every which way.

I've got to go sharpen the blades before it's next use which will be tomorrow.

 

[Dargo]

I have owned 4 front mount grasshoppers. They are great. I currently have a 725 with a kubota gas engine, 52 inch deck, electric lift. I also have a mid mount. I would rather run the front mount any day. The only thing I would do differently is getting the Diesel engine, but this one was such a bargain I couldn't pass it up. It is plenty powerful and purrs like a kitten. I live in the south so I did install a five blade fan that really helps with the cooling.(i don't have to clean the screen as frequently)

Uh, sorry, I just saw this post...a couple years late. I know them intimately well.

Actually I'm down to just matching "his" and "hers" front mount diesel 700 series Grasshoppers. Back when I had a mowing business I also had two 900 series front mount diesel Grasshoppers. The only issue with the bigger 900 series and the 72" decks is that, at least in my case, I seemed to scalp a lot of areas with that wide of a deck and was limited getting between trees. IMHO, the happy medium is the 61" deck. Also, having had a 4XXX series JD tractor with a 7 Iron mid mount mower at the same time, I can tell you that the deck on a front mount Grasshopper is almost exactly twice the thickness of JD's highly promoted '7 Iron' decks.

It's funny that I just saw this thread the day after I had the first problem with any of my Grasshoppers. I started mowing yesterday with my 1999 model (2260 hour) 721D2 and I suddenly smelled diesel fuel. I looked behind me and when I crossed the driveway, I saw a trail of diesel fuel. Never had that happen before. I immediately shut it off and used some slings under it and picked it up with my JD 5525 front loader (IMHO, the best tractor ever in the under 100 hp range, and I've had several dozen) and carried it back to the barn to work on. It turns out I had an Oak branch pull the hose off of my fuel filter. That was actually 2 good things; first, it couldn't have happened very long before I noticed because it was just running on the diesel in the hose and second, that keeps the streak of "zero repairs" of any sort intact since 1999 and over 2000 hours.

I tell ya, the two 700 series front mount deck Grasshoppers are the first machines I've ever owned that are tougher than I am. I've gotten pissed after mowing in the hot sun for hours and having those pecker gnats swarming around me and just ran the machines as fast as they will run (about 11 mph) across areas so rough that I couldn't stay in my seat and the bumps blurred my vision they were so hard and I've still never broken anything. My only key is that I've never, not even once, run more than 8 hours (about how long an 8 gallon tank of fuel lasts) between greasing all of the fittings. I've mowed hills so steep that I couldn't walk on them and bounced them mercilessly and they keep on ticking.

This last winter I was thinking that 2000 hours was a long time on a mower deck spindle, so I took one off and put my calipers on them to compare to what new specs were. Much to my surprise, after that many hours, I could not come up with any measurable wear!! I'm still on the original deck belt, original tires etc. The only thing I've changed has been the filters, fluids and mower blades. I've hit rip-rap using them as 'bush-hogs' in areas that were grown over and couldn't see what I was going over. Knocking one side off of a blade sure makes a mower vibrate like crazy! Still, just sharpening the blades a few times every year I get about 250 hours or so out of a set of blades. Although they cost more, it seems that the Grasshopper brand of blades last much longer and will hold an edge far longer after being bounced off of the ground hundreds of times.

Now that I've said that, I'll end up with my first issue. Still, after 2200 hours on the older one, I really wouldn't feel that the mower owed me anything if it had something break. They definitely have not been easy hours nor over areas like a golf fairway. I have owned JD, Kubota, Exmark, Scag, Ferris, Great Dane (the former owner of Scag's new company after he became infuriated that the new - about 10 years ago - owners of Scag really dropped the quality of the machines to have a higher profit margin) and a Dixie Chopper mower. I didn't own one, but probably the worst (sorry if it upsets someone) quality ZTR I've ever worked on was a Cub Cadet 'Tank'. I don't see any around anymore, so it's probably safe to tell that they were totally junk; even far lower than the (admitted residential) Dixon ZTR mowers, and the Cub Cadet machines were advertised as "commercial" models and not sold in box stores (probably because the box stores do not have full time service departments to start working on them after they first start them).

Since I've had so many and have worked on several others, I feel that I can give an honest opinion on the build quality, durability and mowing quality of many ZTR mowers without any prejudice. I just kept the Grasshoppers because they were totally trouble free and the front mount design allows them to ride better than even the Ferris ZTR mowers that have 4 wheel suspension. And, BTW, Ferris does make a very, very good mower. Their build quality is very much like a Kubota but has suspension.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Dargo, where were you two years ago?

After I did all my research, my first preference was the Grasshopper front mount diesel. The only reason I didn't get one was because their local dealer was a two man small engine repair shop and they didn't have any front mounts on the floor. I did look at their zero turns and was impressed with the build quality but I was really worried about the availability of spares and any required maintenance.

I went with the Kubota instead because I like the color. No, seriously, I went with it because of the dealer who I already had a relationship with. If I'd known that I wouldn't need a dealer for over 2000 hours I would have probably gone the other way. The way I use my mower that's about 15 years of work and that's about all the use that I want or need out of one.

Having said all that, I'm still very happy with the F2680. It does everything I want and does it well. Well, I better go and sharpen the blades before I use it today.