They say you never officially arrive at man hood until you have purchased your first John Deere Lawn Tractor. The day I arrived at man hood officially was August 27th, 2006. I am happy to report I am the proud owner of a John Deere 155C 48inch 25HP Hydrostatic Lawn Tractor. I almost didn’t achieve man hood though as I was going to opt for the Cub Cadet which was considerably cheaper than the John Deere. And honestly comparing feature to feature I probably would have bought the Cub Cadet if Home Depot hadn’t gotten all crazy on me and sold me the John Deere I secretly really wanted for the same price as the Cadet.
When I was growing up my father purchased a Cub Cadet back when they were owned by International. That mower was the toughest longest lasting thing we ever had. Not to get too red neck on you but back in the day we didn’t have four wheelers (they weren’t even made yet). So we had to make our own. On the farm we used the lawn tractor for everything! Yes, including taking the mower deck off the mower and mudding around in the fields. Incredible fun that kids today will never know about. But, I digress.
Some of you know that I’ve been talking about the Cub for awhile. However, it is August. And August means places like Home Depot and Lowes are running specials on lawn mowers to get ready for winter items. Thanks to Home Depot cutting prices I was able to achieve man hood finally. Now I can start my collection of John Deere T-shirts and caps to wear when I cut the yard. A man has to look good on his tractor you know? In Hattiesburg, Ms where we live we mow until November (not kidding). So although it is late in the summer, I will still get several good months of mowing in with it.
I also purchased the John Deere 10 cubic feet trailer to pull behind lawn tractor. Now that I have a lawn tractor and a wagon to pull behind it I can officially start to clean up my wooded area around the house. Although my yard is in good shape, Katrina’s wrath is still evident in the wooded area surrounding the house. My new tasks now include: cutting down about 25 large trees, hauling those trees to the road, clearing under brush, pile after pile of pine straw, hauling tons of broken limbs and other debree to the road. Needless to say I have a lot of work ahead of me which I plan on working on throughout the fall when it gets cooler.
The title of this post is “Nothing Runs Like a Deere” so let me mention the first yard cutting experience with it. Since my yard hadn’t been mowed in almost a month the first test was going to a be a tough one. One of the nice features about the 155C is it came with a mulcher attachment. I pretty much always mulch when I mow. Not only does it provide naturual fertilizer back to the yard and put the seeds back into the yard, it also leaves a nicer looking cut. Especially if you have leaves in the yard. After getting the mower cranked due to the battery not being charged I drove it around in the yard to get a feel for the transmission, controls, etc. I mentioned earlier that I almost bought the Cub Cadet. One of the things I didn’t like at all about the Cub was the pedal height on the hydrostatic transmission. It was so tall and you had to pick your foot up off the deck to operate it. The Deere is more natural and let’s you just keep your foot rested on the deck. Going from forward to reverse is quick and easy. Roll the foot forward to go front, press on the heel to backwards. Very natural. The 155C is a fairly large tractor. I’m 6’2″ and I fit comfortably on the tractor. After mowing for 1.6 hours I never felt uncomfortable or anything. The seat even has adjustable lumbar support. After mowing for about 30 minutes I started to really get the feel for the controls and the placement of the tires to get the widest cut. Most mowers I’ve mowed with were 36inch cuts. This 48inch cut has a feature called “Edge” which means the blades pretty much cut all the way to the edge of the deck. Having used previous lawn tractors purchased by my father growing up, one of the really nice features of the 155C is the engagement of the PTO. It is an electric engagement which means you just pull up a button on the dash and the PTO is engaged. This means that even my wife could engage the PTO with little effort. On previous tractors I drove you had a large handle you had to pull or push out to engage the PTO and it could be really tough. Overall I’m extremely pleased with the purchase and hope it rains the next several days so I get to mow again. 🙂