Mowing How to mow a slope with a tractor?

[Luke'sScreenName]

Sorry, but the text in red above seems to say you traverse the slope; 'mow sideways', which puts you and your machine at risk of rollover. Once you reach the critical point where you can't recover from a rollover your bucket and weighted tires will not keep you upright, IMHO. Am I missing something about what you're saying/doing?

You are probably right about the verbiage. My apologies.

Hopefully it's now clear that I meant directly up-and-down the grade as would intuitively be more stable. :thumbsup:

 

[Texasmark]

Sorry, but the text in red above seems to say you traverse the slope; 'mow sideways', which puts you and your machine at risk of rollover. Once you reach the critical point where you can't recover from a rollover your bucket and weighted tires will not keep you upright, IMHO. Am I missing something about what you're saying/doing?

If I'm worried about a rollover in a tractor, I suspend a pendulum from the center of the tractor at the highest point. If the weight gets close to pointing toward the outside of the down hill tread contacting the soil I figure it's time to change something. Next thing required is creep speed so that hitting a bump or chug hole won't give me an inflection which could toss me. Course I solved that problem with my little riding mower on mowing pond banks. Not a chance of that sucker going over or sliding down the bank.

 

[Coyote machine]

You are probably right about the verbiage. My apologies.

Hopefully it's now clear that I meant directly up-and-down the grade as would intuitively be more stable. :thumbsup:

Just wanted to clarify so someone doesn't follow advice that could end badly.:thumbsup:

 

[Turbys_1700]

I have a very steep section that I finish mow. At the bottom of this hill my shop is located. Before it was a shop that area was my garden spot. My father built his motor home garage there and I have converted it to my tractor garage.

I have a 6 foot flat area between the garage and the start of the slope. I creep up and creep back in 2nd gear allowing the tractor to brake itself. I have to go slow in order to control the tractor and mower. If I lose control I would destroy my garage.

So far so good. I've been using this technique for over 20 years now with no issues. I don't know the slope angle but it is too steep to mow side hill. You can walk down it very carefully but with my bad hip and knee I don't do it anymore. In my younger years I would walk down it but if the grass was wet with dew you would end up on your rear end.

I typically take the bucket off the FEL to mow and just lower the FEL arms when going up the hill. My front axle is engaged and with loaded rears I am over 7K pounds with the FEL. My tractor has a shorter WB than yours. I would expect your tractor to be more stable with the longer WB than mine.

 

[redman135]

Hello Buxus, Mowing steep slopes I go forwards up AND down.
Set your line of travel then engage diff lock to climb AND decend.
The aim of the difflock is force the wheels to turn at the same rate so that when 1 tyre breaks traction it can't trigger a slide, you have to break traction on all 4 tyres. As you say go slow going down BUT be prepared to rip the drive lever to full forward speed to "catch" the tractor if you get into a slide. By increasing the wheel speed quickly you can shorten the skid by 1/3 . It is counter intuitive, but it works.
One proviso, be sure there are no large bumps, and mark them permanantly if there are, then come back with a weed wacker. Large bumps on steep slopes are dangerous and bad news.

 

[Citydude]

I contract mowed right of ways and water impoundments and always backed up the hill. I had better traction on the front wheels and steering out of trouble was easy. To me, mowing up a steep hill forward would have the reverse effects.

 

[pmsmechanic]

This is my prefered method of mowing slopes.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

This is my prefered method of mowing slopes.

Show-off! :laughing:

 

[moriboy]

Over the years, we've had the best results backing up steep hills while mowing. On the way down, angle slightly toward the next uncut area and repeat. It works good and there's no other way I would feel comfortable mowing the real steep stuff.

PS- wear your seat-belt and keep the bucket low. 4WD is a must.

 

[Buxus]

Thanks for all the advice. I may try it tomorrow if the grass and ground is dry enough.