Great Forum! I am a new poster so bear with me. This will also by my 1st lawn/garden tractor. I have 8-1/2 acres but intend on maintaining nice grass on between about 2-4 acres total (varying areas around the house/property). Much of this land is sloping heavily with several washout areas. Not only do washouts exist but lots of leaves and limbs but am more worried about the deck plowing into the dirt in these washout areas. I have been researching used farm tractors with implements such as box blade and bush hog for some time now. I realized that I couldnt get anything decent in my price range (or too large of payment). I then decided I would evaluate garden tractors. I am looking at either one of these garden tractors with mulcher. #1 - Craftsman 26 hp 54 in. Deck, DGS 6500 Garden Tractor (w/ Kohler) DGS 6000 Garden Tractor (w/Kohler) = or = #2 - LA175 Lawn Tractor LA175 Lawn Tractor Here are some photos of my property. + Hope to put gravel down on drive and grow grass/mow around trees + Hope to get grass growing in shady areas too + Some sloping and poor water run-off areas. Not sure how a garden tractor will handle water ruts I would appreciate any feedback at all. Thanks, Jack jfobel@msn.com

Varmint, Thanks on all your feedback, and that of others. I took delivery today of my new tractor. I put it right to work pulling my dump cart full of brush, and my yard sweeper. Maybe I should change my handle to happinessisanewtractor. Observations: This tractor is very comforable. the ergonomics of the Regent are very good. The controls are well laid out and very intuitive. The 18HP Kohler Courage engine is plenty strong, and very reasonable in noise level. Especially compared to my old tractor's 8hp Briggs. The transmission is very smooth (smoother than the x300 I drove, probably how it's belt drive is designed), and pulled my sweeper like it was'nt even there. The ride accross my bumpy yard is just that, bumpy. I'm going to check the tire pressure again, and try lowering it to improve the ride a little. Also, the steering is very precise, but that also lends itself to jolting out of my hands on bumps if I'm not careful. Again tire pressure may help that. I suspect the same would be true on almost any "lawn tractor". Essentially it means I have to keep my speed down in the areas that are bumpy. My old tractor's seating position was closer to the ground, so I may be perceiving that I'm going slower on the new Regent than I actually am. Perhaps a heavier Garden Tractor, ie: a Conquest or x500 might traverse the lumpy terrain more smoothly, but I would not want to give up the manuverability of the Regent, which is fantastic. I have not mowed yet, but did engage the mower. Take note, this thing is powerful, it shot several pine cones like a rocket. The discharge is very strong, which I hope will reduce clumping of my grass clippings. Overall I feel that I made a good choice for my needs. I have to say that Simplicity orange is just as nice looking as Deere Green. I'm looking forward to mowing season & will let you know how it performs.

Thanks for all the follow up guys. I read all your comments, 3 & 4 times, and then went ahead and ordered the Craftsman anyway. I couldn't overlook the 9 good years I remembered with it and couldn't get past the $2K extra for the Simplicity. Well I ordered the tractor on a Thursday and it couldn't be delivered until the following Monday as Sears was out of stock, On Monday I got a call from them that there was a delay and I couldn't get it until Wednesday. On Wednesday I got a call that it wouldn't be delivered until Friday. As I had taken the afternoon off from work that day to accept the delivery, I had some time to reflect on some of the tractor's past issues like its problem with leaves in the fall. Every year, because of its design, leaves would get caught in the frame and would come into contact with the muffler and catch fire. I started blowing the leaves separately each year to avoid that, but eventually the tractor caught fire at some point anyway. Usually I could just clear it out with a stick, but last year, the fire was so big, I had to run to the house to get a fire extinguisher before the fuel lines ruptured. Strangely enough, although scarred, the damn thing kept running. Then there was the time that a delivery truck pulled into the driveway while I was mowing and surprised me. I shut the engine off too quickly and was rewarded with the loudest backfire I'd ever heard. About 20 minutes later I tried to restart it, but it just turned over without catching. After a couple of hours I tried again and it fired up. From that point on, it would start only when cool, but as soon as it heated up, the engine would die and not restart until it cooled off sufficiently. So I called out the trusty Sears repairman who, after much headscratching, told me I needed a new carburator for only $350. I'm fairly handy and the facts and diagnosis just didn't match up, so I put him off while I thought about it. After much research and a talk with a great guy from a Massachusetts Koehler distributor, I finally determined that it was the ignition module that had gone bad and the backfire was probably unrelated and coincidental. I changed out the module and the tractor was back to normal. Had I allowed the Sears service guy to replace the carburator, I would have been out $350 and still scratching my head along with him. There are other stories, but life is short. By the time Sears called me the next day and rescheduled again for the following Monday, despite not being able to understand a single word the woman on the other end of the phone was saying, I had utterly changed my mind and cancelled the Craftsman. I called up a Simplicity dealer I had spoken to earlier and made a good deal with him and the Conquest 23/50 was delivered two days later, fresh out of the crate, prepped, primed, and ready to go. The delivery guy was also a repairmen and went through the whole tractor with me and even gave me some advise on the leaf blower I was having trouble with, which proved to correct the problem. I mowed the lawn that day with the new Conquest and it sliced through the 5 weeks of growth like a hot knife through butter. It didn't even hesitate and didn't leave one ragged spot on the lawn. It was great. I still don't know if it's worth an additional $2K. I guess only time will tell. But it's shiny and new and works like a charm. I have a great dealer to help me when I need it and I'm a very happy guy. As for the Craftsman, I'm not putting any money into it except to buy a used snow/dozer blade if I can find a cheap one. And since it won't seem to die, I'll plow snow with it until it does. Thanks for all your help. It's been an experience.

I bought a used Cyclone Rake about 4 years ago. I have lots of huge Oak & maple trees on my ¾ acre property. I have lived here about 18 years. Every year I tried a new strategy on how to deal with the tons of leaves I have. Other than cutting down all the trees there was no easy solution. I tried, loading my trailer, putting on a tarp and dragging into the woods, bagging, burning, grinding, and blowing, all this sucked. Then a friend mentioned his neighbor had a Cyclone Rake. I went on line http://www.cyclonerake.com/ and checked them out. I called Cyclone and they gave me a few names of people local I could ask how they liked it. First guy could not say enough good. Second guy said it is the best machine I over owned for what I need to do, but IÂm getting divorced and need to sell it, you want it? Yes, and $500 later IÂm sucking up every last leave on my lawn like nothing. It still is a little work of course but if this machine died tomorrow I would buy another new one in a minute. Few six weeks this time of year every weekend I will fill 2-4 cyclone loads and dump in the woods. I have the hose attachment and go around the edges of the yard and by Christmas there will not be one leave on my total ¾ acre, and IÂm done - what can I say, other than cutting all the trees down or hiring someone this thing is the balls! All though not perfect it does well. You need to be careful around the edges and borders because the swivel wheels will get caught, turn and rip up your lawn some. The unit is long when attached to your tractor so turning in tight place can be hard if you donÂt plan ahead. Going around trees is easy because the unit will swill way out. I will net get every pine needle unless you out the tractor bed all the way down. Some times with the bed so low it will even rip the grass out of the ground if it does not have a good root system. This thing even sucks up dog crap! I would like to include a few pics, how do I do that?