OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions On Ride On Mowers Frames How to improve traction?

The Viking looses traction real easy - even on lush green grass. OK I'm trying to go up about a 45� slope but even on flatter ground it looses it - The next door neighbour has as steep a block and a much bigger area and man that comes in to mow doesn't have any trouble getting his ride on about the place.

Mate of mine was expounding the virtues of a diff lock on his mower but I guess that is not a retro fit option. Oh and the tyres are not bald, well treaded but not knobby

Any suggestions?

a locked diff is easy to achieve but one its done there is no going back. all the spider gears striped in the 5 speed on my westwood tractor so i just welded it up and is didn't give trouble again but theres no way to unweld it!
you could try chains but that would rip the ground up. another option is filling the tires with water and having a lower pressure so it weighs the back down but it will put a bit more load on the gear box.
the best thing is either put on 100kg or go buy some agricultural type tractor tires to fit it, but there again it rips up the ground.
a 45 degree slope is very harsh and about the limit ide go on with a ride on as turning can get very dangerous at that angle.
regards jay

I manage to get up about a 45 degree if not more slope on my ride on (on a river bank so not a long slope).
What width tyres are you running?
What air pressure?
I would firstly try dropping your air pressure, maybe as low as 5psi, trial and error.
Mine are quite wide, and they are flat (dead flat), haven't got round to pulling them off to fix, but the sidewalls on mine are stong enough that they don't come of the rims or distort with me riding on it, so really no dramas hence why down on the list of stuff to fix.
Secondly what gear, try using a lower gear.
Thirdly can you run up and down at an angle across the slope to reduce the angle your trying to get up.
Can you get up without mowing? You may need to mow down and then just drive up.

Hope this gives you a few more ideas.
Chris.

what ever you do not try to mow across a slope like that. the maximum safe angle when traveling across a slope on a ride on or tractor is around 20 degrees and thats recommended by the manufactures. this is especially applicable for ride ons because they have a very narrow wheel base considering all the weight and center of gravity is over 1/2 way up their frame. many have tipped and roled and the results are not pretty considering its 100 odd kg laying on top of you! this happened to my neighbor in his dried up [Censored] and he was hospitalized for 3 months with neck injures.
you'd want good brakes too!
chris, what type of mower do you have?
regards jay

Thanks for the input - Didn't think of dropping the tyre pressure - Duh! (and I do that in the 4WD in sand all the time) And it's too bl**dy scary trying to drive across the slope so that is out.

It's an automatic with hydraulic drive so can't keep the gears low. I'll keep playing Thanks

Try herringbone (i.e. tractor-style) tyres. I've tested the difference - two identical grey Fergusons, one with block tread and one with herringbone tread, and the difference was enormous. The block tread is used to protect lawn from getting torn up; the herringbone is what you use when you need traction.

Jay: I have a White Outdoor ride on with 12HP Briggs on it's last legs.
It has 18x9.5 tyres on it, same tread pattern as these: https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=648_649&products_id=3737

Might have not been clear enough with my last post "Thirdly can you run up and down at an angle across the slope to reduce the angle your trying to get up." should have read as "Thirdly can you run up and down at an angle across the slope (ie. up to about 30 degrees from going straight up/down) to reduce the angle your trying to get up." I wasn't trying to say to run at 90 degrees to the slope, as yes could end up in all sorts of trouble. I have found by trial and error that I couldn't get up straight up the slope, but at a "slight" angle had no dramas.

sorry didnt obsorbe what you were saying, possibly because ide just got out of bed! i see what you are saying now and do it all the time on my neighbors property when i mow for them.
the only thing is trying to calculate the angle so you can run strait up and down and not miss patches, but that depends on how wide the section is your mowing. no problem on a bit area with a flat rise at the top but if you try and turn sharply on to avoid fences or such its a pain in the ...
sorry i misunderstood what you were saying
regards jay

Went to the Nambour Garden Expo at the weekend and have decided to plant the embankment out with a "Good Bug Mix" - a mixture of perenial flowering and other plants that attract and support populations of bugs that are preditors to the pests that attack our fruit trees at the bottom of the embankment. That way I can let it go a 'little bit wild' and it will look pretty and do a benificial job with minimal attention.