How can I pull a push mower up a steep hill?
#21
Maybe a hover mower would work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79zR96yc8_g
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#22
Dangerous comes to mind. Look towards a groundcover.
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#23
I'll check that one out. Used to see a mower called Flymo for sale but the company went bust. Wonder if it's 4-cycle engine can actually tolerate being at 45 degrees.

Thanks!
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#24
I had the Flymo and it was 2 cycle. I had trouble strating it and the dealer ended up replacing it with a Lawnboy as he couldn't get it to start without pulling the cord about 50 times. It was kind of funny as I couldn't get it started and would take to him and it would start the first pull. I did this about 4 times and then when I took it back one more time he pulled and pulled and it wouldn't start we talked about what to do and his son came out and pulled once and it started right up. The old guy finally agreed that there was a problem and worked on it but never could get it to start every time.
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#25
Cover it with landscape fabric and mulch it. Snakes won't live in mulch. I have a hard time believing they'd live in rocks, either rip-rap or 3"-4" dia river rock.
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#26
I grew up in a house that had a huge, steep hill in our backyard that rose greatly over our two story home. All we ever used was a commercial grade Lawn Boy two-stroke similiar to this one.

We would be cutting the grass on the hill for four hours horizontally before we hit flat ground. Four stroke lawnmower engines could not hold up with their splash lubrication. That Lawn Boy though was a BEAST.
Any free advice given is worth double price paid.
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#27
I went to college on a hilly campus in upstate New York in the late 1960s. I can remember watching the groundskeepers mowing the slopes. They had older reel push type mowers. They looked heavier than the new stamped steel ones. They may have been cast iron. The handles were removed, and in place of the handles were two ropes. They would stand at the top of the slope and let loose of the rope, and gravity would take over. If eventually the resistance of the grass would stop the mower, they would use the ropes and pull it back to the top of the slope to let it fly again. They were probably paid by the hour.
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#28
I have a gardener now but when I mowed my lawn I did the steep section horizontally. I started at the highest part and went across and worked my way to the lowest spot.

I toyed with driving some self-tapping screws into the tire tread and grinding off the heads. That would have given me much more traction. But I still would have worked horizontally. The traction would just help keep the mower in line. Of course that would make a hellish ride on the driveway but I didn't do much mowing on the driveway. I think it would have worked.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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#29
How about the elevator technique?

Drive a screw type ground anchor at either end of the hill (probably on the plateau to account for slack)
run a chain from anchor to anchor
get a pulley and rope
tie a mower to one end and a slightly lighter mower on the other, add or subtract weight as needd

you will still have to pull, but now only the difference of the weights.

...... after thinking about it it might work if equal weights; just get good gloves and control different down forces by degree of helping pull the other.

No idea if this would work, just thinking out loud.
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#30
Interesting! I'll have to experiment with this one.

Thanks.
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