ride on mower or tractor?

Hi,
I have just got a a lawn coming through recently and as normal it is nearing the time to be cut. I live on a farm and i am getting a tractor. If a tractor is just as good as a ride on mower then i have to get a small tractor which would limit other farm activites to do. If i get a ride on as well, then i can get a decent sized tractor. Aside from this, will a tractor do my lawn any harm? What is best overall for a large lawn?
Thanks in advance

 

I reckon a 'real size' tractor will rapidly compact your new lawn, just because of the weight of it. How much of a problem that would be would partly depending on your soil type. If its clay, then you'll make it a mud bath in no time I reckon. In any case, you'd still need to buy a mower attachment for your tractor. I have no idea how much that would cost, but its something to consider when weighing up the pros and cons, including costs, of each.

Oh, and I remember a conversation I once had with a farmer I know. He was whining about how much he has to spend on fuel. I pointed out that he gets red diesel and tootles about the field. His reply was to draw a comparison between a car on the road and a tractor in a field. He asked how much petrol I'd use if I put a 2 tonne trailer on the back, stuck the car in first gear, and then drove off with the hand brake still on to simulate the extra drag of being in mud vs tarmac. I think his point was that tractors drink colossal amounts of juice. You might want to take that into account too when deciding what to do. A ride on mower might cost a couple of grand, but over say 3 years, how much would you spend on fueling a full size tractor just to do the lawn?

Welcome to GC by the way.

 

I have a small-ish tractor (about 35HP I think). It has grass tires, so not much damage to lawn etc., but its weight & compacting is an issue as C1 said. Also consider if it will do any damage when you turn sharply at the end of each "row", mine skids a bit at the front and will tear the grass if not careful. I have a topping mower on mine, which I use to cut rough grass. I use that about once a fortnight and it has the effect of keeping the grass about 4" long, which I think looks quite nice with properly mown paths through it. That's very quick to use (about 4' wide and generally will cut in second gear - which is a very brisk walking pace)

Next up is: what area is your lawn? How fiddly is it (trees/plants to cut around? lots of paths, or just a rectangular shape?). A tractor mower will cut a rectangular football field easily and quickly, but a complex shape takes ages of back-and-for manoeuvring, and lots of mowers that you can mount on a tractor require that you lift them on the hydraulic arms before reversing ... which makes a 3 point turn take ages!

If you have more than an acre of lawn then it depends on what sort of finish you want. Personally I prefer a cylinder-mower finish, for that you would need a gang mower to tow behind a tractor, or an Allen National (which I what I use) [68" cut, 2 acres per hour, cross between a mini-tractor and a flying-bedstead!!]

, or the sort of mower they use on a Golf Course (a Toro, for example)


or the type that the council use (Ransoms) .



Choice here comes down to price, and whether you want to collect the clippings. The Allen National doesn't have a collection box, and when the clippings go brown, lying on the lawn, I think it detracts a bit. The Golf Course ones need a pretty fine lawn to work with, so if you are going to leave it to get a bit long at times, or try to force the mower through some rougher areas, then a Golf Course model won't be any good (I know, I've tried one!! the Allen National does OK on rougher jobs, but no cylinder will cut long grass of course)

Both types available second hand and reasonably affordable. Golf Course type mowers are generally hydraulic, so easy to press the pedal for forward/reverse and to lift the side gangs ... the Allen National has none of that, but is so basic you can easily & cheaply maintain it with a couple of spanners - that influenced my choice. Not sure my wife would want to have to manually lift the side-gangs to get through a narrow gap though.

If you want a rougher finish you can use a rotary [rather than a cylinder]. lots of choice for those type of mini tractors with a cutting deck underneath them. I use my neighbours now & again, that's a John Deere and it works well.


It will cut very long grass if asked to, is very manoeuvrable, but I find cleaning the deck (which has very little clearance, under the tractor) impossible. It needs a 4-post-lift or an inspection chamber!!! to be able to get at it. (The hose adaptor on the deck, which supposedly enables you to clean it by just connecting your hose, only does a 10% job IME - just in case the J.D. salesman tries to tell you otherwise!!)

 

Thanks for your replys! Ive purchased a massey ferguson 135 now which has a duncan cab on it. What my question is, is would my lawn hold this tractor and a finishing mower behind it? Would my tractor dig up my garden or if it does is there a way then to maintain and flatten out the tracks?
Thanks in advance

 

You need grass tires, and ideally wide ones at that. Either way, the tractor is heavy and will compact the land, over time. Even then the tractor wheels may leave marks whent he land is wet / soft, particularly in Spring and Autumn.

Also because the mower is behind the tractor the tractor's wheels will flatten the grass before it is mowed, so you will get strips of taller grass where that happens. If you can mow cross-ways on alternate mowings to counteract that.

 

The lawn is getting rolled soon, would this help, I do not think i am i would be purchasing grass tires or wide tires. I did not think this was a heavy tractor? Would this tractor compacting my lawn have any advantages/disadvantages?

 

Probably isn't heavy for a tractor, but it still weights about 1.6 tonnes.

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/7/4/743-massey-ferguson-135.html

That's a lot of weight. Its heavier than some of the biggest cars.

It will put dents in your lawn where the weight on the tyres bears down on the ground, and form a 'pan' on the soil surface, which is like a crust, preventing air and water getting down to the roots, and eventually it will squeeze so much air out of the ground that the grass can't grow.

You might get away with it if you aerate regularly, and use one of those harrow things to break the pan occasionally, but I still think a tractor is too heavy for regular use on a lawn.

 

I think you will find that "tractor tires" will cut up the lawn - either from the weight of the tractor, and/or from the "sideways skid" when you turn. (When we run heavy machinery, like tracked diggers & dumpers, on the lawn we only drive in straight lines, we put down ply boards where we do need to turn, and we leave the grass long - it gets squashed down by the wheels, but provides a "loose" surface over the lawn that any turning can swivel on, rather than that sideways shearing motion being transferred to, and then ripping, the turf.

But you can try it and see - no point buying anything extra until you find you have to I sold my Tractor Tyres for more than my Grass Tyres cost me as replacements but that's only any good if you don't need "tractor tyres" for some other action that needs good grip, like ploughing.

 

If the tires have lots of tread and they are cuting up your lawn you can cut off some of the tread which will make it better