Ariens APEX Limited Edition (60") 24HP Kawasaki Zero Turn Mower

Can never have enough time, front engine riders just weren't cutting it for my 2 acre lawn with varied terrain. I went with an APEX limited edition 60" and no regrets, cuts my mowing time from 4-5 hours down to 2 hours or less. The price seemed steep but when you account for the time saved over many years, it's well worth it. The cut is beautiful, it handles wildly varied terrain with ease, no scalping. Deck seems very sturdy, height control is a breeze, easy to use. Engine is fine though it's the residential line of Kawasaki's engines, nothing fancy there. Early in the break-in period it greeted me with a giant smoke show after I'd left it idling for 15 minutes or so, when I went to resume full throttle. That was embarrassing but I haven't encountered it since. I have about 40 hours on it so far (owned for 2 years) and love the time spent on it. My ground is very bumpy/uneven, zero turns are pretty unforgiving including this one when it comes to comfort. I'm not at the age where it bothers me yet. The criteria when I sought out to buy one was to find something with as much commercial grade bits as possible, the ZT-3100 hydro really sealed the deal here. Simply can't find a comparable model in this price range with a 60" deck and build quality that this has. When you look at models that are $2-3K less expensive with the residential hydro units, the build quality difference is striking-- it's not just the hydro that suffers. Go walk down the zero turn aisle of your local big box store, study what they offer and then find a dealer selling one of these. When you check out the Apex, it will make your mind up for you.

This mower not only looks cool in the limited edition colors but is a monster cutting grass. Smooth operation and just a blast to ride.