ATV’s are a fun way to spend the day, on your own or with family and friends. But your utility ATV can also be put to work for you. If you own an ATV, there’s no need to spend the money on a riding lawn mower. Not when there are so many mower attachments available for ATV’s now a days. You’ll save a pretty penny going with an attachment mower too.
There are many jobs a mower attachment can handle, and there are a variety of ATV mower attachments to tackle any mowing job you may have. They’re typically easy to install, any utility ATV with a mount can tow many different kinds of ATV add-ons.
From brush and trails to big flat golf courses, there’s a mower for the job. I have tried a few ATV attachment mowers myself on my own property, and I can to tell you, it beats pushing a lawn mower any day of the week.
There are three main types of tow behind mowers you’ll find out there:
- Finish Cut Mower – For cutting grass like a traditional lawn mower
- Rough Cut Mower – For brush and overgrown areas
- Gang Reel Mower – For fields, large yards, or golf courses
But first, it’s a good idea to make sure your ATV can handle the towing capacity of one of these tow behind mowers. If you have a 500cc utility ATV or higher, you’re probably good, and you can skip this next section.
Can My ATV Even Tow A Mower Attachment?
Depending on what type of mower you plan on pulling behind your ATV will determine how much power your ATV is gonna need to get the job done. Like I said above, a utility ATV with 500cc of power will be able handle any of the mower attachments I’m going to talk about.
If you’re looking to remove a lot of brush and over grown areas, you’ll need to go with the rough cut mower. A rough cut mower typically requires at least a 350cc engine or higher.
If you’re getting a mower attachment to mow the yard around your house, you’ll want to go with a finish cut mower. A finish cut mower usually only needs around a 250cc engine or higher.
If you plan on mowing athletic fields or a large piece of property, then you’ll want to go with a gang reel mower. A gang reel mower requires the most power to pull, you’ll need at least a 450cc engine or higher to use one of these.
Finish Cut Mower Attachment
The finish cut mower attachment is best suited for the yard around a house or commercial building. You may see them referred to as trail mowers. But they are not useful for mowing overgrown trails in wooded areas.
They are very similar to a typical walk behind lawn mower you see most people use to mow their yards with. The difference is the ATV attachment mowers are more powerful. You could mow a yard going anywhere from 5 – 10 miles per hour (depending on the height of the grass) with no problems.
In fact they’ll be able to shred up pine cones, twigs, and other tree debris that a walk behind mower would struggle with. The one I recommend is like most other finish cut trail mowers with two commercial mulching blades and a 44 inch cutting area.
The Swisher Finish Cut Trail Mower found here on Amazon, has a 10.5 horse power Briggs and Stratton recoil start engine. The cutting height can be adjusted from 1.5 inch to 4.5 inch, perfect for most lawns. It goes for about $1690, but comes with free shipping and is pretty easy to get all set up for the first use. With ride on lawn mowers going for $3000 – $6000, this options will save you a few bucks.
I liked this particular finish cut mower for my yard because it allows you to offset the mower with the ATV. For the most part, just towing behind the ATV works great for most of the yard. But in some cases (around the edges of the property) it was super helpful to be able to offset the mower to get those hard to reach areas.
Rough Cut Mower Attachment
Rough cut mowers are great for overgrown brush and trail making. They usually come with some heavy duty steel cutting blades that will cut stems up to 3 inch in diameter.
These things are ideal for creating your own trails to ride on throughout a wooded area. Of course they are mostly used to cut down big patches of brush on peoples property. A good rough cut mower will tear through tough bushes and small trees easily.
I recommend The Swisher Electric Start Tow Behind Rough Cut Mower from Swisher on Amazon for those types of jobs. It has one set height of 4 inches, which is really the best height for cutting heavy brush. With a 14.5 horse power Briggs and Stratton electric start engine, you’ll have plenty of power to clear up an overrun piece of land.
Gang Reel Mower Attachment
If you have a large property to maintain, the reel mower is going to be the one you want. These are typically used for mowing golf courses or large athletic fields. But they are extremely helpful if you have a giant yard you want mowed quickly. The grass is cut to a nice finished quality anyone could be proud of.
These types of mowers have no engine, so no gas, oil, and less maintenance to deal with. They operate mechanically, so you’ll have trouble trying to get above 5 miles per hour while cutting with these. But they cut so much area at a time, the job still gets done in a fraction of the time a finish cut mower would.
These type of gang reel mowers are not made to cut brush or tall grass, for that job look at the rough cut mower above. This mower will deliver more of a precise fine cut, in a short amount of time.
The gang reel mower I recommend is The ProMow Hybrid-3 Gang Reel Mower found here on Amazon. It has three 21 inch reels, all with sealed bearings. The cutting height can be adjusted from 5/8 inch up to 3 inches. They do make reel mowers with 5 or even 7 reels, but the more reels they have the more they cost.
How To Use
All of the above mower attachments that I’ve recommended can easily attach to an ATV or riding mower. The only real benefit to using them with a riding mower, is that you can offset the mower to cover more ground per pass.
Most utility ATV’s have a mounting bracket behind the rear axle for mounting purposes. They even make hitch adapters so you can install a ball mount if you need to go that route.
Once you’ve got the mower attached, it’s time for the easy part. Simply start the mower and tow it around where you want to cut the grass. It’s really that straight forward. Of course check your oil levels, sharpen the blades when they need it, and tend to other basic maintenance needs. Take care of your equipment and it should last you years to come.