I think most of the goat suggestions have been in jest, but seriously, 10 goats per acre per month is rule of thumb for brush control. Since you're dealing with grass it should be easy for them to manage. Fence it and get some mix breed wethers, turn them loose and let them do their job.
Also, Farmall Cub with 60" belly mower.
Well, I've done acreage that size and bigger with a push mower. It can be done, gets you exercise, and doesn't take as long as you'd think. With the blade good and sharp, you can probably do it on 2-3 hours, if you can keep up the brisk walking pace. 3-4 hours if you can't.
A riding mower with a good deck and sharp blades can do it in similar time or a bit less. I've yet to understand the magic of a good deck. I've found them under machines with lousy names, and found great names with lousy decks. Go figure.
Bigger is not always better. You can't maneuver nearly as well, especially when there are trees near to one another. Big decks require lots of power, and if they can't clear themselves well, you cut at a very slow pace. Again, that good deck vs bad deck thing.
We're not allowed to fence the property, so there goes the goat/horse idea. GF found a Lazer similar to the landlord's that needs a little work, but I have to look at it in person to know if it's a good call or not.
The landlord needs to suffer the being a dick penalty here. Rent a Kubota or other tractor with a sprayer, fill hopper with warm salt water, spray lawn. Never have to worry about grass again. Host tractor pulls in fall and spring.
captdownshift wrote: The landlord needs to suffer the being a dick penalty here. Rent a Kubota or other tractor with a sprayer, fill hopper with warm salt water, spray lawn. Never have to worry about grass again. Host tractor pulls in fall and spring.
Quite a sense of entitlement there cap.
Similar predicament here. Bought a place with 3 acres. Ended up finding a used Scag "Walk Behind" with 52 inch deck and a stand-on sulky. It does fine, but it's slow. A proper riding ZTR would be a lot nicer, and do the lawn faster. I just haven't been willing to part with the money that a ZTR will cost, so for now I walk it.
Looks like the used Lazer is happening. The 45 minute time was with a 60" cut, this beast has 66" 
Oh Sweet! Reduced mowing time is more better 
I haven't read anything beyond the first post, but I think the answer here is a herd of goats.
Your ability to find great deals on craigslist (or wherever) continues to amaze me.
In reply to RedGT:
This one was behind the local equipment dealer's shop- GF was there talking to the mechanic, and mentioned that we were willing to fix something up a bit if it got us a deal, he basically said "I've got just the thing," and now it's being delivered to the house. Mows fine but could use blades and your usual fluids/filters/grease, and the deck requires "persuasion" to be lowered due to a sticky pivot somewhere.
Sounds like you got a deal. Congrats!
Awesome. I was going to say that the homeowner grade units, in my opinion, just won't last and are worthless once broken and used up. I was in a similar position with my 3.5 acre lot a year and a half ago and ended up buying a John Deere 777 commercial ztr with a 72" deck. It's still mowing, but it goes quickly. I got the 7-iron deck so it's formed 7-gauge steel and doesn't clog with grass clippings.
A lot of the commercial machines were running $3500 or so with a half a million hours on them. I found this one with a more reasonable hour count for $6000 or so at the end of the season and offered him $5k. Since it was going to sit all winter he took it.
Maintenance has been straightforward with no repairs needed other than a broken mule drive belt tension spring.
Once you get your Exmark up and running it should be a reliable unit.
Exmark builds a good product. Congrats.
I love watching the eXmark crews around here. Park near us ignores the grass until it's about a foot high. Then they call in a commercial crew. Those guys blast through with the eXmark machines, spewing a solid stream of green. The engines are working hard, but the machines are cutting superbly and moving fast.
Flight Service wrote: In reply to oldopelguy: you might want to read your owners manual. 200 hours
My tufftorq failed(stopped pulling up hills) at 114 hours, I cracked the case and replaced all the plastic gears with metal ones that tufftorq sold me. These could be built so much better but the rep said the big brands pay XX knowing about the issues and figuring people will just put new units in at 200 hours. That's painful customer service.
We went through this in 2008. We have 2 acres that gets mowed on the regular. With 2 42" craftsman lawnmowers it took 3-5 hours to cut each time. The dirt is fertile and the grass is THICK. So dew makes the E36 M3 grow a foot overnight. So in 2008, Dixie Chopper ran a 0% finance deal for 36 months on any mower. So we bought this:
Dixie Iron Eagle 2350 with the 23hp Kohler and a 50" deck. Now, I can mow in the rain and it takes 2 hours max. On the drier summers, it takes me about 90 minutes start to finish. In the 8 years since it's required 2 sets of blades and 2 sets of belts, one set of spark plugs and an airfilter and oil change each spring. Dead nuts reliable, belts are same price as the Craftsman tractors we had before but last longer.
What pushed me over the edge was my father bringing his 60" wide track. It was built in 1998 originally, had the pumps rebuilt in 2003 after spending 5 years doing commercial work, running 40+ hours per week all summer long. Dad bought it, used it for 4 years and finally ha to put an engine on it. The hour meter that was on it read 25xxx hours on the unit when it stopped working. His did my yard in 70 minutes to do my 2 acres, and that was my first time ever being on one. I'm sure it would have been an hour or less with more practice.
Not sure what parts you need but I sourced almost all of the parts to reseal the 17hp Kawasaki twin on my 44" Toro ZTR from Jacks Small Engines. They had the best prices and widest selection of any place I looked. I've also sourced air cleaners, blades, etc on Amazon.
foxtrapper wrote: Well, I've done acreage that size and bigger with a push mower. It can be done, gets you exercise, and doesn't take as long as you'd think. With the blade good and sharp, you can probably do it on 2-3 hours, if you can keep up the brisk walking pace. 3-4 hours if you can't. A riding mower with a good deck and sharp blades can do it in similar time or a bit less. I've yet to understand the magic of a good deck. I've found them under machines with lousy names, and found great names with lousy decks. Go figure. Bigger is not always better. You can't maneuver nearly as well, especially when there are trees near to one another. Big decks require lots of power, and if they can't clear themselves well, you cut at a very slow pace. Again, that good deck vs bad deck thing.
There is no way you're going to do my yard with a 22" pushmower in 3 hours. I used a hand seeder to spread weed and feed one year. It took 2 hours and that was a brisk pace without needing to overlap because it spread about 4' wide. I'd be licky to get it done in a day with that.
The owner/developer of Dixie chopper engineered the good deck design and proper blade speeds. Great deck wiht slow blades is still slow mowing. Fast blades with crappy deck still equals slow mowing. When the belts on mine get about 3 years old and are stretched to their max you can hear the difference. IT's quite noticeable.
Got home, fired up our new (2007) Lazer and did a test cut. This thing is a monster! 
We'll probably mow at least once with it before I do all the maintenance, but I'm not too worried about it since it runs well and the deck lift is already moving better after a liberal amount of PB blaster. Thanks everybody!
In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:
I have a used Dixie Chopper w/low hours I'd trade for a decent Miata or similarly fun car. 
chandlerGTi wrote:Flight Service wrote: In reply to oldopelguy: you might want to read your owners manual. 200 hoursMy tufftorq failed(stopped pulling up hills) at 114 hours, I cracked the case and replaced all the plastic gears with metal ones that tufftorq sold me. These could be built so much better but the rep said the big brands pay XX knowing about the issues and figuring people will just put new units in at 200 hours. That's painful customer service.
Every manufacture gets told what it takes to upgrade to a decent unit. Everyone decides to cheap it out.
At their volume it is about a 10% uncharge to get a unit that will go an order of magnitude+ longer. (Full synthetic instead of conventional oil (#1 thing to make the last longer) Shell Rosella T Synthetic isn't the best, but so close that we use it in a pinch, bearings instead of bushings (#2 thing to make them last longer), full steel gear set (If you do 1 & 2 most times these aren't needed, according to testing))
Blame the tractor company. TTC would always offer and the OEMs would always refuse, I have sat in those meetings.
We would take failed test units, do those three things to them and re-run them. It would run two levels higher (it would snap an axle before the power unit quit)
You want to really have fun replace the center case with one that has a brass friction plate for servicing. Commercial grade and the thing will run two orders higher if not more.
It's the little things...
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