I researched mowers in this size for a few months. I looked at quality, durability, and value in this size, along with other comparable mowers, which would include Hustler FasTrack SD, Scag Freedom Z, Toro Z master 2000, Kubota Z122S, Gravely ZT HD and a few others. All of these are great commercial quality mowers and will do an outstanding job, but the price point along with the same if not better quality in some areas is how the Snapper Pro won me over.
The Snapper pro s50xt I found to be anywhere from 500 to 2000 dollars cheaper than the mowers previously mentioned, and after testing and looking at what each one had to offer I honestly couldnt figure out why? First of all this machine is built solid and i do mean solid. It is built with the same thickness and quality steel components as any of the mowers i previously mentioned. It comes with a Kawasaki FX full blown commercial grade engine, and some of the others do not, It also came with the Hydrogear ZT3100 fully commercial steel gear transaxles and some of the mowers mentioned above come with the powdered metal gear Hydrogear ZT 2800 Hydros, which is more geared towards higher quality residential use. It has two 4 gal. fuel tanks with gauges and none of the above had this capacity. This mower has grease fittings on the deck spindles and most of the above do not. the front casters have grease fittings and most of the others do not, and this mower delivers an absolutely outstanding quality of cut with the ICD cutting deck.
I honestly couldnt figure out why all the extra cost in the above mowers.....? A better quality suspension seat on some?.......yeah....... maybe.....? and a cup holder....? well it doesn't have one, but that is the only real difference i could tell in some of the comparisons, that had the same engine and transaxles, not to mention it was still cheaper in price than some with lesser grade engine and hydros,............ but are the above mowers worth 500 to 2000 dollars more expensive in price.......? well in my opinion they weren't. I can get a suspension seat upgrade for 180.00 and mount a cupholder with industrial velcro if i choose, so in my opinion for the commercial quality, durability and value I have found that the Snapper Pro S50xt is definitely a commercial mower in it's class and size that is very hard to beat.
