Ouch. Talk about "being between the devil and the ...." 3/4 acre and slightly sloping, even pulling an aerator (not one with five hundred pounds on it) puts you into a "garden variety" LT. As soon as you say "servicable tranny," you just jumped into the GT class and tripled the cost+. The $5K quoted is in the begining of the ballpark.

IMHO, you have a couple of options, neither of which you'll probably like. Go with an LT, be a fanatic about keeping the underside and cooling fins on the trans clean so the oil doesn't get hot and degrade and fry the trans. Every couple of years, drop and drain the trans and replace oil with synthetic. Yeah, "What a pain...." The other is get the monster with the servicable trans and drop $5K. Classic example of what do you have more of, time or money?

Another problem you're going to have if you get a bigger unit, I bought one last year 26HP, Hydro Gear trans (servicable), 54" deck. That would mow your lawn in about 15 minutes, the variable drive and big engine are amazing. What will you do with your spare time? :-)

The issue you're going to face is all the LT's are built to hit a particular "price point." Looking at them, don't see a lot of difference anymore other than whatever name recognition means.

I needed an additonal GT last year and went on a search, servicable trans was at the top of the list as you can't buy a manual anymore. After much searching, ended up at Sears and bought a Craftsman. I felt it gave the best value for the money. Kohler engine, heavy duty and servicable trans(Hydro Gear), built by Husqvarna. Sears may be gone at some point, but all parts will be around. By taking out a sears card that day, things on sale, and a hungry sales clerk paid just under $2700 including tax and their biggest three bin bagger. The clerk insisted that the tractor trans couldn't be serviced, "says so right here in the manual....." :-) I'd done the research first and knew what trans it had. Went home downloaded the manual, and ordered two oil filters. A Husqvarna dealer insisted that a machine I was looking at did have a servicable trans, when I asked him to show me the filter, he said, "well, it doesn't exactly have a filter, we come out and get it and bring it to the shop and pull the trans and drain it....." ($$$). Do your own research, the folks selling these usually don't have a clue, unless you're talking to a very reputable, long term outfit-take $$$ in that case.

You might look into a Rear Engine Rider (RER), they seem to last forever and I think they can pull an aerator. I've heard that Snapper is good, but never owned one.

Good luck,

Ev

Thanks EV. I have been reading good things about the Husq GT52XLS. Hope to check one out today. Also have been looking at used JD GX models.

Looks new this year, not a lot of info out there. Here's some info, scroll down far enough.

http://todaysmower.com/2013/garden-tractor-comparison/

Have fun,

Ev

A k66 tranny is made that the jd users are putting into their mowers to beef them up a bit. Its servicable and much stouter. It has twice the torque, and it the garden tractor tranny.

http://www.rjrtractor.com/