Hilly Mowing - riding mower

[boggen]

everything below is about "pure traction" and getting more traction, some may or may not apply to all types of mowers/tractors.
--fill tires weight a fluid.
--add weight to oustide of tire rims
--add weight to rear of tractor.
--add weight to front of tractor
--swap out tires to R1 / AG / agriultural tires. or less small tires, then look at ATV / UTV tires.
--chains on tires.
--many times you can swap rims side for side (to keep same tread direction), but simply get a couple more inches of width of rear tires.
--pending on machine and tires. lower the air pressure in the tires. if need be toss some tubes in, and lower pressure more.

tires...
--there are wide fat tiers, R4 / industrial tires, and many times turf tires for tractors. these tires tend to set on top of the ground/grass and just spin out and get stuck.
--R1 tires, tend to be more pizza style tires in width. and end up sinking down through the ground and mud. and keeps on going. (more likely to make ruts on soft wet ground)
--some folks have went as far as adding "dully" to there mowing machine. (2 wheels side by side, on each side for rear tires)

AWD / 4x4 / MFWD more likely to keep you going.

===========
a tractor with FEL (front end loader), with a rotary mower on 3pt hitch, about only way a machine can back down the hills around lake. and then use the FEL. to help get backup the hill. more so when ya hit a wet spot, or a little rut, or rotary mower gets hung up on something.

===========
there are also "sickle mowers" were a bar flips out to the side.
there are some "pull behind mowers" for atv's/ utv's the mowers have there own engine on them. many of the have an "offset" abilty were you can adjust the tow bar, to swing the mower out to one side.
some folks have bought blades for rotary cutters to use them to cut grass, vs trying to cut larger taller weeds.

if hills are to steep, then you have self propelled brush cutters (larger meaner versions of a self propelled push mower for city folks lawns)

===========
sorry no direct help on any specific tractor. but maybe above some hints to look at, when looking at different machines.

 

[billymagg]

Husky 322T AWD articulating mower, with combi 103 deck. Cuts whatever I throw at it, up, down, sideways, no issues. Wet grass, dry grass, tall grass, it just cuts it without complaints and always in control.
Replaced my Scag Wildcat 60" deck ZT mower. Have lots of slippery slopes and hills. Scag was dangerous on many of them; either slide off cut line at random or lost control of front end- it just points to lowest point on hill and goes there on its own.

Yes, I'd have to agree about the SCAG, scary on hills, crosshills or up and down. Going up not to bad, angling up, not too bad,,, but once it started down hill there was NO stopping it short of full reverse on both levers, sometimes that didn't do it either. It was a 60 inch deck, with a 30 horse Kawi, light commercial, and boy did it love to slip and skid..

We had two John Deere F935s with 23 horse YanMar, and they were heavy but also had issues, my sons Exmark Lazer Z was a very pleasant surprise, plenty of power, and enough weight to maintain a contact patch, very handy, and with a 54 inch deck, it does not want to dig in and turn on those step ditchs, does have barred tires though.