Just got my first tractor. Tips for mowing steep slopes?

[sandman2234]

Tallguy, are you sure the manual says to back up the hill and drive down? That is exactly opposite of what I would do. I try to keep the weight on my back wheels as much as possible.

I would drive up the hill and back down the hill always in 4WD and slow.

K5lwq,
A tractor will roll backwards very easily doing that, drive forward down a hill and back up it is the safest way! (If you have seen the animated movie "Cars", the tractor tipping scene would explain this very easily!)
David from jax

 

[TerryR]

The steepest part of my property that I mow, just past the little tree in the foreground below, is 20 to 21 degrees, according to my phone:

I make a couple of passes across the bottom of the hill to make room for turning, then mow the rest up and down.

I find 21 degrees about all I'm willing to do across the hill. Turning on that slope works, but I take it very easy.

I avoid the steeper parts just above the ditch, but I can now get most of it by cutting both above and below with my ditch and bank mower.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

I've only got one year of experience on my steep hill with my MX5400. On the steepest stuff I only drive forward downhill, generally planning to loop around the property in such a way that I have planned to be driving down/forward on the steepest parts. It's going uphill on the steepest stuff that induces the biggest pucker response for me.

I have loaded rears, my naive sense of physics tells me it's good to have those uphill, holding me down, than downhill acting as a fulcrum over which my tractor may pivot. My naive sense of physics is probably wrong.

I tend to find what is probably bogus comfort in having my rotary cutter and fel+<something> mounted, like all that low-slung far to the rear and front weight somehow assists my weight distribution to discourage end-over-end flips, and might even help me if I did start to tip (i.e. bucket/cutter would act like a front/back outrigger. Total fantasy probably.

So my only practical advise is, use 4wd all the time on the slopes, always use low gear, don't _ever_ try to change gears (or gear ranges, or whatever the L/M/H terminology is) on a slope. And if you have hydraulics like me, I actually think (in low gear) they have far better braking properties than applying the actual brake, which seems very weak for stopping the motion of almost four tons of operator and equipment. The steeper the slope, the slower I go, at least when I can't see what's under the tall growth in the form of pits and rocks. And it should go without saying, ROPS up, seatbelt on.

I have have one part of my property that's shaped like a parabolic dish. In order to apply the above principles, I definitely end up re-traversing all the stuff in the middle as I go up/down any section of the bowl. It's tedious but safe.

 

[metalbender]

Color me chicken. I would be mowing up and down on a ZT mower.

 

[LD48750]

I'm one of those that HAS lifted the front tires off the ground going up a hill.
THAT hill is now one way, down forward.

Over the years mowing the hills on my property, I have found I can mow across steeper grades then I ever thought.
Take your time and go by the seat of your pants.
When mowing, I'm ALWAYS ready to turn DOWNHILL if a wheel starts to lift.

 

[RSKY]

If you are on a tractor mowing a steep uphill driving forward I hope you have your will updated. All it will take is one unseen limb, one new washed out groundhog hole, one anything to bounce the front end a few inches, or feet, off the ground and you will go over backwards. A rear mounted mower will not save you. The tractor will fall off to one side and roll over. I found this out not on a tractor but a brand new three wheeled ATV back in my younger and dumber day.

I mow several road side ditches and banks weekly with a ZTR and the few times I have scared myself was when going uphill too fast. With most of the engine weight behind the rear drive wheel I reverse up all steep slopes.

When going across a slope always keep you foot on the downhill brake. If you feel the uphill wheel lifting off jam the downhill brake and the front of the tractor will swing downhill and the machine won't roll. Don't ask!!

I am old because I was lucky when young and dumb.

RSKY

 

[BoylermanCT]

This is why there is pachysandra. I have a couple of areas too steep to mow, so I plant pachysandra there. Not worth the risk of damage to my tractor or me.

 

[Egon]

“The belly mower won't keep you from going over.”

The mower sticks out each side, is firmly attached and has wheels on the ground At the outside edge. It will make it difficult for a side roll over.

 

[shooterdon]

I am too chicken to use a tractor on a 25* slope. But what I find "interesting" is the posted advice of how to do it. 180* apart.

If I had to do it, my little pea brain thinks backing up a slope would be safer.

IMO the best solution was planting something on steep slopes that does not need mowing.

 

[Grandad4]

The problem with mowing steep slopes is the law of averages can catch up to you. You can mow the same hillside for years without problems until one day the grass is a bit wet, you start sliding, hit a rut, and your day just got a whole bunch worse. Or some other sequence events unfolds. Even if something is 99% safe, if you do it often enough, the odds can catch you out. In those conditions it's wise to take a different approach. IMHO.