I'm going to buy a '05 Foreman ES very soon and am wondering if I should buy a Swisher 44" pull-behind mower for it. I just bought a house and have 2 acres of grass to cut. I either have to buy a new riding lawnmower or a pull-behind for my soon-to-be new ATV. I would obviously need the finish cut since I'm mowing grass and not blazing trails. My question is, has anyone used these things? Do they scalp your lawn? I can get one at Gander Mountain on sale for $800, but it they aren't going to last or don't work very good I don't want to even bother.

My lawn is very open with very little obstacles to maneuver around which I think would be a plus if I would to get one of these. Should I invest in a quality riding lawnmower that I know will last a long time or do these mowers work good?

 

move this post to outdoors, hunting fishing, you will get a better resposne there

 

Personally, I wouldn't mow that much with a quad unless it has a liquid cooled motor, I did a 1 acre plot that had grown over with weeds with a 44" Swisher 10 hp rough cut, and the motor on my Wolverine got seriously hot with the slow speeds you need to run. That is a great deal on a finish cut Swisher, though, I've seen them go for 1200 - 1400 dollars around here. If you want a nice looking cut, and plan on mowing it on a regular basis, I would go with a mower, the repeated long slow runs pulling that mower, more than likely in hot weather, will be hard on your quad, even with an oil cooler on it, it will still run hot, I admit I am not familiar with the newer Hondas, have they added liquid cooling? without a radiator and a good fan, I would leave the mowing to the lawn mowers.

 

We have a 60 inch swisher and it is great on the yard. Its held up for 6 years now with no problems. Finish is great, only thing that sucks is if you have lots of small trees to mow around, turning radius on quads is not near lawnmowers plus when your adding the length of the tongue and mower. But if you trim with a push or trimmer there is no prob. We used ours on hills and everything without scalping the ground. Plus with a smaller cut you wont have to worry about scalping as much either. I will deffinatly get another when this one is worn out. Less money plus lasts just as long as a rider, maybe longer. I pull mine with a JD gator. But Im sure you wouldnt have much problems with a quad. Only trick it takes is to do it learning how to drive at the same speed all the time. Plus if you buy one and then decide to ever get another rider someday and the swisher is still running you can stager it and then cut 44 inches plus the width of your mower deck.