hi i'm josh here from hayes machinery and today i've got another exciting
product video for you this is one of my most favorite machines we're selling at
the moment and it's made by cub cadet which is an american brand this is a new
xz5 ultima range which they do which has three sizes and we've got the middle range here
it's powerful it's maneuverable it's got so much speed and having the stix-steer version
on it makes it such a comfortable product to use if you click onto our website you can obviously
buy it and purchase it through there if you want to give us a ring please do we can talk to you
about all the specifications and also if you like any of our videos if you click that like button
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let's jump right into it and talk you through this machine now it will look a lot different to a lot
of sort of conventional lawn garden tractors but basically the principle behind this one is
a zero turn so it's a stick steer version which you alter the speed and direction of the sticks
to change your direction and speed it makes it very maneuverable so we've got a nice open garden
here which can go around the trees very good if you're doing a lot of straights and turning on the
spot and coming back down absolutely fantastic and it's very very quick principle behind the steering
is in its handbrake position here when you pull your levers in it's then ready to drive
so it's in neutral at the moment and when you push your levers forward you're going forward
vice versa and reverse acts a little bit like a tank in the fact that when you push one forward
and one back that then will change the speed and direction you're turning so if i was going
like this you're turning left-handed sharp so you're turning round this way if you go that
way you're then turning right-handed sharp which makes it such a breeze to use this machine once
you've jumped on it and learned how to use the controls very very simple and you'll find a lot
of contractors use sticksteer machines and this is what it's aimed towards basically is large
domestic homeowner landowner semi-commercial machine so absolutely fantastic bit of kit
right as i mentioned there's three different sizes in the xz5 ultima range you've got the
42 inch 107 centimeter cutting deck machine you've got the 127 which is this model here
which is a 50 inch deck and you've got a 137 centimeter cutting deck which is 54 inch
now the small machine has a pressed steel deck so that basically means like a normal garden tractor
the mold has steel pushed over the top and it's a form deck and then that's obviously put on on
the machine the two larger machines the 50-inch and the 54-inch come with fabricated decks now
the principle behind fabrication is this thick gauge steel it's designed to take hammering and
for rugged use and also means because of the gauge of it it's not going to bend the warp or twist or
anything like that so it's really rugged the other thing you'll notice with these cutter decks is
the anti-sculpting wheels which basically if you've got rougher areas of cutting or uneven lawn
what it will do is if it's down on a low level the cutter deck will just basically ride on the ground
and it will lift up and down as it needs to go over those high areas so that protects the deck
as well so the height adjustment on this machine as well is very positive in the fact that you
don't have any levers or handles or anything like that like a normal domestic machine this is built
for heavy use so what you do if you've got a foot height adjustment here which you drop down
and you select your height cut and then drop the cutter deck to whatever height you're cutting on
and let your foot off and it will then put it to that height now between the highest and lowest
heights as well you can actually drop from the lowest to the highest in one move just like that
it also means if you've got areas which is rough or if you've got obstacles which you're mowing
over the top of so manhole covers and you want to just simply drive over the top without having to
adjust their height of cut literally just put your hook down on the pedal that will then lift up the
cutting deck once you've moved over the obstacle drop the cutting deck back down again and you're
ready to carry on mowing it's very few plastics on this machine and as you can see everything is
steel it's all box section tubular whatever you want to call it all from the start of the machine
you know big thick bits of metal on the steering these are dolly wheels so what that does that
actually spins around when you're turning the machine the tubes come all the way back through
the frames there's one fixed frame so it's really really strong you got two led lights hit which you
can turn on and off as well coming back through the machine your controls up here very very simple
so this is your choke for cold start your throttle your key switch to start the engine
and your pto switch to engage the blades so nice and simple
pull that out to engage the blades push it back down and the blades stop
and that's all you've got so nice simple product no fancy frills cuts grass does a fantastic job
and it's strong that's all what we want basically and the other thing you'll notice with this
one a nice premium seat so it's a bit like a tractor-style seat like an agricultural tractor
so you know nice cushion seat leather bound arm rest as well so you don't get fatigued when you're
driving it that's also on a flipped hinge which allows you get to the battery you can get to all
your lubrication points fuel tanks underneath the seat which is a huge fuel tank that will keep you
going most of the day and is uh yeah obviously designed for your rugged use you can also adjust
your seat backwards and forwards there's a little lever just here so this is how easy
it is to slide the seat forward and back it's just a little tiny handy lever here push that backwards
and there you go moving on back through i say going back to that tubular frame it's
all here around the back of the engine it's all open easy to service maintain the engine any of
the belts or anything like that so yeah absolutely fantastic right there's two options on the engines
that come with the ultima range you've got a 679 cc cub cadet version on the small 42-inch
model and that's a v-twin and on the larger 50-inch models 50 and the 54-inch you've got a
726 cc commercial-graded kawasaki engine which produces a lot of power as you can see nestled
within this open frame design so everything's protected nothing's going to get damaged and
also means because it's open frame very easy to service get to all the maintenance points that
you might need to get through during the season so it's easy to get to the air filter just open
up the cover like so there's a little butterfly clip here which allows you to slide it out you
can then blow it out with an air compressor the filter put it back in and close the hatch oil wise
just here so you can check your oil level on the dipstick and if you do need to change the oil at
all if you are using it quite heavily um you do want to change your all throughout the season
there's a handy little tiny oil drain port down here which you just undo the nut on the end and
drain the oil out and you can refill it through the dipstick it's always handy these machines
are fitted as standard with a tow hitch this is a clevis type pin so you can put a trailer on the
back if you turn a small load of logs or garden waste or etc and yeah that just clips in drop the
pin down through and then you can tow away so on the 50 and the 54 inch models you get larger or
shall we say oversized wheels this gives better stability traction and control also if you've got
rougher or even sort of softer ground it will give you better grip and traction on the 42 inch model
you get a normal standard sort of lawn tractor style wheel you'll see on this model you've got a
side discharge flap so predominantly this machine is a mulch side discharge tractor so mulching the
principle behind it like james mentioned in the previous video of the husqvarna rider you're
basically clipping up the clippings into a smaller material and then you're putting the nutrients
back into the ground so it's fantastic if you've got areas which has got a lot of moss in it or you
cut the grass regularly the other thing is having its side discharge if you have got rough areas so
sort of paddock grass or anything like that which is slightly longer you can just blur it out the
side not worry about it and it clears itself you haven't got to collect the grass and put it to
an unsightly you know compost heap or anything like that so nice and simple and the other big
thing with this one is you don't have to switch blades over so the blades which i'll show you in
a moment are an american design which are called gator blades now gator blades have got fins on
the back of the lifters so you'll see this in a minute but what what it does basically keeps the
grass in a state of limbo basically so instead of pushing the grass right to the top of the cutting
deck which you don't want or pushing it right down to the ground which you also don't want it
keeps it in the center of the cutting deck and it clips up the grass finer so when it gets to such a
small stage basically then drop into the ground and you won't see anything left behind they're
fantastic because they're lighter blades they spin quicker so give you better propulsion of the grass
and also you know you'll find a lot of machinery manufacturers are now adopting that type of blade
and the reason behind it is because they do a good job so with this one here the flap is down at the
moment inside discharge mode i have also got the mulch plug fitted in but basically to take the
mulch plug out you just lift up the flap there's a little wing nut here on the side which you undo
which are put in the pocket and then all you do is lift up the flap like so
and take that outside let that down it's now ready to side discharge so cut that long grass
and chug outside if you wanted to mulch you just do it in reverse put the flap back in do the wing
nut up and it's very simple so it's as easy as that to change between the two options as is a
hydrostatic machine as we've done a previous video and showed you where to disengage the hydrostat to
be able to push it around the garden if need be this one's actually got two levers so because it's
a twin gear boxed machine the levers are really simple they are just here so you've got one there
and your other one is just there that then allows you to push a machine about if you need to
if you want to drive just push those levers back in and leave them in those positions
so this little handy tool here we just took out the machine this is to sort of service the deck
if you need to clean it out uh get to any of the belts or the covers so just undo that little tiny
nut there we'll undo this little foot plate which is on a hinge and then basically what we can do we
can flip that forward like so you can then drop your cutter deck down on its lowest position
and undo the little nuts and bolts around the side of the metal deck and then slide those
covers out and then you get there if you need to clean any grass grease any point so it's really
really simple also it makes it such a strong strong bit of kit having that there as well
right i'm going to jump on now you're going to see why this model puts such a smile on my face
and while it's been such a popular model for us this year i'll jump on i'll quickly adjust the
handles to suit myself because obviously different users have already used this machine before us
and then yeah let's see what this thing does right so i'm just going to show you the controls
once again so very simple to use the operation on this machine think of it as each lever operates
the independent gearboxes on the back so a lot of machines will only have one gearbox on there this
one's got two so you've got one driving each wheel when you're sat on it this one operates left wheel
and that one operates the right wheel when you let go as you can see they come back to neutral
so you're gonna be in neutral stop position and then the further you alter it the quicker the
speed or the direction on each gearbox so nice and smooth operation and when you want to put it
into park again lift your levers back out and you're in a park park position so the handles
depending on your neutral position you can undo the uh the side here and you set your neutral
position so this feels most comfortable for myself some people prefer the handles further forward
on the neutral and that can just be adjusted on the side here but there we go let's give it a go
so
i've got to mention as well this machine actually mows at 12 kilometers per hour
which is about three times the speed of a normal garden tractor so you can see what
i was doing there i mean this garden's about an acre i'll probably mow this in what half
an hour something like that so really speedy but we're going to show you how to maneuver in
around the trees now and how easy it is with the stick steer so we'll fire back up and get going
there we go who thought that mowing could be so easy so we're mulching now we're going to take
the side discharge flap out and just blow the grass outside in slightly longer stuff
i mean really the real test would be putting in some padded grass for the moment we haven't got
access to any of that but it will do that i can promise you the amount of demos have
been out with this machine and it and it's still impressing me what it does so yeah we'll go to the
other side of the garden we'll put it through some longer stuff and just show you outside
discharges
so there we go guys what do you think fantastic bit of kitten that i absolutely
love them i think they are fantastic you can view all our products on hayesmachinery.co.uk
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