Riding Mower Vs. Lawn Tractor: Which Is Right For Your Yard?

A big part of maintaining the monetary and aesthetic value of your home is regular lawn maintenance. Like it or not, people like to look at an immaculately maintained lawn, and unless you've got a self-propelled mower bot on standby, you're going to have to take care of it yourself. The most common kind of lawn mower is the classic push mower, available from a myriad of different home care brands. If you have a larger lawn and don't want to strain your legs walking around, there are rideable mowers available to save you the strain.

However, what you may not know is that there are actually two kinds of rideable lawn care tools: the typical riding mower you expected, as well as the lawn tractor. Both of these tools can serve the simple purpose of cutting the grass in your front and back yards, but they do it in slightly different ways, with slightly different tools, and at very different price points.

A riding lawn mower is exactly what it sounds like: a small vehicle, about the size of a bulky motorcycle, with a spinning blade mounted to the bottom or side. As you drive around, the blade spins beneath you, cutting up any lengthy blades of grass as it goes. If your lawn is large enough that using a push mower is too exhausting a prospect, a riding mower is a great way to tackle it with twice the speed and half the effort.

There aren't any major downsides to riding mowers beyond the obvious ones, at least in a vacuum. Of course, a riding mower will take more gasoline to operate than a push mower, and since it's larger, it's probably going to be louder. There are, however, battery-powered riding mowers available from brands like Ryobi, so that can alleviate the fuel and noise concerns at the cost of some raw power.

If a riding mower is our baseline of rideable lawn care, then a lawn tractor is the next step up. Compared to riding mowers, lawn tractors are generally much larger in size and heavier in weight, packing more raw horsepower in their engines. Heftier vehicles with heftier engines mean even more fuel consumption, but that extra muscle makes lawn tractors better for even larger lawns than a riding mower would normally handle. Additionally, the bulkier bodies make lawn tractors more adaptable and resilient, so they can handle unusual terrain like hills and bumps.

The real draw for lawn tractors, though, is their modularity. While riding mowers are more or less standalone tools, lawn tractors usually have hitches in the back. This allows you to hook up a variety of yard care tools and accessories, such as snow throwers, soil aerators, and simple storage trailers. If you need to do anything for your lawn beyond just mowing it, then that's a lawn tractor's department.

So, it you're in need of some heavy-duty lawn care, which tool are you going to buy? Ultimately, it depends on your precise needs.

If you live in a statistically average home with a modestly-sized, even-elevation lawn, then a regular riding mower should be fine. It does its one job of cutting grass well enough, and while this isn't iron-clad, they are generally cheaper than the heftier lawn tractors, both in terms of sticker price and gas usage.

On the other hand, if you live or work on a much larger property with a lawn that isn't uniform, you may want to invest in a lawn tractor. The extra muscle will help you handle a larger lawn's total surface area, and if there are any large hills or slopes, that's not something a riding mower could handle. Additionally, if you know you're going to be regularly removing snow or tending crops, a lawn tractor's modularity could save you some extra effort.