Mowing - Ride on Mowers

Ride on mowers

Ride on mowers, and gang mowers, are used on larger areas of sports grounds due to their speed and quality of finish. For an acceptable and more professional finish the mower must have cylinder cutters.

Hydraulically driven ride on and gang mowers tend to provide a more uniform cut than gear driven or trailed sets, and also produce a better cut in wet conditions. Uniform machine setting is essential and careful measurement of height of cut is required. The cutting unit must be set on a level surface as described in the height of cut sections above. Most gangs mower units have notches on the side frame which adjust the rear roller and thereby the cutting height. Gang mowers with floating heads may require different settings compared to conventional single unit machines or those with fixed cutting heads. If there is any doubt then consult the manufacturer’s handbook.

To avoid risk of tyre depression marks the direction of mowing should be varied where possible for each cut, when using tractor drawn machines. The tyre pressures should also be checked. Differing pressures can cause the height of cut to be out on the cutting units.

Setting and using ride on and trailed gang mowers

Many groundsmen manage large areas of sports turf, often covering more than one sport. In order to maintain an effective mowing programme it is essential to mow with larger ride on or trailed equipment. The modern day ride on machines have taken the place of the old trailed gang mowers although open gang mowing is still widely practised. Ride on mowers can carry units in configurations of 3.5 or 7 units. This is the same as the old configuration of the trailed gang mowers.

A number of companies manufacture mowers and models will range from 3 to 7 gang machines. The machines are designed to cover large areas of ground in as short a time as possible but giving a quality cut. Machines shown above will have ground speeds of around 15 m.p.h. with a cutting speed of around 6 m.p.h. This will allow a full size pitch to be cut and boxed of in around 40 minutes or less. Despite the size of machine each one is designed to spread its own weight to minimise surface compaction and damage to the leaf. This is usually done through the use of special grass tyres.

Not all areas are suitable for the larger machines to work in. One of the machines shown is a 3 gang T-plex 185 from Ransomes. It is ideal for tighter areas with its 3-wheel configuration. Like all ride on mowers the machine operator has good all around vision from the seat position. Most of the machines now have diesel-powered engines with some of the latest models being electrically powered using special batteries.