Since you started to "narrow down the field" do you know what brands are readily available from reputable dealers in Knoxville? I don't, but there should be a variety since it's a mid sized city and there's plenty grass to cut there. Yes, spring is here and the grass is growing but don't rush to purchase. Tell the real estate company that you need to have the grass cut for a couple weeks or a month until you get you're mower and you're settled in. If that doesn't happen, when you eventually purchase a $5K to 7K mower, trust me, it will cut your 1.4 acre of tall fescue and rye grass. Oh, and by the way, you're moving to Tennessee, so if it takes a while to get your lawn cut they won't call the lawn police on you. Relax, good luck, and enjoy the Volunteer State. It's a universe away from where you're moving. Here is a link that might be useful: 25 or so dealers in Knoxville

OK tmajor, just for you you brick totin' son of a gun. The insurance agent knocked on Mr. Jones' door. Mrs. Jones answers and takes him to Mr. Jones bedside and gives him a chair. He then says to Mr. Jones, "The home office has sent me to investigate your claim because of the many injuries listed on the hospital bill. Would you please describe how you sustained all these injuries?" Mr. Jones begins, "We had been building a 3 story brick facade on a new store and I stayed after quitting time to finish and clean up. There were a good many bricks and "bats" left over. The roofing company had erected a derrick with a pulley and rope so I found an empty wooden barrel and tied it to one end of the rope. I hoisted the barrel up to the top of our scaffold and tied off the rope to the bottom set of scaffolding. Then I climbed to the top of the scaffold and started tossing the bricks and bats into the barrel. It was a big barrel and I was thinking how lucky I was that I would only have to fill the barrel 2 times to clean up all the bricks. With the barrel full I climbed down and as I was untying the rope, I figured the barrel would be somewhat heavy so I wrapped a couple of loops of rope around my left hand so I wouldn't lose my grasp of the rope. When the last knot was untied, I was suddenly yanked upwards by the falling barrel, dislocating my left elbow and shoulder. At mid point the barrel struck the left side of my head and neck, giving me a concussion and a broken collar bone. I continued upwards and came to a halt with both hands buried deeply in the pulley cutting them badly and breaking 4 fingers. When the barrel hit the ground the bottom broke out dumping all the bricks. I began falling and the ascending barrel struck my right side breaking my leg and elbow. When I hit the ground I broke both my ankles and fell face down on the pile of bricks deposited by the broken barrel, knocking out several teeth and breaking my jaw. I then turned loose of the rope. The barrel struck me for the last time breaking both thigh bones and my left pelvis.

andrelaplume, I hope you can get some pictures posted of your shed and the lay of the land. Your "light bulb" about a side door isn't too far fetched and not too late either. I heard that the statute limiting sheds to doors on one side only was repealed. If you have adequate wall height on the sides for driving the tractor in without giving yourself a free hair cut (or lobotomy) a doorway for the tractor might be reasonable. If you decided to add a door on the side, you could design the "doors" as "2 half doors with a vertical overlap where the 2 halves meet in the middle (to hide the center seam), hinge the doors at the bottom so that when the "doors" are let down they become a short entry ramp. The "doors" could be equipped with latches/hasps/bolts that are entirely on the inside of the shed and it wouldn't even be obvious that there was an opening from outside the shed. Attach a short length of light duty rope to the upper inside surface of each "door" so you can pull the "doors" closed or let them down from inside the shed. This trick would allow you to keep your current ramp (if you wish) for all the other traffic, and would keep from having 2 readily visible ramps in place. (Just another idea that started ricocheting around inside my skull) Of course, this idea would be easiest to accomplish IF your shed is covered with the popular "T-111" 4' X 8' wood panels. Vinyl siding would be more problematic to accomplish a "hidden" door, but there are still ways that could be handled.

Keep in mind there are three classes of ZTRs: residential, pro-sumer or entry commercial, and commercial. One major difference between these is deck construction. The residential units will have just that, a residential quality deck, usually designed to mow at now much, if any, faster than a tractor (3-4 mph). Any timesaving is a result of increased maneuverability. A pro-sumer model, while sporting either a residential (i.e. JD EZTrak) deck that is also used on their GTs, or fabricated (Cub Enforcer), are able to handle mowing speeds in the 5-6 mph range due to deeper deck construction and possibly slightly faster blade tip speed. A commercial unit usually has a very deep (6") deck with a much larger discharge that can handle the volume of grass when cutting at 7+mph. These decks are also made from much heavier, thicker metal that gives the spindle support necessary to achieve the blade tip speeds of 17,000+rpms needed to cut faster. So, in summation, to cut grass faster, a mower deck has to be able to move grass faster. This is accomplished by making the deck longer in the "Y" direction to enable a wider discharge opening, deeper in "Z" to better handle grass volume, and increasing the blade tip speed.