We Tested The New Stihl Zero Turn Mowers. How much are they? Isn't it just a repainted Ferris?

steel just dropped their new mowers and are demoing them for the very first time today so what we're gonna go do is test their top of the line fully loaded largest deck largest engine mower it's called the RZ 972ki there's also a lot of talk going around that this is just a repainted Ferris we're gonna get to the bottom of that there are so many different types of zero turns out there so many incredible Brands already so what is going to set this steel apart from all the others we're excited to take a look at some of these different features let's go top three features of any Zero Turn Mower is the quality of the deck and the engine Choice correct and for this machine what sets it apart is the suspension the suspension is connected to the deck yeah so as the suspension goes over the bumps the deck is going to follow the the Contours of the yard this is their top of the line zero turn you can opt for a 61 inch or 72 inch cutting width and it runs around 18 Grand with a Vanguard for Kawasaki EFI engine this is a little less than I was expecting for a steel to be honest all right here we go this is the entry level commercial zero turn and it's going to set you back around 10 grand which is not really that bad for the quality that you're getting here this thing's pretty nice and would be a great option for anyone who's moving up from a residential zero turn look we can all agree that admin sucks so what if I told you I could reduce your admin workload by over 75 you don't want to do it right well that's exactly what check does Go download the check app today to dramatically decrease the amount of time you're spending on admin some of my thoughts on this one right here the 500 series I'm assuming we have a 500 to 700 to 900 series I demoed the 900 series first so maybe I should have started with this one but I will say for someone who is starting out and looking for a commercial grade mower not necessarily all the bells and whistles not the biggest motor maybe not the biggest set like this is still an incredible machine I actually am a fan of this throttle lever instead of having the button because I actually see where where I'm at so we've got the push mowers in The Battery area but now we have gas we have battery we have electric and now now that we have these ride-on mowers we're offering those customers a complete solution that's great and the fact is we're still only selling and retelling through our dealers so you're not going to find us at Lowe's you're not going to find us at Home Depot and people say well why do you do that it's not convenient well yeah but as your guys know right you go to a dealer a reputable dealer who will give you the good advice get you set up get you the service after the sale because I don't care how good a piece of equipment is it's going to need service at some point right and you build that relationship with that local business and then when you add on the ability now to take on for instance they're we're going to have a financing option for these units these ride-on mowers but you can add your handheld that's cool so for a business that's just starting out to be able to go in and go do I need a ride on mower a walk behind mower later on we'll have stand-on do you need battery do you need gas powered we've got it yeah so what we're trying to do again we're trying to offer the broadest range of equipment at all the different levels whether it's a price point or if you're looking for quality or if you're looking for power source we want to offer those guys your guys who are starting out the total Solutions all right we just came in from demoing the first line of commercial steel Zero Turn Mowers and the one that I'm standing in front of right now is one of the 500 series that is the lowest grade of the commercial mowers and the reason why I'm sitting in front of this one is because if someone who is just starting out or someone who is has been in business for a couple of years is starting to look for a mower this is the one that I would recommend to you for a few reasons okay number one is going to be the price point it starts at around 10 grand it starts with a 52 inch deck I'm a big fan of that setup right there that's a that's an incredible setup for a like a beginning commercial grade mower another one of my favorite features is that the deck is actually tied in with this front suspension I'm a big fan of this because that allows the deck to move with the Contour of the terrain that you're uh that you're cutting another thing that I thought was really interesting was their new financing option now a lot of people will say don't Finance but it's worth knowing that they're rolling out this new financing option where you can get a new Mower and you can also get string trimmers blowers everything all in one zero percent for 36 months I think that's a pretty solid option the last thing that that I want to say about why I think this would be a solid option for someone who is on the on the newer side of things is that steel has one of the largest dealer networks in America I don't think that can be discounted because one of the biggest things that we preach whenever it comes to picking out a mower is making sure that that mower can be serviced close to you if something breaks on your mower or any of your equipment you got to get that fixed fast so that you minimize how much it interrupts your schedule at a glance I'm pretty impressed especially from the standpoint of someone who's maybe a solo operator or a single truck operator I will say that uh that 900 series that kind of is around eighteen thousand dollars that was like kind of a Cadillac it was pretty cool and even for what it was like the 72 inch deck uh that I that I test drove it was incredible it was really cool so I highly recommend if you have a steel dealer around you and you can demo one go do it uh and and let me know what you think those are my thoughts on the initial thoughts on the steel commercial mowers I've never ran a ferris so we came to see for ourselves all right we said we want to demo the biggest baddest top of the line Ferris that they have here they have a 3300 that's inside this is the 2200 with a 60 inch deck so we just came out to take a look now at first glance it looks very much like uh the steel that I demoed yesterday it looks like it still has some of the same suspension uh floating with the same suspension seat the same parking like parking brake release the same foot the same thing that drops the deck same uh let's see quarter increments I'm not seeing the the like button that you press for the throttle um I actually prefer the lever but I saw that on some of them dual tanks that's the same but whenever I ask somebody and maybe I think that a lot of people who had ran Ferris actually knew about uh knew about how the deck floated with the suspension and that's why I said hey it's just a ferris but when I asked the ref I said hey so does the deck float with uh with the suspension and he didn't he didn't really know so we'll have to fact check him on that the seats just as comfortable honestly right now I'm thinking that it's different paint job I pay a lot of attention to detail one really weird uh thing that is the exact same is that this hour meter has to be read from this side I'm looking at it and it's upside down it was the same on the steel yesterday I thought it was an accident coincidence I think not let's uh let's get it going okay so right now every single one of these controls is the same actually going to drop this down a little bit that's the exact same as the steel it's the same thing guys uh Pro like at a glance okay I'm not talking about specs but let's get it okay now this is uh this is a smaller deck than the one that I demoed yesterday this steel I think gave me a little bit smoother of a ride so we're gonna actually go dig and do some do a little bit of research We compare some of these specs but at first glance this is the same mower I can't say that it was much different from the feel of that steel but I did think that the steel had a little bit smoother of a ride the only variable that has changed is that this is not their top of the line mower this is their 2200 not the 3300 I would assume that the 3300 with a little bit wider of wheelbase might be a little more smooth than than this one so I don't know that we get the exact Apples to Apples comparison that we were looking for this was a fun demo and we covered a lot but I want to address the biggest question that everyone has about these steel mowers are they just repainted ferrous mowers now whenever I spent time outside at the ferris demo area I straight up asked one of their reps if the new steel mowers are just repainted ferrises and they gave some good Insight they said that both Brands were manufactured in the same Briggs and Stratton Factory but that steals agreement with Briggs and Stratton allowed them to spec it out with a few extra bells and whistles like the USB charger and the lights there are some other cosmetic change is that I noticed but overall it's not hard to see that Briggs and Stratton didn't change anything that they didn't have to from the ferris brand which they own so when people say that the new steel mowers are just repainted ferrises they're not necessarily wrong but I don't think that's a bad thing in my opinion that's an extremely positive thing and here's why it means that we're getting a more fine-tuned battle-tested mower rather than Steel's first iteration on a very expensive piece of equipment plus I don't think that steel would have partnered with Briggs and Stratton had they not trusted the quality of Ferris Motors now the ferris mowers are already priced competitively and there's been a lot of concern that if steel released a zero turn mower that it would be priced ridiculously high but the Steels are actually priced the same as the ferris's and in line with other comparable machines okay also we've always said that what makes a great mower is great dealer support and there are a lot of people in the industry who say the same thing in general steel dealers have solid reputations backed up by pretty solid products and not to mention they have one of the largest dealer networks in the nation so Steel's going to be providing 100 of the dealer support Bumper to Bumper if you will on this new mower for the uh for the mower unless you go with that Kawasaki engine so you have the possibility for the first time ever to have your entire setup covered by one brand and I think that's kind of cool so if you like your steel dealership and you're looking to upgrade your zero turn maybe you should consider these especially since you don't have to pull them to start them

Channel: Check

Views: 117,488

Keywords: notsponsored, stihl outdoor power tools, newfor2023

Id: I5IEcFvjcxs

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2022