Zero Turn Lawn Mower
Written by Matt Jones on May 9th, 2008What is a Zero Turn Lawn Mower?
A lawn mower has its engine in the rear and a lawn tractor has its engine in the front. There are 2 types of lawn mower. The first type is a conventional lawn mower. These are slower and tend to mow at the speed of 4mph. They also cannot turn sharp enough to provide a ‘clean cut’ and leave a small patch of grass a few inches wide uncut on every 180 degree turn they make. The reason they do this is because their steering works like a car and simple turns the wheels which is not how a zero turn lawn mower works.
A zero turn lawn mower has neither of those problems. They can mow at around 9mph and the fastest ones go at 15mph which lets then mow an American football field in under 10 minutes! They get rid of the turning problem by have rear wheel control where the wheels go in opposite directions, turning the mower on the spot. They are also great fun to ride.
Summing up zero turn lawn mowers are great because they don’t leave behind circles of uncut grass, and their maneuverability is great for fairly flat lawns with lots of obstacles like trees. However, zero-turn mowers don’t accept accessories like plough blades or carts. Also every zero-turn mower is more expensive than the conventional mower, ranging from $2600 up to nearly $8000 (normal mowers are more like $1500-$3000).
The best place to buy a good value zero turn lawn mower is on eBay. You can take a look at their range here.