I have one of the 18.5 HP brush mowers.
I bought it about 2.5 yrs ago. Good mower, no major problems with it. It will cut through anything reasonable you throw at it. Will even chew through some unreasonable things. We use it to keep about 4 acres mowed down.
The gear shift can be tricky to see what gear your in. Actually made my wife think she broke it because it wouldn't start. Turned out she was in 1st gear not neutral.
It can lose traction on muddy slopes so if you have a lot of hills, etc that could be an issue. Chains might help there but I haven't needed to do that myself.
The only 2 issues I've ever had with it were:
1) The main drive chain popped off and the master link disappeared. I bought some replacement master links and a new chain. Put the original chain back on with a new link. Never happened again.
2) I also own the chipper attachment that goes with it. When I was transporting the chipper the vibration of the trailer was enough to knock loose the machine key off the main pulley. Again replaced the machine key and it has never happened again.
I consider it money well spent and don't regret getting it at all.
