Stander vs Zero

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by cpllawncare

Sometimes yes sometimes no.I've tried everything, from all sorts of leaning and crazy positions to going up and down on the tire pressure's in 1/2 pound increments to going slow to going fast, you name it

do you shift your body weight when doing hills? I have a GS and it handles hills just fine.....

I'm probably not doing the steepest of hills......

[stonebridge]

Originally Posted by cpllawncare

I have a 2011 GS 40" with the 19 Kawasaki, Maybe it's a bad combination not enough weight or something cause it will take off on a full slide going down an incline tearing turf the whole way.

the 36'' and 40'' don't hold hills that good tire are to narrow and weight is not distributed for hill sides, was going to buy one but neither one help as good as my 52'' toro grandstand

[Valk]

Perhaps standers possibly begin(??) to be useful around ~48"+. No magic line intended, but a stander mower narrower than 48" will put more directional force on the lowside wheel/tire than a 52"...as well as putting less than a 44". No rocket science insinuated. The same logic goes for a sit-down/ZTR...as it seems to get way worse when approaching 36". These mower/deck size parameters effect the size of the drive tires to displace the mass.

When you look at the weights of these mowers, it really is astounding...
THEN you add the weight of the operator into the equation.

Would be interesting to see where the center of balance/gravity really is when it comes to standers vs riders/ztr's. Most certainly, one must take into account the weight of the operator as well as his own center of gravity.

[edensgate7]

My comments are in Grandstand thread review on things you might change in how you operate the machine. Short suggestion, always turn uphill and back down to the next pass when starting a pass next to a completed one. See other suggestions in grandstand review thread. I have a 52 and can hold any hill on it that can be held with a zero-turn mower of any type as long as the turf is in good shape and the grass is dry. Tires are at 8-10 PSI depending on the day and I weigh about 150 and I shift my weight to the uphill side of the machine.Yes the steeper I go the slower I go but I don't have any problems tearing up turf if I turn the right way and go across the slope at various angles instead of straight up and down.
Hope this helps!

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by edensgate7

My comments are in Grandstand thread review on things you might change in how you operate the machine. Short suggestion, always turn uphill and back down to the next pass when starting a pass next to a completed one. See other suggestions in grandstand review thread. I have a 52 and can hold any hill on it that can be held with a zero-turn mower of any type as long as the turf is in good shape and the grass is dry. Tires are at 8-10 PSI depending on the day and I weigh about 150 and I shift my weight to the uphill side of the machine.Yes the steeper I go the slower I go but I don't have any problems tearing up turf if I turn the right way and go across the slope at various angles instead of straight up and down.
Hope this helps!

how do you tear up turf mowing a hill straight up and down???

i mow the hills i have using all 4 directions.......

horizontal, vertical and both diagonal directions. none tear up the turf

[watsmi57]

I think that standers are neat but they don't make a lot of sense. The main problems are that they are too expensive, and a sit down ztr can go most places they can go. i hear they can leave some nasty ruts too.

now a walk behind is a different story. cheaper than standers AND more versatile. put a sulky on it and you have a stander take it off and walk it for those slopes and ditches

i just can't see paying that much for a stander. NO ONE is buying them down here.

[yardguy28]

guess from experience i disagree......

before i purchased my grandstand i had never mowed with a sit down ztr, only demod them.

last season my grandstand was in the shop for a week and the only loaner they had was a sit down ztr. i had that for a week and it definitly can NOT go everywhere my grandstand can go.

i spent the whole week spending an extra few min at each property trimming spots the sit down wouldn't go. i trim first then mow so thats why i had to get the trimmer back out after mowing because the sit down did not go everywhere my stander goes.

[unkownfl]

I just took video of my Wright Stander Rapid height (48") In a few weeks I should have a 48" rider and will mow the same exact hill.

[exmarkman11]

I have both a stander and ztr. If you can only get one go with the ztr. Standers suck on hills, ditches, and uneven terrain.

[edensgate7]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

how do you tear up turf mowing a hill straight up and down???

i mow the hills i have using all 4 directions.......

horizontal, vertical and both diagonal directions. none tear up the turf

To answer question posed above, I have always had trouble on the steepest hills (over 30 degrees) operating a zero-turn mower (stander, walkbehind etc etc doesn't matter what kind) going straight down a slope. Any mower when it brakes traction going straight down a hill is going to tear up turf. The physics of having 90% of the weight of the machine in front of the tires on any zero-turn raise the risk of sliding greatly when going straight downhill especially if one hits a bump and jars the machine (I haven't mowed a hill yet that was perfectly smooth on the slope). What usually tears up the turf is tires trying to keep grip going in this direction and then when the machine starts to slide, the turf gets scraped down to the dirt till the machine gets grip.


I don't want to sound like a Toro salesman but these are some comments from personal experiencs. The way that standers try to fix the above problem is they try to move the downward force or " center of gravity" more toward the drive tires which gives more control. The way Toro has improved their design beyond other such as wright and dane and gravely is they do everything that a walk-behind and a sit-down mower does for a similiar cost (at least in my area cause I bought two last year after alot of research, demo, and ownership time on all kinds of other mowers) AND they are the only mower where the operating postion is BEHIND the drive tires with a generous sized rubber mounted platform giving maximum ability for the operator to comfortably use their body weight as a movable ballast to control the machine.

This option has made going straight down a hill easier because the operator can get more grip by putting my feet on the very back of the platform and leaning back as far as they can which gives maximum downward force on the rear tires. So if you think about the physics of it all, the grandstand design in general is better than any other mower out there in my experience and opinion