Stand Up & Mow: Stand-On Mowers

Terry Farmer bought his first stand-on mower at an auction. He let one of his Sebert Landscaping maintenance crews use it for a two-week period and then let another one of his crews try it out for the same length of time.

"Within the first week, I couldn’t get my employees off of the machine," Farmer enthused. "They were coming up with excuses why the other types of machines were broken and couldn’t be used."

Farmer claims the novelty of these machines hasn’t worn off for his staff, and to appease his Bartlett, Ill.-based crew, he replaced his seated riding mowers with 30 stand-on riding mowers. These machines now dominate his equipment fleet, which also consists of 22 walk-behind mowers and 20 push mowers.

"Looking at the total efficiency of the machine and the cost savings it provided me because it was a cheaper machine and I could fit more of them on a smaller, less expensive trailer than I could with my riding mowers, I can see how stand-on mowers could be the wave of the future," Farmer commented.

Like Farmer, other maintenance contractors credit increased productivity and visibility, less lost trailer space and a low center of gravity as just some of the reasons they prefer standing to walking or riding.

IT’S ALIVE. The birth of sulkies in 1989 gave contractors a less expensive alternative to turn their walk-behinds into riding mowers.

"At first, most people thought standing up vs. sitting or walking was crazy," observed Bill Wright, president, Wright Mfg., Gaithersburg, Md., and past owner of his own lawn maintenance company that had 500 accounts and 12 maintenance crews when he sold it in 1993. "I started using sulkies in my own landscape company and getting used to using them took awhile, yet my employees immediately noticed that these attachments took away some of the fatigue that resulted from walking behind a mower for about 20 miles each day."

Though, as Wright’s employees also noticed, their upper bodies were still affected by the centrifugal force applied to them from standing on a one-wheel or two-wheel platform attached to a moving mower, which resulted in a continuous, back-and-forth, bumpy motion.

"A sulky attached to a walk-behind mower also makes the machine a very long one, taking up space on a trailer," commented Rick Cuddihe, senior vice president, Great Dane Mfg., Elm Grove, Wis. The idea of sulkies attached to walk-behind mowers inspired the incorporation of the sulky into the mower in 1996 and 1997, introducing stand-on mowers into the market.

"We had a lot of people say ‘I don’t think I want to stand up all day long,’" Cuddihe said. "But after getting used to the machine, they realized that with the addition of springs loaded under the stand-on platform, the machine actually bounced them around less than previously thought."

Stand-on mowers were originally conceived of with only a fixed deck, but the need for easier height adjustment brought about a model with a floating deck this year from Great Dane, and Wright is in the process of producing a floating deck version as well.

"On a fixed deck stand-on mower, parts, such as the blade spindles or castors, need to be moved with tools to adjust the height of the machine," Wright explained. "On floating decks, height change takes about 30 seconds or one minute and is done by moving pins that can be pulled out and replaced with your hands. Floating decks are a convenience to some contractors, particularly those in Florida who cut different species of grass at different heights. The disadvantage to floating decks, however, is that they are more expensive by about $400 and the extra wear on the belts from the up and down movement of the deck can cause future maintenance issues."

A STANDING OVATION. According to the contractors that have used stand-on mowers in the field, there are some advantages and disadvantages of using them.

In April 1999, Brian Ulsh, owner, Lawn Barber, Springfield, Va., bought his first stand-on riding mower, adding to his equipment fleet of four walk-behind mowers.

"I had been looking into getting a riding mower when I saw a stand-on mower at a trade show," Ulsh claimed. "For me, the 48-inch stand-on mower was only a couple hundred dollars more than a hydrostatic walk-behind mower, yet I still got similar benefits using the machine when compared to using a riding mower."

Many contractors said increased productivity and the cost of these machines are two of the key benefits they experienced while using stand-on riders.

"My productivity increased about 40 percent using the stand-on riding mower, and the speed of the machine wasn’t the reason for this change," Ulsh explained. "I could turn faster in this machine and take corners more efficiently."

On a stand-on rider, the operator stands directly on the vertical turning access point, according to Wright. The machine is structured more in the shape of a square (for example, a 48-inch deck stand-on mower would be about 48 inches in length) and places the operator directly in the center of gravity of the machine, giving him or her more control when turning and enabling him or her to lean into turns and hills.

"By the nature of their design, stand-on mowers are built with a low center of gravity because there is no superstructure needed to support an operator on a seat," Wright pointed out. "Also, seats on riding mowers are 2 to 3 feet above the ground. This raises the center of gravity and acts as a lever enabling the balance of the machine to be affected easily. The platform on a stand-on mower is only 5 inches from the ground, bringing that center of gravity down."

This low center of gravity makes stand-on mowers unlikely to tip over on a slope as well, Wright said, addressing a common contractor concern. An additional operator safety feature of stand-on mowers is the same type of operator presence control switch located in the stand-on platform and wired to the mower blades, just like riding mowers offer. Once an operator abandons the machine, this mechanism automatically shuts off the blades and the machine engine.

"The differential is more extreme between the low and high wheels on a hill with a high center of gravity machine," Wright shared. "When a riding mower is on a hill, 90 percent of the weight may be on the low wheel and 10 percent on the high wheel, whereas on a stand-on mower, 75 percent of the weight may be on the low wheel and 25 percent on the high wheel. The operator can also lean his or her weight toward the high wheel to add to this percentage. Although the person is standing and is typically 1 foot taller than a person of the same height seated on a riding mower, the majority of the weight rests lower on a stand-on rider and that’s what lowers this center of gravity."

Because the operator is standing directly above the area being mowed, visibility is also increased, Cuddihe explained, and that can also add to productivity increases.

"Our 52-inch stand-on mower is 61 inches long and 52 inches wide," Cuddihe said. "Most hydrostatic walk-behinds are in the 67- to 75-inch range in length without the operator. The operator adds another 2 feet in length to the mower. A 52-inch riding mower is even longer – 74 to 78 inches. Length affects the operator’s ability to see what’s being mowed right in front of you. A shorter length also helps an operator prevent damaging the corners of properties because of a lack of visibility."

"One of my employees can learn the basic control of a stand-on mower operation in about 30 or 40 minutes," Farmer added. "And he or she can gain full knowledge of turning quickly and slowing down on the machine in one week."

Due to a lack of visibility and a higher center of gravity, heavier mowers can also tear up the grass, especially when the turf is vulnerable in spring and fall, according to Eddie Miner, president, Shear Comfort Landscaping, Akron, Ohio, adding that his equipment fleet consists of four stand-on mowers and four riding mowers.

"You still have to watch what you’re doing on a stand-on mower to prevent scalping or skipping the lawn, but I haven’t scalped a lawn as bad on a stand-on mower as I have on a riding mower because I can shift my body weight around as I follow the landscape and prevent it," Miner remarked.

Cost is another factor that comes into play when choosing a stand-on mower compared to other options. According to Farmer, purchasing a riding mower costs him $8,000 to $9,000, plus an additional $1,200 for a catching system. Yet he can purchase a stand-on mower with a 61-inch deck for about $5,000, plus $100 for a catching system.

"And my stand-on mower can fit into more places than my 61-inch riding mower," Farmer stated. "With stand-on mowers, I also have a faster trailer load and unload time. Stand-on mowers have also helped to increase my productivity. I can mow 1 acre of turf in 20 to 25 minutes in open areas with my stand-on mower and in 35 minutes if that space was landscaped. With a walk-behind of similar deck size, I can mow 1 acre of open area in 45 minutes and 1 acre of open area in 35 minutes with a riding mower. The difference is not a huge comparison in only 1 acre of turf, but over more space, the time savings makes a difference."

For Farmer, a lack of trailer space was also an issue.

"We used to use 22-foot trailers," he said. "Now, we save $3,000 on a 14- or 16-foot trailer and can fit four 61-inch stand-on mowers on it. That same trailer would only fit one or one and one-half riding mowers. So stand-on mowers eat up about the same about of space as walk-behind mowers except you don’t have to use up the extra space needed for the long handle bars."

While stand-on riders can cover the same amount of terrain as their walk-behind counterparts, riding mowers do have an advantage when mowing many acres of turf on larger, less cluttered sites, Miner noted.

"I use a riding mower on a large area without a lot of trees or landscaping because it’s more productive," Miner explained.

Although Ulsh said he wouldn’t touch the hills he now mows with a walk-behind with his stand-on riding mower, he said there are advantages to both mowers that justify having both in your fleet.

"I will always keep walk-behinds around because of the heavily treed areas in the residential landscapes I maintain," Ulsh said. "On a stand-on mower, you are standing about 4 inches higher than standing behind a standard walk-behind mower so getting under low-hanging trees is tough."

"Also, stand-on mowers aren’t capable of being man-handled in a gully where you need to constantly lift up and lower the weight of a machine like you can do with a walk-behind mower," Wright added.