As the weather turns warm and the grass starts to grow, it’s time to start thinking about how to keep your lawn looking beautiful. Having a good mower is a must… but do you need a walking mower or a riding mower? Rear engine or front? Let’s take a closer look at all of the options that you’ve got when you go shopping for a new lawnmower.
Push Mower, Front-Wheel Drive
Push mowers are ideal for small yards, particularly when they have lots of flat space. This is especially true of front-wheel-drive self-propelled walk mowers. Level ground with minor obstacles is the sort of yard that you’d want a front-wheel-drive mower for. This is because you can push the handle down to raise the wheels and pivot more carefully in these conditions.
Push Mower, Rear-Wheel Drive
Conversely, a push mower with rear-wheel drive is ideal for yards with hilly conditions. This is because you can push down on the handle of the mower without losing traction to the back wheels, allowing you to climb steeper inclines than you would with a front-wheel-drive push mower. Again, push mowers are ideal for small yards where a riding mower doesn’t fit, or for people with more limited budgets.
Some push mowers offer all-wheel drive, which is pricier than the other two options. These are ideal for yards with lots of obstacles and hills.
Riding Mower, Rear Engine
For people with yards too big for push mowers but too small for a full-sized riding mower, rear-engine riding mowers are perfect. These smaller-sized riding mowers don’t have the power of their front-engine cousins, but they make up for that by being smaller and more affordable. This also makes them easier to store.
Lawn Tractor
The classic lawn tractor–a riding mower with a front engine–is ideal for most larger yards. If you’ve got a combination of hills, obstacles, and a spacious yard, you want a traditional lawn tractor. They’re larger than the other models on our list, but they get the job done in a fraction of the time, too.
If you have a particularly large yard, you could instead consider getting a commercial-grade zero-turn mower. These allow you to make sharper turns by allowing the rear wheels to spin at different speeds, enabling more agile turns even on a zero-point, hence their name. These are also the largest and most expensive riding mowers, making them a bit of a stretch for many people just looking to cut their grass.
Cameron Norris
Zoe Jewell
