Does a Yard Tractor Make Sense for You?

If the thought of all the work you need to do to spring clean your property is making you wish to go back to winter, you might want to consider a yard tractor. If you add in the upcoming grass cutting and summer yard maintenance work, a yard tractor could certainly make each season’s yard work easier and less time-consuming.

Yard tractors come in all sizes and shapes, but no matter what the size, they’re designed to help make your life a little easier. If you have a property ranging in size from a one half to three or more acres, there is a tractor sized to meet your needs.

Choose the machine that’s right for you

As the terminology used to describe yard tractors can get confusing, for purposes of this article a tractor (yard or garden) will mean a machine with an engine located in the front, while a riding lawn mower will be a machine with a center- or rear-mounted motor.

For most people, yard size will be the main thing that determines the size of tractor needed. If grass cutting is your main concern, a one half to one-acre lot can be cost effectively handled by a riding lawn mower with an engine size of about 15 HP and a cutting width of up to 42”. One to two-acre properties are large enough to require a lawn tractor with a more powerful engine and a wider cutting swath (up to 46”) for cutting the lawn. However, on properties ranging from one half up to two acres where you want to do additional jobs such as carry and spread gravel, soil, or fertilizer and transport heavy loads like rocks, firewood, or trees for planting, you should probably consider a lawn tractor even for the smaller properties.

Garden tractors are the ‘big boys’ of the home tractor world, best suited for properties of three acres or more. They can make quick work of grass cutting with cutting decks up to 54” in width and much more powerful motors (up to 30 HP). They also have heavy frames and transmissions so they can pull ground-engaging tools like tillers and cultivators. Some even have a power take-off units (PTO), making them capable of taking on a wide range of heavy-duty jobs such as splitting wood or running an auger in addition to all the other jobs a lawn tractor can handle.

Yard tractors are for all seasons

The nice thing about having a yard tractor is that it works for you all winter as well as during the rest of the year. Lawn tractors can be equipped with a snow blower attachment to blow your driveway clear in the winter, while garden tractors with their more powerful set-ups can actually have a plow blade attached to clear a long drive. Other attachments such as a tilt trailer can be used to spread sand or gravel on slippery surfaces.