How Much Does A Riding Lawn Mower Weigh & Why It Matters

If you’ve got a riding lawn mower in your garage or shed and are planning how you’re going to use it more as we come out of winter, you might find that random questions start popping up in your mind. What does a riding lawn mower weigh, for example? Why is weight important? Read on to find out!

There’s no immediate answer to the first of these two questions as of course, every different brand and model of riding mower will have a different weight. The best we can do in this article is provide you with some handy averages to give you a good idea of what to expect!

(image of a person riding a mower)

Whilst all riding mowers will weigh a different amount, the reasons why weight is important when it comes to lawn mowers span across all different weights. We’ll be discussing these reasons in addition to the actual weights themselves.

Learning a bit more about how weight affects your riding mower might help you to ensure you’re taking the best possible care of your mower, as well as help you to understand why certain things might go wrong.

How Much Does the Average Riding Mower Weigh?

As stated above, there’s no set amount that will apply to all riding mowers. Generally speaking, riding mowers tend to be in the region of 300 – 600 pounds. You can see that even that average range if quite wide, and this should show you exactly how difficult it is to pinpoint a more specific weight.

Riding lawn mowers are that heavy for a number of reasons, the first and most obvious being their large size. A person couldn’t comfortably ride something the size of a regular lawn mower so riding lawn mowers have to be substantially larger and bulkier.

Riding lawn mowers carry a lot of their weight in their main body, but there are additional parts that also add weight such as the deck, seat, and fuel tanks. Riding mowers come with various attachments and features that you can either opt for or against, but these three parts come as standard.

(close-up of a riding mower deck)

Why Is Your Lawn Mower’s Weight Important?

So, you’ve got a rough idea of how much your riding lawn mower weighs now, but why does that matter?

There are several reasons why you might want or even NEED to know the weight of your riding mower, and we’ll go into these below:

Transporting Your Riding Mower

If you’re moving to a new house, or for some other reason need to have your riding lawn mower at a different location, you’ll need to find a way to transport it. Because they’re so heavy and large, they aren’t the sort of machine you can just casually throw in the boot of your car.

You’ll likely need a pick-up truck, sizeable van, or trailer to get your riding mower from A to B. As much as we’d all like to think trucks and trailers are indestructible, most have very strict weight limits of what they can and cannot handle.

The last thing you want is for your trailer to bow or snap mid-transit. For this reason, as well as for maintaining not only your own safety, but also the safety of other road users, it’s important to know the weight of your riding mower.

(image of a van or trailer)

Storing Your Riding Mower

If you aren’t lucky enough to have a garage or sheltered carport in which to keep your riding mower, you’ll need to find an alternative storage solution. Many people opt for sheds which can either be built by hand or bought already built.

(image of a shed or garage)

Regardless of where your shed comes from (but especially if you’re going the DIY route), you’ll need to know the weight of your riding mower to ensure that the floor of the shed will be able to support it. Simple wooden sheds might be cheap and easy, but they aren’t necessarily the strongest and you might find your riding mower causes damage to the floor or causes it to bow.

Knowing the weight of your riding mower will ensure you buy or build a shed that is suitable. Likewise, if you wanted to fashion a ramp, shelf, or hanging storage system, the weight of your mower would be a vital part of the equation.

Stability and Manoeuvrability

Riding mowers are often used by people who have very large gardens or who have other kinds of land plots such as estates, orchards, meadows etc. This is because they’re less effort than push mowers and generally have a larger mowing capacity.

If you’re intending to mow on ground that is uneven, hilly, or sloping, weight will be a big determining factor in the stability and manoeuvrability of your riding mower. Whilst you want something that’s heavy enough to give you the control you need, you also don’t want anything too heavy as this might impede the ability to turn and navigate obstacles easily.

You also don’t want a riding mower that’s going to be too top-heavy as this could lead to instability and even toppling in more serious cases.

Factors That Can Affect A Riding Lawn Mower’s Weight

As mentioned briefly previously, riding lawn mowers can come with a range of different features and attachments that can add additional weight. Over and above the features that come as standard such as blades, engine, deck, seat etc, there are other add-ons that can increase how much your mower weighs.

Depending on the terrain you’re mowing, as well as what purpose you want your grass to serve, there are many different accessories and attachments that can do different jobs. Some examples include:

• Soil aerator attachment – a spiked attachment that presses into the lawn to create air channels.
• Rake attachment – is what it sounds like: a detachable rake arm for gathering leaves and debris.
• Roller attachment – large, smooth roller attachment for flattening or evening uneven terrain.
• Trailer – if you use your riding mower to transport other tools and gardening equipment, a trailer could prove to be very useful.
• Detachable grass collector – if you don’t want or need to mulch your lawn with grass clippings, you can use a grass collecting attachment.

(image of one of the attachments listed above)

Whilst all of these accessories serve important functions, they also add weight to your riding mower. Nine times out of ten, this bit of extra weight won’t be an issue, but if you’re tackling a steeper slope or more hilly terrain, take extra care.

What Do Other Kinds of Lawn Mowers Weigh?

For the sake of comparison, and satiating mere curiosity, here is a list of some other kinds of lawn mowers and how much they generally weigh:

• Zero-Turn Mowers – approximately 600-650 pounds for a small, basic one and around 800-900 pounds for a larger, more complex one.
• Corded Electric Mowers – range anywhere between 35 and 60 pounds depending on make and model.
• Petrol Lawn Mowers – between 65 and 100 pounds, owing to the added weight of fuel and oil tanks.
• Cordless Electric Mowers – as little as 30 pounds, although this number does increase substantially depending on make and model, and type of battery used.

Most types of lawn mowers can also have different attachments and features added on which will affect their weight, but this is generally less of an issue with these smaller mowers. The most noticeable difference will be that it’s a bit harder to push your mower than it was before the attachments were added, but that’s about it.

To Sum Up

There’s no universally standard weight for riding mowers to be and so much will depend on the exact mower you have. If you’re trying to plan a new storage or transportation solution for your riding mower then try to find out the exact specifications of your make and model.

If this information isn’t readily available, rather overestimate than underestimate – as the old saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry! Hopefully the estimate of 300-600 pounds is a good jumping off point for your investigation, and the other information in this post has been useful!

One of the most important things to keep in mind when using a riding lawn mower is that they can be fairly dangerous due to the fact that they are so large and heavy, so whatever kind of lawn work you’re doing, do it carefully. Happy Mowing!