What's up everyone? Welcome to The Durbin Compound. So on today's video, we're going to do an in-depth review
on the Bobcat ZT6000. This is new mower for 2021. I have it here on demo and I'm going
to give you guys an in-depth review on it. I haven't been able to find any in-depth reviews
that aren't gimmicky and have honest opinions in them. So here it is today. I hope you stay tuned.
All right! So let's get down to the real reason why we're here. So, this is a mower on demo from
my local dealer. I got this mower with two hours on it, and I now have 10 hours on this thing.
I've put eight hours on it over the last four days. I think my yard has seen enough of this mower.
So I have had some time to vet these different things. And I have, you know, figured out what I do
and don't like about this and I'm going to give you my honest opinion today here on camera.
So, one of the first things that I love most about this is this foot panel that just flips up and allows
you access into the top of the deck to blow it out. So, you can easily just pull this up. It has a
belt diagram on it. You can blow it out. There's instruction, or little stickers, everywhere on
this thing. It gives you all kinds of warnings. And it's basically like a walking, talking
instruction manual with all the stickers on it. I also like the side pulley covers that come off
with a little wing nut. You just wing nut it off, clean out the pulley, wing nut it back on.
One thing about the foot guide is when I'm sitting on the mower, if I'm going over rough terrain
and I'm trying to pin myself back in the seat, it does flip up a little bit.
So, obviously you're going through rough terrain and then you're pushing as well.
The foot panel does flip up. Is that a game changer? No, but it's something that I definitely notice.
And you feel like you're losing your footing. So, just one of those things. I love that the
whatever you call the chute--the chute is on phenolic washers and keeps nice and tight.
So wherever you put it, it stays. I love that! I love that! I love that! It doesn't have a spring
where you've got a bungee cord it up out of the way. It literally will just stay wherever you put it.
I mean, how simple could it be? It's awesome! This is the AirFX deck. It has an adjustable front lip.
It has mounting holes on the back of the deck for a striping kit which I will be
utilizing in the future. Underneath the deck is pretty crazy. It's got some air channels
that you definitely need to keep clear of debris, so that the deck can breathe.
It handles grass like nothing I've ever seen. It processes grass so quickly and extracts it and
blows it super far. It is unlike any mower I've seen. It definitely handles grass--no big deal.
Probably a perfect time to roll in a little clip here of me mowing some two foot tall grass,
on the edge of my hay field. So, this two foot tall grass...like literally...the mower laughs at it.
I mow right through it. I'm mowing, for reference, I'm mowing that grass down to three and a half inches
is what i have the mower set at. So, it's definitely mowing quite a bit. So, yeah, you've got to go over it
a couple times. But this thing processes grass. This thing does not bog down. This thing's awesome!
The height adjustment on this is a little crazy. It definitely goes, pairs well,
with my OCD. But this thing has adjustments from one inch to five and a half inches--
all in quarter inch increments. So, there are so many holes here--there are so many selections I'm like--
absolutely! This is sweet! So the handle you can pull up and bring it out of the transport position.
Transport position is at five and a half inches. So you will not hit any of the trailers,
or anything that you go up onto. My current Hustler only does four inches.
So it's scraping everywhere. The foot pedal is nice because you can literally just lift it up
to go over something, and then right back down on the stop. Really, really nice!
The handles? I wish the handles weren't so darn big, but that's a personal preference. I know there's
guys that, you know, have one-handed op--they like to do one-handed operation from time to time,
to get themselves, you know, trees or branches out of the way. Yeah, it's helpful,
but I don't use it that much, or I wouldn't use it that much, that you know, I just trim my branches back.
But I'm a residential guy. Commercial guys would probably be doing that all the time.
But residential guy like me--I'd chop them off about here, so that I could utilize this.
I have utilized just this part of the handle. Now, these sit a little too high for my comfort.
I have these all the way down into the arms. So, this is as low as they'll go. And my arms just
are too far up here. So you can probably see it on camera--that they're inclined a little bit.
So I find myself operating the mower on the side here which isn't a killer,
but it's just one of those things. I wish I could customize that little thing to my preference.
But it is what it is. After eight hours of use, I've gotten pretty used to using it like this,
and it's not bad. Now this has, I think this has the 4400 series hydro drives underneath it.
They're a little herky-jerky. They're a little sensitive because they're new.
So any little input will steer the mower. And so I think in time hopefully it,
you know, smooths out a little bit. I can't get it to cut straight. I have tried and tried and tried.
I have spent hours trying to get it to cut in a straight line. And, I don't know if it's not...it's not you, Bobcat.
It's me. I'm just not relaxed enough. I have tried everything I can think of--
to keep my hands off the controls, to just let it track, to trying to micromanage it, to going slow or fast.
I can't get it to cut in a straight line. So, I'm getting a little better. But eight hours in...
and we're still struggling to cut some straight lines. Now, my yard has some big runs in it.
And you know, 600 foot is a long stripe. But I can shoot laser beams with it with my Hustler.
This I just struggle--all down the yard--I struggle with crooked lines. So, it's not you--it's me.
The fuel petcock over here on the left side--to switch from left to right tank--is awesome! Buttery smooth!
Super accessible! This thing has huge saddle tanks on it. I think they're eight gallons a piece.
They hold a ton of fuel. So for like every two hours, I've been going through just about
a third of a tank. So probably three gallons, I would say. Maybe somewhere in there. I'm not exactly sure.
I find that the fuel gauge is not really that precise. I mean, it's a mower.
The suspension seat is awesome! It's right on par with every other suspension seat.
I really love that it has access from both sides to release the seat. And the fit and finish
underneath the seat is awesome. You can blow it out with the blower. Piece of cake!
Clean it out really well. And you know, have access to everything here. This thing has an incredibly
small battery which...I think has a smaller battery than my 730V does. But this has the FX801V.
It's 25 & 1/2 horse and it does have all the power that this thing could
ever possibly need. I think that if I were to buy a Bobcat, I will be getting this 6100
because I want the wider tires. And I want the cage on the back that
is basically a swing out cage. So it has a Grade 8 pin that's threaded with a phenolic washer on it.
You thread it out, and you can swing the back of the mower open, so you can service it easier.
And then on the bottom, it has an incorporated two inch hitch receiver. So you can put a small hitch on it,
if you're towing a little garden trailer which I do from time to time. And you know, utilize it like that.
But overall, this mower knocks it out of the park. It's just those little herky-jerky, you know,
I think it's new hydro drives that are killing me. And the last thing I have to mention is
I absolutely hate these rear tires. So, these are Armstrong Zero-T tires and some guys love them.
Some guys say they're super aggressive and that they are really,
you know, sticky. And they stick to terrain and stuff like that. I find that they tear my turf like crazy.
I have to do long swooping K turns. If you even come close to letting that tire slow down
and pivot on the grass. I mean it clumps up and will just tear the grass apart. It will also tear the grass
from herky-jerky movements with the controls. So you have to be really careful about
slowing down smoothly and then increasing speed smoothly. If you're herky-jerky whatsoever,
and you bring it back to a stop, the tire will skid--tear up the grass. If you go too fast,
the tire will spin and tear up the grass. So I've had a long learning curve with this.
But, this mower does lay down some sweet stripes for just a standard deck. I'll roll in a video here.
It will lay down some wicked stripes, just with what we have here. And this is mowing at like
three and three quarter or four inch. So, I'm putting some pretty nice stripes in the side yard.
I'll also roll in some footage of, or we'll just roll in a picture, of some of the stripes
that are brand new pattern. And I can show you exactly what it looks like--a brand new pattern.
So this mower definitely knocks it out of the park with fit and finish and, you know, all the features.
Definitely a very, very good contender. I just don't like the tires. And I don't like
how it controls. I'm getting used to it though. Initially, I hated this mower. It just...me and this mower
did not get along, for like the first three hours, which was well into the second day.
But I'm growing more and more fond of it. It mows extremely fast. It processes grass extremely fast.
I can mow my yard a lot faster than my Hustler. It does do a great job. It's just those creature comforts
that I'm used to...operating a, you know, a mower for 500 hours. I'm resistant to change.
But, yeah. The safety features are kind of a pain on this. It's probably something I will delete.
All the Safety Sally's will be like, "Oh, my God!" but the parking brake...like having the parking brake on
in order to get out of the seat. And like, I can't even pick up trash on the ditch without,
you know--shutting down the mower, and then bringing the parking brake on, getting off the mower...
It's just cumbersome. And like man, I just want to pick up that napkin that somebody littered,
and get back on my way. Yeah, I'm by myself, you know. I'm not trying to grab underneath the deck.
I'm not an idiot. But you know, it's just one of those things. So, I really like this AirFX deck.
I like the air chambers underneath it. And I think it's one of the main reasons why I get such good,
you know, pronounced stripes right out of the box. So, yeah, that's my review on it.
Pretty darn good mower! Pretty strong. It is a large unit. It is a very, very large mower.
It's considerably larger than my Hustler FasTrak. So, I think this is like 64" overall.
So you need a pretty big shed to store it in--or a garage. It's also taller. And the tanks sit out,
you know, out towards the end of the deck. So you can't slide up underneath trees or bushes.
You're pretty much limited on that. My smaller frame Hustler is more compact and lower to the ground.
So the deck sticks out a lot further. So I'm used to being able to swipe up underneath trees
and get closer to stuff than I can with this. But evolve with the times. Get a bigger mower.
Get a faster mower. There's some give and take. So, I definitely give this one two thumbs up.
If you guys have any questions or concerns, put them in the comments below. We'll talk about it.
Otherwise, that's my review. I think that it's a great contender. And for the $10,000, $11,000
to own one, I think that, you know, the value is definitely there. But I will be demoing
more mowers in the future. If you are with a dealer, or you have access to get me a demo, well,
here we are. You could hit me up in the description below and we'll talk about
getting a demo out and testing out a different brand. How about that?
If you haven't subscribed to the channel already, you know, please do so. I hope to see you
around the channel. I don't know if I said it already, but give my video a thumbs up.
Or a thumbs down. Whatever you guys are into! And we'll see you guys in the next video.