Lawn & Garden Tractor Guide
Guide to lawn care and choosing the right lawn & garden tractor from UK's largest online retailer of lawn tractors & garden tractors
Lawn tractors & garden tractors
Lawn & garden tractors are intended for larger gardens between around 1 and 5 acres. They are a great investment that will make gardening and mowing your lawn less of a chore and more of a pleasure. A lawn tractor can be anything in size from 30" cutting width upwards and as the name suggests these tractors are employed primarily for grass cutting and lawn maintenance. The engines on lawn tractors start at 11hp single cylinder, but can as powerful as 20hp twin cylinder on the larger models. Garden tractors have a larger minimum engine size - about 15hp and above, generally twin cylinder - and their high build qualities make them particularly suited to all year use: cutting the grass in the warmer months, sweeping up leaves in the autumn, transporting logs for the winter burner, turf preparation in the spring. Garden tractors are also designed to handle difficult terrain, such as that found in orchards and on pasture.
Lawn and garden tractors are available with a variety of cutting options. Most lawn tractors employ a rear-collection system and the leading brands for this style of tractor include Lawnflite, Hayter, Castel Lawn-King, Honda and MTD-Yardman. Rear-collect lawn tractors are available with cutting widths between 30" - 48" and prices begin at under £1500 for less expensive models. The main alternative is the rear-sweeper style of lawn tractor from brands including Westwood, Countax and Hayter. This type of lawn tractor is more expensive and prices begin at well over £2000. Alternatively if you wish to do away with the hassle of collection altogether, lawn tractors come with the option of mulching decks from brands such as Toro and Simplicity.
Garden tractors are available with the above cutting options but you will also find models on the market which are generally used without a collection system and simply eject the grass cuttings from the side of the deck - these tractors are usually referred to as side-eject garden tractors. Simplicity and Cub Cadet are two of the leading brands of this type of garden tractor. These models are generally used on large areas of ground and longer grass where collection can be impractical.
Both lawn tractors & garden tractors are suitable for towing an array of attachments such as trailers, lawn rollers, aerators, dethatchers, broadcast spreaders, sprayers and leaf sweepers. Garden tractors - with their more powerful engines and high build qualities - are designed to undertake the more arduous tasks around your yard and garden and are best suited to larger, more heavy-duty attachments.