How to Mow a Steep Hill Safely: 7 Steps That Prevent Tip-Overs

Most mower accidents on slopes are not mechanical failures. They are a series of small, ordinary decisions: mowing straight up a bank instead of across it, working on grass that is too wet, pulling a machine uphill towards your feet, or working a gradient the machine was never built for. Every one of those is avoidable with a routine.

Use the seven steps below every time you mow anything steeper than a gentle bank, whatever machine you are using.

Step One: Walk the Slope Before You Start

Walk the ground first, without the machine. You are looking for four things: how steep it actually is, whether the surface is firm, what is hidden in the grass, and where the machine would end up if it did slide. Anything you cannot see, a stump, a rock, a hole, an old fence line, needs marking before you mow. Five minutes of walking will prevent the two most common causes of an incident: hitting a hidden object and losing traction on a soft patch.

Step Two: Choose Across, Not Up and Down

Where the shape of the ground allows it, mow across the slope in passes rather than straight up and down it. Working across keeps the machine on the contour, which is the direction in which it is most stable, and it means the machine is not fighting gravity directly. Straight up and down passes put the full gradient on the drive, and a machine that loses grip at the top will come back down faster than you can react to it.

If the ground is too steep to work across, that is a signal to change machine rather than to change technique.

Step Three: Keep the Machine Below You

Position yourself on the uphill side and the machine on the downhill side wherever the ground allows it. If the machine slides, it moves away from you rather than into you. This single habit removes the worst outcome from most situations. The opposite, standing below a machine on a slope, is the position that turns a slip into an injury.

Step Four: Match the Machine to the Gradient

Step Five: Never Work on Ground That Is Too Wet

Wet grass is the most underestimated risk on a slope. Damp grass reduces the friction available to wheels and to tracks, and a surface that looks fine can behave like a greasy one. It also clogs decks and changes how the machine discharges. If the ground is wet enough that your boots slip on it, the mower will slip too. Wait for it to dry and mow a day later, which costs nothing compared with the alternative.

Step Six: Use the Right Technique With the Machine You Have

• With a push mower, push it uphill away from you and across the slope; never pull it uphill towards your feet.
• With a self propelled mower, let the drive do the work and keep both hands on the handle with a firm grip.
• With a tracked remote control mower, stand where the ground is safe, usually at the top or the side, and keep the transmitter in your hand.
• With any machine, avoid sharp turns on the slope; turn on the flat at the end of each pass.
• Keep the discharge chute pointing away from where you are standing and away from any path or road at the bottom.

Step Seven: Finish With a Look Back

When the job is done, do the checks that keep the next session safe. Look at the slope for anything the machine dislodged and any rut it left, since a rut becomes a traction problem next time. Check the machine for a bent blade or a damaged deck after hitting anything solid. Clean the underside, because caked wet grass dries hard and changes the balance of the deck. And if the slope defeated the machine, note that down and change your approach next time rather than forcing it.

The Mistakes That Cause Most Incidents

1. Mowing straight up and down a bank instead of across it.
2. Pulling a mower uphill towards your feet.
3. Working on wet or greasy grass.
4. Using a tall wheeled machine on a gradient that needs a low tracked one.
5. Turning sharply on the slope instead of on the flat.
6. Working with the discharge chute pointing at a path, a road or a person.
7. Continuing after hitting something solid without stopping to check the blade.

When to Change the Machine Instead

If you find yourself skipping these steps to get the job done, the machine is the problem, not the routine. A slope that a push mower makes dangerous is exactly the ground a tracked remote control mower is built for: it holds the gradient with a low centre of gravity and rubber tracks, and it keeps you standing well clear of the machine. See the range here: machine collection, and compare the SYGC-608 tracked remote control mower with the 550A remote control crawler lawn mower.