There's no question that Deeres are decent enough mowers, but a "real Deere" from the "real Deere dealer" generally is significantly more expensive than most of us need for keeping the weeds whacked down.

Deere has begun making a "cut rate model" to compete with the run of the mill mowers, sold most notably by Home Depot; but most of the real Deere dealers won't sell you one of those. The "Home Depot Deeres" still look like about 15% to 20% more money than comparable, and adquate, other "brand names."

Spend the difference only if you need the difference. Even if it's just "braggability" that may be important to you.

If you need a "garden tractor" rather than just a mower, it's probably worth looking at a Deere; but for just mowing the lawn that extra "quality" is mostly just braggin' rights. (And you probably need to look at a Deere, if that's what you need, because very few other "real garden tractors" are easily found.)

On the 4-wheel riding style, all you need to look at is the drive wheel. Mowers (residential style) universally have a single bolt through the center to hold the wheel on. That's adequate for mowing, but the only tire you can get to fit that wheel is a "turf protector" tire with almost no tread at all, and ZERO traction.

A "garden tractor" should have four lug nuts (or 4 bolts) and a slightly larger wheel. It's difficult to tell the difference in the wheel size just walking past one, but the 4 bolt rather than one tells you all you need to know to tell what kind of machine you're looking at. For the slightly larger 4-lug wheel there are at least TWO fairly available treads (there may be more?), so you can use a tire with (rather dainty - but helpful) lugs on them that may actually get you up and down around the creek bed.

Note that the people who sell them at the big box stores won't know the difference, so looking at the ads isn't helpful.

Even with one of the "real garden tractors," one can't expect to pull much load. I've got a back driveway that most reasonably sized ones probably couldn't pull a 5 cu ft cart full of potting soil up; but my mower (with the turf-saver treadless tires) can't pull itself up the slopes on about 30% of my lawn, so I have to do all the mowing diving down the slopes. (On some parts the brakes won't even stop it going down, 'cause the "turf tires" just slide.)

Although it gets a bit complicated to present all the reasons, concensus opinion also tends to be that "hydraulic transmissions" are fine for ZTR mowers and for most 4-wheel mowers, but mechanical transmissions (including belt types) are a little better if you need "pulling power" of any kind in the smaller machines - even if you only need a little bit. Opinion divides a little more when you get into larger "field tractors," but if you need something that big you probably have "special uses" to justify looking at which type of transmission does what you really need most.

John