Mowing How to mow a slope with a tractor?

[Luke'sScreenName]

Sorry, but the text in red above seems to say you traverse the slope; 'mow sideways', which puts you and your machine at risk of rollover. Once you reach the critical point where you can't recover from a rollover your bucket and weighted tires will not keep you upright, IMHO. Am I missing something about what you're saying/doing?

You are probably right about the verbiage. My apologies.

Hopefully it's now clear that I meant directly up-and-down the grade as would intuitively be more stable. :thumbsup:

 

[Texasmark]

Sorry, but the text in red above seems to say you traverse the slope; 'mow sideways', which puts you and your machine at risk of rollover. Once you reach the critical point where you can't recover from a rollover your bucket and weighted tires will not keep you upright, IMHO. Am I missing something about what you're saying/doing?

If I'm worried about a rollover in a tractor, I suspend a pendulum from the center of the tractor at the highest point. If the weight gets close to pointing toward the outside of the down hill tread contacting the soil I figure it's time to change something. Next thing required is creep speed so that hitting a bump or chug hole won't give me an inflection which could toss me. Course I solved that problem with my little riding mower on mowing pond banks. Not a chance of that sucker going over or sliding down the bank.

 

[Coyote machine]

You are probably right about the verbiage. My apologies.

Hopefully it's now clear that I meant directly up-and-down the grade as would intuitively be more stable. :thumbsup:

Just wanted to clarify so someone doesn't follow advice that could end badly.:thumbsup:

 

[Turbys_1700]

I have a very steep section that I finish mow. At the bottom of this hill my shop is located. Before it was a shop that area was my garden spot. My father built his motor home garage there and I have converted it to my tractor garage.

I have a 6 foot flat area between the garage and the start of the slope. I creep up and creep back in 2nd gear allowing the tractor to brake itself. I have to go slow in order to control the tractor and mower. If I lose control I would destroy my garage.

So far so good. I've been using this technique for over 20 years now with no issues. I don't know the slope angle but it is too steep to mow side hill. You can walk down it very carefully but with my bad hip and knee I don't do it anymore. In my younger years I would walk down it but if the grass was wet with dew you would end up on your rear end.

I typically take the bucket off the FEL to mow and just lower the FEL arms when going up the hill. My front axle is engaged and with loaded rears I am over 7K pounds with the FEL. My tractor has a shorter WB than yours. I would expect your tractor to be more stable with the longer WB than mine.

 

[redman135]

Hello Buxus, Mowing steep slopes I go forwards up AND down.
Set your line of travel then engage diff lock to climb AND decend.
The aim of the difflock is force the wheels to turn at the same rate so that when 1 tyre breaks traction it can't trigger a slide, you have to break traction on all 4 tyres. As you say go slow going down BUT be prepared to rip the drive lever to full forward speed to "catch" the tractor if you get into a slide. By increasing the wheel speed quickly you can shorten the skid by 1/3 . It is counter intuitive, but it works.
One proviso, be sure there are no large bumps, and mark them permanantly if there are, then come back with a weed wacker. Large bumps on steep slopes are dangerous and bad news.

 

[Citydude]

I contract mowed right of ways and water impoundments and always backed up the hill. I had better traction on the front wheels and steering out of trouble was easy. To me, mowing up a steep hill forward would have the reverse effects.

 

[pmsmechanic]

This is my prefered method of mowing slopes.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

This is my prefered method of mowing slopes.

Show-off! :laughing:

 

[moriboy]

Over the years, we've had the best results backing up steep hills while mowing. On the way down, angle slightly toward the next uncut area and repeat. It works good and there's no other way I would feel comfortable mowing the real steep stuff.

PS- wear your seat-belt and keep the bucket low. 4WD is a must.

 

[Buxus]

Thanks for all the advice. I may try it tomorrow if the grass and ground is dry enough.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My dad used to mow sideways on some very steep hills, would make me cringe.

 

[The Deerslayer]

Over the years, we've had the best results backing up steep hills while mowing. On the way down, angle slightly toward the next uncut area and repeat. It works good and there's no other way I would feel comfortable mowing the real steep stuff.

PS- wear your seat-belt and keep the bucket low. 4WD is a must.

x2...go extremely slow and only after walking the area to determine if there are any rocks or holes that may pose a sudden shift in balance with unsavory results.

 

[Coyote machine]

AND, one other thing; if you have a ROPS, use it! It could save your life.

 

[woodlandfarms]

So I am one of the few people in the forum with a machine designed for working on slopes. Lots of solid advice here so far, but a few pointers on my end.

Tire pressure is one of the keys to all of this. I run at 4PSI with 4 ply tires on the steepest slopes (45 degree sideways is my rating). I see the road crews mowing and to this day I do not see how they do it. I am on a machine designed for slope work and my pucker meter screams at 30 degrees, let alone 45. Trust the pucker. It is natures way of telling you you are in trouble. Trust it.

Finally, when I talk to people about slope mowing I find that most of the accidents / incidents don't happen when mowing but when panicking cause you have gone to far. Maybe its the same but it seems like the accidents happen after the person has realized they have exceeded the limit and are trying to get themselves out of trouble.

Mow in the evening. Dry grass is the only good grass when it comes to slopes.

Finally, have an exit at the bottom of the hill. Nothing I hate more than loosing control (and even I do, but rollovers are not a concern really) and finding myself at the bottom of a ravine without an exit plan. It involves then Dozers, winches, cursing and embarrassment.

Oh, here is an old ad that was used for comparison work

Power Trac 185 vs. Kut Kwick Slopemaster - YouTube

 

[hawkeye08]

Different strokes for different folks. IMO the weight of the bucket reduces rear wheel traction (aka no brakes). That's never a good thing on a slope. Learned that lesson the hard way, on a runaway tractor that nearly rolled over. It's an OH CHIT moment when the brakes are applied and nothing happens.

4WD helps both braking and traction. My FEL does not make my back tires lose traction unless I have a full bucket and no ballast. I seldom use brakes with HST and 4WD. If I was mowing and needed more traction, I would raise mower enough to have that weight.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I would add my machine ahs a Float Mode. Flip the switch and it puts a bit of floating up pressure on the arms, creating additional down weight from whatever implement is in the front.

 

[Mikejeakins]

What about backing up the hill while mowing?

Sorry. I missed the "against". I would not go down if it's that steep. My friend was actually going up when he lost traction and flipped down the hill.

 

[rekees4300]

What about backing up the hill while mowing?

That's the technique I have used with success for years. If the wheels start spinning, that's God's way of telling you the slope is too steep.

 

[RSKY]

A guy was killed on a county gravel road that goes across our property when he, so we think, clutched his old Ford tractor going downhill, let it get some speed, then let out on the clutch and the tires skidded turning him sideways and turning the tractor over on him. A cousin's nurse wife heard the crash and tried to save him but he died as she was trying to breath for him.

NEVER clutch when on a slope unless you are barely moving and have your feet on the brakes. The tractor can gain speed seemingly instantly and you are in bad trouble. Use the throttle to slow down or hit the brakes with the clutch engaged. Another reason I like HST even though it can cause another set of problems.

I mow a pretty steep hillside every year on that same farm farm in the Clarks River bottom. I have mowed those slopes for more than forty years and have scared myself sh----ss several times.
At the top of the hill is the narrow paved road that goes thru the farm. I always drive uphill on the shallower slope drive a short distance on the road and mow downhill. Backing up a hill can cause you to loose traction and with the 2wd tractor I use that in itself can increase the pucker factor greatly.

One thing not mentioned here. If you are mowing even slightly across a slope always have your brakes unlocked and your foot on the downhill side brake. This saved me when I was a teen and chiseling on a 1206 International (a large tractor with NO rollbar). For some reason I jerked the chisels out of the ground while traveling at a good speed on a side slope. The right tire came off the ground and the tractor tried to go over to the left. I stomped the left brake. The tractor pivoted to the left and the right tire came down hard. It nearly threw me off the tractor and I continues down hill. Took me a few minutes to get my nerve back but I left the chisel in the ground on the next pass.

Whatever you do stop and look at the hill before you mow. Plan out what you are going to do BEFORE you commit.

RSKY

 

[Buxus]

Thanks for all the advice. I mowed it with the tractor this weekend. Was able to go and up an down in forward, very slow, with four wheel drive. Never felt unstable or out of control. An obvious key worth mentioning is no shifting on the slopes, and no riding down with the clutch pedal pushed down. The engine braking was nice.