Buying Advice Need a zero turn that doesn't exist?

[MinnesotaEric]

Go with a stand-up model. Demo one they do pretty good on grades and because you're standing, you'll always lean into the uphill keeping the machine even more stable.

Wright and Toro and Ferris make standup zero-turns I've tried. Cub-cadet does as well and is having a big sale this month.

 

[radios1]

you are supposed to mow hills up and down, mowing alongside the hill shouldn't be done, and it's dangerous because the tractor wants to tip over. so mow up and down the hill!..

 

[K5lwq]

One of the best mowers I ever used on hills is a Walker mower. The drive wheels are directly under the seat with a big caster in back and deck on front. If the hill gets to steep, the high side wheel will loose traction and the low side will gain causing the mower to turn uphill. Then you simply back down the hill.

If it is really steep, then mow up and then back the mower down. It is almost impossible to flip unless you are really good at it. :laughing:

Here is a link to their website. Models

 

[ericm979]

The land I've been clearing brush off of and mowing is on the side of a mountain. The steepest part I've mowed with a 5' rotary cutter is at least a 20% slope. I've driven the tractor up steeper slopes with a chipper on the back. There's one that requires low range, and I usually back up it with the loader low for safety.

As long as you can go up and down the steep bits and turn on less steep parts, you can handle pretty steep hills.

I got slightly smaller diameter tires on my 3725 and 2" spacers on the rear, but those just make it more stable on side hills.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I've never mowed up a hill to steep to walk up, don't know what grade degrees that is.
I mow straight down slowly only if it's dry, go around then next pass down.

 

[radios1]

this will safely do a 30 deg. slope. Ventrac Slope Mowing Ventrac Slope Mowing zero turns are only good for a 10 deg. slope. need to do a 112% slope?. this will do that. Brielmaier motor mower - Going uphill

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have mowed hills so steep that even in 4 WD with the brakes locked it will still slide down. I had to circle around and only mow down hill though. Best way was to just let the engine do a little braking so you could still steer and just ride it out just like a sleigh ride.

 

[Fuddy1952]

This got me interested in what slope I was mowing. So with a four ft. level I put a tape measure on end straight down to ground, other end level on ground above. I mowed left side of fence two days ago before rain.
So it was 18.5", divide by 48" is 0.3854166667, times 100= 38.5 degree slope. Am I correct?
Cut with Cub zero turn mower. Straight down each time.View attachment 659932

 

[stevem5215]

Zero Turn Mower with Dual Wheels? - Cub Cadet Pro Z9 - YouTube

That Cub Cadet is impressive in design. The cost is not cheap at $17,000 real bucks. I did notice the part number on the video as shown was a filter asm. that is replaceable easily. They use Parker wheel motors on that design. Looks pretty nice underneath that thing. And while the cost isn't for the faint of heart. The engineering in it is very good IMO. Here's a link to the wheel motor/pumps used from Parker.

Steve

Cub Cadet PRO Z 7 KW 76-L (53RIHKTV) (216) Parts Diagrams

 

[Fuddy1952]

this will safely do a 30 deg. slope. Ventrac Slope Mowing Ventrac Slope Mowing zero turns are only good for a 10 deg. slope. need to do a 112% slope?. this will do that. Brielmaier motor mower - Going uphill

"zero turns are only good for a 10 deg. slope"
?????

 

[4570Man]

this will safely do a 30 deg. slope. Ventrac Slope Mowing Ventrac Slope Mowing zero turns are only good for a 10 deg. slope. need to do a 112% slope?. this will do that. Brielmaier motor mower - Going uphill

You better come tell my Grasshopper that. I’ve mowed 30 degrees with it but that’s pretty sketchy. 20 degrees is easy.

 

[RjCorazza]

You better come tell my Grasshopper that. I’ve mowed 30 degrees with it but that’s pretty sketchy. 20 degrees is easy.

That's about my experience also. I cut 20 deg slopes all day long side to side. Approaching 30 I break out the walk behind.

 

[stevem5215]

"zero turns are only good for a 10 deg. slope"
?????

I don't think ZTR's are usually "rated" for much higher than 10 degree slopes. But that doesn't mean you can't cut at more. It just isn't rated for it. Example is I have a Simplicity ZTR Citation 27hp 61" deck. I cut my slope sideways with that ZTR without issue. Sure, i wouldn't cut it when wet but side hill is not even a question with that machine. It has a weight of 980lbs and has 12" wide tires on it. It's a commercial style machine really. Not like my ZT 2500 which was consumer based which on the same slope is all over the place and not usable for fear of death and crashing into the garage. The other one. No trouble. The STeiner 420 I own. No trouble. But the ZTR is soooo much easier on the body when cutting with the suspension. Even on that grade it's seriously bumpy but with that suspension it makes a big difference cause i can "fly" across the side hill.

Steve

 

[DK35vince]

I easily more than doubled how steep of hill I can mow with my zero turn (Hustler Super Z) by simply throwing away the stock turfs and replacing them with Carlisle AT 101 bar tires.
We just bought a second zero turn this past weekend (Snapper Pro s200xt). I was cursing the stock turf tires within the first 20 minutes (their awful).
Replaced the stock turfs after the first mow with AT 101's (1.8 hours on the machine and I changed the tires, the turfs suck that bad on hills)

 

[Xfaxman]

This got me interested in what slope I was mowing. So with a four ft. level I put a tape measure on end straight down to ground, other end level on ground above. I mowed left side of fence two days ago before rain.
So it was 18.5", divide by 48" is 0.3854166667, times 100= 38.5 degree slope. Am I correct?
------------------------------]

No, I think it is 38.5 %. Calculating Slope and Common Slopes in Architecture - archtoolbox.com

 

[two_bit_score]

this will safely do a 30 deg. slope. Ventrac Slope Mowing Ventrac Slope Mowing zero turns are only good for a 10 deg. slope. need to do a 112% slope?. this will do that. Brielmaier motor mower - Going uphill

That goes to show that if there is a need somebody somewhere has invented a solution to meet it. That’s thing is amazing!

 

[JoelT]

Percent of slope never made sense to me...degrees of slope do. I can visualize a 45deg slope or 22 1/2deg. Around here I've used an unorthodox kind of visual method of figuring slope degrees. A 3ft (waist high or so) drop in 8ft (think plywood sheet) is about 20deg.... 3ft drop in 12ft (sheet and a half) is about 15deg.... 3ft drop in 16ft (2 sheets) is around 10deg. Been a while since I verified this but think it's a good ball park method.

 

[RSR]

This got me interested in what slope I was mowing. So with a four ft. level I put a tape measure on end straight down to ground, other end level on ground above. I mowed left side of fence two days ago before rain.
So it was 18.5", divide by 48" is 0.3854166667, times 100= 38.5 degree slope. Am I correct?
Cut with Cub zero turn mower. Straight down each time.View attachment 659932View attachment 659933View attachment 659934

You've calculated percent grade.

Degrees (as in the angle) would be tan(theta) = 18.5/48.

Solving for theta yields:

theta = atan(18.5/48) = 21.1 degrees.

 

[RSR]

Percent of slope never made sense to me...degrees of slope do. I can visualize a 45deg slope or 22 1/2deg. Around here I've used an unorthodox kind of visual method of figuring slope degrees. A 3ft (waist high or so) drop in 8ft (think plywood sheet) is about 20deg.... 3ft drop in 12ft (sheet and a half) is about 15deg.... 3ft drop in 16ft (2 sheets) is around 10deg. Been a while since I verified this but think it's a good ball park method.

3 in 8 drop:
theta = atan(3/8) = 20.6 degrees

3 in 12
theta = atan(3/12) = 14.0 degrees

3 in 16
theta = atan(3/16) = 10.6 degrees

Pretty darn close, so yes, a quite effective way for estimating the angle of a slope.



You can also download apps where you can lie your phone, on edge, along the slope to measure/estimate the angle.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Because for every 4ft with my level it drops 18.5". Every 100ft it drops just over 38.54ft.
As I understand slope it's rise/run.
In this (my) hill example it's 0.3854.
That times 100 = 38.54%.
In degrees it's 21.08°.

Calculating a Slope

"To calculate a percent slope, simply divide the elevation change in feet by the distance of the line you drew (after converting it to feet). Multiply the resulting number by 100 to get a percentage value equal to the percent slope of the hill."