Why are lawn tractors so slow?

[LD1]

They look like a gator blade.

I used to run them at my old place where grass was less dense and I was able to mow more often.

The problem with gators though, is they are power hogs if you go too long on letting your grass grow and dont keep em pretty darn sharp.

I moved to my new house last november. So this is the first season mowing here. I switched back to my standard blades and I can mow after 8 days growth at 6-7 MPH on average before cut quality suffers. Gators would bog the engine at much over 5mph. And anything but what felt like a crawl would leave a terrible cut.

I suffered through 4 or 5 mowings trying to figure out what the heck was wrong. Sharpened the blades razor sharp, totally cleaned the deck for airflow, Adjusted my throttle cable that slipped robbing me a a few hundred RPM's, Tried mowing higher, etc. They just wouldnt work well with too much growth. I was beginning to think there was something seriously wrong with the mower.

Then I switched back to my standard high lift blades and it made it feel like a whole new machine. Cut quality was 10x's better at a much faster speed.

But in fairness, my old house was in a woods with lots of shade, and lots of newly established lawn around a new pond. So none of the grass there grew very fast, nor was it very thick. And I couldnt mow it fast anyway even if I wanted to, cause my longest straight run was lucky to be 40' before I had to mow around a tree or something.

 

[ovrszd]

They look like a gator blade.

I used to run them at my old place where grass was less dense and I was able to mow more often.

The problem with gators though, is they are power hogs if you go too long on letting your grass grow and dont keep em pretty darn sharp.

I moved to my new house last november. So this is the first season mowing here. I switched back to my standard blades and I can mow after 8 days growth at 6-7 MPH on average before cut quality suffers. Gators would bog the engine at much over 5mph. And anything but what felt like a crawl would leave a terrible cut.

I suffered through 4 or 5 mowings trying to figure out what the heck was wrong. Sharpened the blades razor sharp, totally cleaned the deck for airflow, Adjusted my throttle cable that slipped robbing me a a few hundred RPM's, Tried mowing higher, etc. They just wouldnt work well with too much growth. I was beginning to think there was something seriously wrong with the mower.

Then I switched back to my standard high lift blades and it made it feel like a whole new machine. Cut quality was 10x's better at a much faster speed.

But in fairness, my old house was in a woods with lots of shade, and lots of newly established lawn around a new pond. So none of the grass there grew very fast, nor was it very thick. And I couldnt mow it fast anyway even if I wanted to, cause my longest straight run was lucky to be 40' before I had to mow around a tree or something.

I hear ya. Each user's results will vary.

I mow often. I think the Gators take less HP. They totally eliminate windrow of cuttings. Also tend to not lay the grass down as much. Harder to tell which direction you were going. I've just used them for 3 months so can't attest to longevity. Biggest advantage is they tend to clog the deck with cuttings less than regular lift blades. I was stopping to clean the deck mid-stream in 4 hours of cutting to cleaning it every other cutting.

 

[Gator6x4]

Never mowed with a lawn mower I felt was lacking in speed. Now if using one as a conveyance on a public highway like I have seen some used one would probably want more speed, turn signals, brakes, license plate holder, top or cab, windshield wipers, wait a moment I have all those things and more on my truck guess I will just use it.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Possibly has no car / truck or had license pulled. Used to see and old guy driving his LT to the nearby mall all the time.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I hear ya. Each user's results will vary.

............if you drive a mower on the road. Here's one man's results.

I hope the mods don't pull this as someone above actually opened the road driving discussion.