Dick’s blog yesterday discussed the excellent and extraordinarily bright red, Simplicity Contender SZT550 Commercial Zero-Turn Ride-On Mower a proper nice machine as they say in… er… well they must say it somewhere, and an amazing bargain at £2000 below the manufacturers RRP. You what? How much? Yes, I know, crazy isn’t it?
The benefits of a zero turn mower are manifold. When I say zero turn, what I am talking about is 360 degrees. The full circle. The full monty. All the way round, like a pirouette but with less flouncing. Let me illustrate. I mean this…
360 Degrees
Not this…
Three Degrees
Manoeuvrability and agility around the garden is an obvious one, as the ability to get around your large lawn easily without taking 20 minutes to circumnavigate a hedgehog, wrapping yourself around the heritage oak tree your grandfather planted or paying a surprise visit to your neighbours through the privet hedge is not to be sniffed at. A zero turn mower can, literally turn on the spot and this makes getting around the old homestead very simple and easy.
Then of course there is the ability to spin around on the spot and shunt gracefully around your property to Tchaikovsky‘s Swan Lake like a scarlet mechanical ballet dancer in a reconstruction of the famous Toyota Forklift Truck Ballet – a big hit on youtube.
Star Turn: The Simplicity Contender.
The main advantage however, is fast, efficient and seamless mowing. It’s so basic but if you can turn at 360 degrees, you never have those large unmowed bits between the ends of rows that so many tractor mowers and ride-ons leave, meaning you have to reverse up to them and mow again. This is simply not a problem with a zero turn. This means you mow way faster than you do with a ‘normal’ ride-on or tractor. How much faster?
Well, general feeling is you can cut your mowing time by close to half. This, however, depends on whether you are mowing in a straight line or around corners, trees or the gigantic fuscia pink Peppa Pig Wendy-house your child screamed for so hard in Toys r Us you gave up and bought it but has never been used and is now the holiday home of a scavenging fox.
In a straight line, a zero turn mower will mow at about the same rate, as the cutter decks are fairly similar to other machines. it is, as mentioned before, when there are turns, curves, edges and so on that the Zero turn machine becomes the garden hero, a superbeing of the lawn that allows toy to mow and still get to the Bear and Bonnet before Sunday lunch in time for a pint and a chat about cricket… or whatever your favourite pastime is.
For more information, here is a brief article outlaying the differences between regular ride-ons and zero turn models, from MowHow, our ginormous superstore of gardening machine articles, info and guides…here it is Lawn Tractors v Zero-Turn Mowers
And here is a pictorial guide to the major features you will find on most zero turn lawn mowers.
And that really is that. Of course, I could go on to say that most of these machines are made to a very hight standard, are engineered with care and precision and built to last. They are, after all, a major investment. One it is well worth thinking about if you have those few extra hundred yards. Put it this way. If your partner asks you to pop to the greenhouse to get some fresh tomatoes and you have to get an uber. These are for you. If the Simplicity Contender doesn’t quite fit the bill, as the UK’s largest supplier of Ride-on Lawn Mowers, we supply plenty of others. Have a look at our full range of zero turn lawn mowers here… and enjoy your garden. Drew Hardy.
