Don't need MMM, pulling 5' finish mower. My only question about the L2501 is the power it has to pull a 5' mower up a slope in medium gear??? In grass that is cut weekly the B2601 struggles with the loader on, better but not great with loader off. Going to bed.......back hurts
Don't recall if you said you had filled tires. Filled tires substantially reduce compliance.
My personal theory is that a machine with given HP can cut a given amount of grass per hour. It can cut a wide swath slowly, or a narrow one fast. Everyone will say you can't run a big mower, but if you're going slow you can.
So, if the grass per hour is basically constant, then the difference between the two is how fast the tractor is going. And how fast the tractor is going is what hammers your back.
So my theory, unproven (since I have a MMM) is that you could go from your 5' RFM to a 6' or 7' RFM, and go 5/6 or 5/7 as fast. You'd mow the same grass and be more comfortable. I saw tractor time with Tim pulling a big batwing on an LX - it looked ridiculous and there were some connection issues, but it mowed. You could go real slow and still mow a lot of grass with a setup like that.
There are of course limits when it comes to lifting the mower, and weight of machine etc. But providing the machine will swing it, you'd perhaps solve some of your problem.
My other observations of things that matter are:
- filled tires (as noted above) make your tractor ride hard
- with unfilled tires, lowering pressure softens the ride - particularly when hitting bumps. You can go pretty soft when you're not using the loader
- size of tire makes a big difference to ability to ride over ditches/holes in particular (not so much for bumps). Bigger tractor, or tractor with bigger wheels (I think the LX can be optioned with bigger wheels if you're not using MMM)
- speed of course
- seat is kind of a patch over things if your machine is sized to be bumpy. But that's how trucks with air ride work too - so no shame in using a seat to patch over a sub-optimal machine
I'm always tempted by machines like an F-series. I hear they mow like a demon, and ride reasonably well. People say zero turns ride well, but my understanding is that you sit right on top of the wheels (where a tractor you sort of sit between them, so a bit more pitching v's up/down), and the wheels are usually smaller than tractor wheels. I don't see how they can ride smoother at a machine level. However, many of them seem to have really nice seats, so that may be part of the answer.
What does all that mean? No idea. Just thoughts. Probably means the best answer is a flash seat on a machine that's reasonably well sized, plus not filling your tires and working tire pressures. So far as possible get a bigger mower rather than a smaller one, allowing you to go slower for any given acres/hour mowed.
Probably getting a machine big enough to have materially larger wheels is impractical for domestic mowing - I'm not sure the steps from B to LX to L are that big. MX, however......
