Would a TimeCutter be a good choice for a mowing side business?
Probably not the best choice
Sometimes people mowing yards on the side assume that since they are mowing residential yards that a residential mower would be the right choice. But the right choice is less about "what" you are mowing, and more about "how many hours" you are mowing. The typical home owner mows around 30 hours a year, where as someone with a part time business mowing evenings and weekends could easily put 30 hours on a machine in a few weeks.
So a residential grade mower that might last a home owner a decade or two, might last a part time contract cutter only a year or two. Where the home owner might need a new belt every 3 - 6 years, the part time mowing business operator might go through 3 belts in a year and the same for other wear components, causing more down time. And being used in this capacity the TimeCutter would have just a 30 day warranty from date of purchase.
If your budget just won't allow for a more expensive machine then at least go into it with your eyes open knowing that you need to be setting some mowing profits aside for a replacement not too far down the road. A much better choice for the part time contract cutter, or even the homeowner that just wants to buy a better piece of equipment, would be the TITAN which does have a commercial warranty and is built to a completely different standard delivering much greater longevity, less down time and better performance. Some of the differences include a much heavier deck, deck belt, blade spindles, transmissions, bigger tires and so on. Beyond the steel thickness used in a deck is how much steel is used and how it is reinforced. While the TimeCutter IronForged™ decks are well constructed for a residential deck, they don't hold a candle to the TITAN decks even thought they are both constructed from 10ga steel.
We keep both the TimeCutters and Titans in our showroom so you can come see the differences for yourself. There are some pictures illustrating the differences at the bottom of the TITAN product page linked here.
