Hey everyone, I have large, potentially very lucrative account with a huge hill, I'd call it 100 ft across at its widest, and 200ft (including 15-20ft of flat at the top and bottom) top to bottom. I'd estimate the slope to be between 35-45 degrees. 2 man crew, with plenty of other areas to mow on this lawn, so one could take his time on the hill if necesary. I have a little experiance mowiong my hill with the tiger cub, comparable in size, but only 20-30 degrees.
Here are my options:
19 hp Scag Tiger Cub (48" deck)
72 inch deck Zero Turn Kubota
20" John Deer self propelled wb
(Or let the account go eslewhere)
I'll try to get pics up soon, but here are my requests:
1. By the numbers, would you even attempt it on one of the zero turn riders I have and which one?
2. Post pictures (and any good videos if they exist) of a ZT rider mowing the steepest hills out there.
Any pics, videos, or advice will be appreciated, but PLEASE DONT go out and video tape yourself rolling your rider down a hill that you shouldnt be. Thanks!
The steepest hills are best done by driving straight up, the backing straight down. It keep the weight/traction on your drive wheels. Doing the opposite, as you asked about, is a recipe for disaster. You'll never make it up, and you'll be a run away train going back down. Going sideways you risk tipping, and you'll leave more slip marks in the turf. Sideways can be good, but there comes a steepness threshold where the technique needs to be abandoned.
Doing steep hills on a ZTR is one of those, "don't try this at home" deals. It takes practice to learn the limitations of your machine and ability, and the learning curve can be harsh.
Slope is not calculated as an angle,
slope is calculated as a ratio.
Slope
The slope of a line is the steepness of the line.
It is measured as the change in Y associated with a change of one unit on X.
For example, a line with a slope of 0.5 involves a change of 1 on the X axis associated with a change of 0.5 on the Y axis.
So as X changes from 2 to 3, Y changes from 3.5 to 4.
Lines with positive slopes go from the bottom left toward the upper right.
Lines with negative slopes go from the upper right to the lower left.
In the below graph, m gives us the actual steepness of the slope:
Topsites, it can actually be expressed both ways. As a ski coach I deal with slope steepness on a daily basis. In that arena it's generally referred to in degrees. A 45 degree slope is pretty dang steep when sliding down it on skis.
i mowed a 40 degree slope bothup and down and sideways with my kubotas. you have to be very easy on controls and be insanely careful of bumps and holes as it will send you sliding
Not to argue with a protractor but they say Bristol Motor Speedway has 36 degree banks in the turns, and there's NO way a ZTR would make it straight up and down without sliding backwards or tipping. I walked up the banks myself and had to put my hands out directly in front of me.
Yout right technicallly topsites, but for dscussion purposes comparing the hill as being at an angle to flat makes more sense. People are just more familiar with angles.
grassman and aaronnc.... ive walked Bristol too and thats a great benchmark for me to compare to, thanks for the opinion. and arronnc, what size kubota, and could you post some pics?
its sounding like i'll have to go out one day and just roll it down the hill and hope i can find a way back up it. lot of varying opinions on this one.
Sorry mhaley927, I don't own a Kubota. I run a Bobcat. Would love to have a Kubota one day, but my closest dealer is over an hour away. I think that was grassman177 with the Kubotas. Anyways, you could always use a Ventrac:
My front yard is on a 23* angle (according to my angle finder) and one of my properties is I cut them both with my Tiger cub, they do fine on it. Now my in laws have a VERY steep yard Im gonna guess it at 33*-34* There is no way I would even chance my rider on it. I use the walk behind on them.
The problem I have mowing steep hills is if you try to go straight across and start turning just a bit the front end on my gravely will pivot around and then I'm facing downhill and I start sliding. When facing downhill you can't get any traction so you have to get stopped and then pull a quick 180 and hope you get turned around and get facing back uphill.
I have 2 yards that I mow with very steep sections and I mow those parts straight up, turn a bit and back down, turn a bit straight up, etc. Makes my stripes look a little funky but no one has complained yet as I guess they are just happy they don't have to mow the steep part themselves.
Not very computer savvy even though I use to work on large mainframes back in the late 70's and 80's but one hill I have my 32 hp ferris is grunting pretty good near the top.
Hit the send button too fast ....Not savvy enough to post pictures but I know I need that 150lbs worth of front end weight on my mower.
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