What is the best riding mower?

If you want to buy a new lawn tractor, you are probably wondering what is the best riding mower for you.

Best is always a subjective term when shopping, but it should mean that the lawnmower should meet your needs for your particular property, landscape and garden size and character, operator or home-owners needs and be within budget.

What is the best riding mower for my property?

Cutting width

If you have a large area of lawn in excess of one to two acres acre to cut, you should be looking for the widest lawn cutting blade that you can afford. This will save you time as a 46 inch wide cutting path will require less passes to cut a lawn, than the smaller 30′ or 36 inch cutting mowing path of the economy riding mowers.

Turning radius

If your lawn and property has a lot of trees and obstacles or if the yard’s lawn is an irregular shape you will want at a lawn tractor with a small turning radius. The zero turning radius lawnmowers are an excellent option, but are more than double the price of a regular mower that cuts that same with of grass. The Poulan Pros having a small 18′ turning radius which certainly is preferable to some of the others that have a more awkward 30 inch turning radius. These are usually less expensive and better suited for a large rectangular patch of grass or larger backyard.

Engine size

If you are wondering what is the best riding mower for hills and hilly terrain, you will probably be looking for something with large tires and also a powerful engine to get you up the hills whilst the blades are cutting grass added a few. There are limits to what can be cut safely where the riding mower when it comes to ditches, hills and verges but an important feature of a new mower for hills would be the higher horsepower motor whenever possible.

What is the best riding mower for me and my family?

What is the best riding mower?When it comes to operator comfort, you are probably looking for riding lawnmower that has a comfortable seat, (folding is a nice option for storage and to protect the vinyl seat material) and steering wheel that is easy to grip and and turn. Some lawnmower tractors have a very tight feel to the turning and it may take some getting used to.

As far as for the transmission, if you find it is difficult to drive at your lawn tractor at a constant speed and you need it to do that for the best cutting results, you will probably benefit from one of the six or seven speed transmission automatic transmission riding lawn tractors. These mowers have a number of automatic gears you can go into and they will allow you to cruise at a constant speed whilst in that that gear.

If you plan to do a lot of backing up their and want a very flexible control of the lawnmower, you may be interested in a hydrostatic transmission. These are the cheapest in a traditional front engine riding mower, but you probably are looking it at the $1500-$2000 price range for these models. What the hydrostatic transmission will do is makes driving the tractor cutting the grass easier, and more efficient. There is less time switching into gears and this is most noticeable if you are doing a lot of backing and driving forward to go around obstacles.

What is the best riding lawn mower for the money?

What is the best riding mower?Only you know what your budget is, but unless you are fine with buying a used or refurbished lawn tractor, you are not going to get a good quality the decent quality riding lawnmower for less than about $800 to $900, likely the Weed Eater WE-ONE 26-Inch riding mower. As you go up in budget, you’ll find the cutting widths and horse power are greater, but also the fuel consumption increases.

If you have property to maintain that has more than an acre or 2 acres of grass to cut, you are probably looking at a $1300 to $1500 riding lawnmower, probably a Poulan Pro, Yard man or Yard Machines.

If you want the ease-of-use and you are fortunate enough to have around $2000 budget for your next tractor, you should be able to get up to a 46 inch cut as well as the hydrostatic transmission. Quality increases as price goes up, Husky, Poulan Pro, Toro. Then around $3000 you are looking at entry level zero turn lawn tractors. Comparison of warranties and service start to come into effect, especially with the more expensive riders. Brands names like John Deere, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, Toro, and Troy Bilt are in that range.

If you would like to check out the best lawn tractors for the money on Amazon, click here.