Mower on a rope

[anythinglawns]

I go to do a bid today and the first thing I notice about the place is that it has a very steep bank about 50 yards long and 10 yards wide. On top of that the slope ends abruptly on the edge of the road. Wow, I thought there is no way I would take any mower across that other than a push mower. Even then if the grass was wet one would take a chance of sliding down the slope right into the road. So being curios, I asked the owners "How did the last guy do this?" They told me he stood at the top of the bank with a rope tied to his push mower. He would push it over the side and then reel it back in. He would mow the entire length of the bank that way. I am not going to say anything negative about it, but that is a method I really don't think I will try if I win the bid. No complaining or talk of scrubs. Just something I have never seen.

[Albemarle Lawn]

It is very tiresome, but actually does a nice job once you get the hang of it.

I used an old orange 50ft extension cord.

Ken

[anythinglawns]

I must admit, it did not look bad. I was simply surprised at the technique.

[awm]

doing that would cost twice the money.,
for me anyway.correction ,3 times the money.

[Runner]

Years ago, we did a condo complex that had a creek running through the front. We nicknamed this place "the ditch". What we did with that, is we had a rope tied to the front of a snapper, one guy would be down in the ditch just guiding the mower not to tip, and the other guy would be up on the level surface pulling the mower down the length of the ditch. We worked bottom to top.

[Bob Minney]

I don't know, if you've been too busy to take time off for fishing....
Anyway, if you do start casting with a mower please take some pics for us.


Whatever it take to get the job done, as long as you are able to charge what its worth to you for doing it.

[Pro-Cut Lawns]

When I was a kid, I watched my Grandfather mow a bank in front of his house that way many times. Always thought it was cool back then......

[swn]

I guess you have to do whatever it takes. Just make sure that it is profitable. I would look for another method. I assume that it is too steep and to big of an area to use a weedeater.

[A1 Lawn@Landscapes]

You mentioned that there is a road at the bottom of the hill. What happens if the rope breaks and a car or person is going by ? What happened to the previous company ? We have a hill the we do at a dam where we use a harness tied to a guardrail to make sure we dont fall far enough to go into the riprap and water below. We use heavy duty arborist rope. We use a 2cycle lawn boy for the hill. It holds pretty well, cuts pretty well, and doesnt have problems like a 4 stroke on a steep hill. Its a headache, but it only takes 1 man hour once a week and needed to get the rest of the work at the dam.

Kerry

Oh yeah, make sure your boots are tied tight.

[garapeto]

Maybe you should check these out.
http://international.husqvarna.com/node234.asp
really cool for doing slopes.

[LawnSmith]

if you dont like the idea of a push mower, you can use a hover mower. i became very accustomed to these mowers when i worked at a golf course some years ago. we used them for mowing the banks of steep sand bunkers. they are down right sweet! it would be a WHOLE lot more efficient with the rope trick than with a push mower. with the hover mower and a rope you could basically just walk back and forth the length of the slope while gradually lowering the sope/mower. they have a hover effect, hence the name hover mower, so they glide over the turf very, very easily and its amlost impossible to make one scalp. most of the construction is plastic(besides the motor and handle) so they are a lot lighter than a quality push mower.
expect to spend about the same amount as a good push mower.

[2 man crew]

I have a property like that also. I have gone back to just using a string trimmer on the entire slope. I think its way faster and easier than a 21" mower.

[ProMo]

last big slope i had i talked owner into letting me plant ground cover instead of grass looked great never had to mow

[LawnLad]

I'm with LawnSmith. When I worked at a CC a while back we used a hover mower for a stream bank and bunker hills that a mower couldn't touch. Nice even cut - better than line trimming since it gave a consistent cut. It was pretty cool.

I didn't like how the "blade" was basically heavy duty line trimmer cord. Two pieces criss crossed on a plate attached to the shaft. As you used the mower the cut got progressively worse due to the wearing of the cord/strings until the cut was too inefficient or looked horrible that you had to change the strings. You had to flip the mower and put in two new strings when they wore down - took time. It seemed awfully inefficient in this way. Never used or saw anything different - maybe there are ones with blades, but then it might scalp more?

[GarPA]

I did look at the Husqvarna web site that one of you mentioned...any wild guess on what a hover mower costs??i

[ProMo]

the one i used to use was called fly mo it was pretty cool used to float it on water it had a real blade

[MOW ED]

The summer helper kids for the city I live in use a rope to stabilize the mower from the top of the hill and another kid actually walks behind it and they mow side to side instead of up and down. I will try and snap some pics if I see them out there. Its at an underpass hill and has r.r. tracks above. They dont cut it every week. Its a very steep slope.

[Greenie]

I used a mower with two eye bolts in the deck, rope attached for steep banks. Worked great until an OSHA inspector saw it - $750 fine.

[FrankenScagMachines]

How does a Hover mower work? Is it kinda like a small hovercraft with a string under it that has no directional propulsion other than up just enough? I assume it's two cycle, for hills and lightweight?
BTW - I have heard of mower on a rope before for a small bank that I now weedeat but the owners used to use the rope tactic.
Eric

[ProMo]

http://www.flymo.com/ they have one that uses a regular blade it is a lightweight plastic frame and gets lift from blade it can go over water if you keep it level if you tilt it it will stall like putting a string trimmer in water on hills they glide effortlessly back and forth much faster than string trimmer http://www.hovermower.com/