Tow-Behind Mower Buyer's Guide

If your backyard is more like a golf course, a garden tractor isn’t always your best option.

Take a cue from the pros – golf course landscapers – and shave hours off your mowing time by attaching a tow-behind lawn mower to your tractor or ATV.

You can now focus more time on shaving strokes off your golf game instead.

There are three types of tow-behind mowers:

Gang Reel Mowers
You will often see golf course landscapers towing gang mowers down open fairways, cutting nothing but grass.

Unlike most lawn mowers, gang reel mowers don't have an engine. Instead, they are simply towed behind an ATV or tractor with speeds up to 4 miles per hour.

These ultra-wide lawn mowers contain 3, 5 or 7 reels, stretching up to 11 feet wide. Gang mowers cut like scissors, providing a precise finish. However, gang mowers have difficulty cutting twigs and small branches that can jam the blades.



Trail Mowers
Trail mowers, on the other hand, are built more like modern day lawn mowers with a high-powered engine mounted on top of a large cutting deck.

If your yard contains lots of trees shedding twigs and pine cones, you'll need the extra engine strength to split them into smithereens.

With cutting widths up to 5½ feet, trail mowers aren't as wide as gang mowers. However, they mow just as quickly because they can be towed faster. They can reasonably cut 30-32 acres per day.

Trail mowers are basically built to cut between fairways. Just don't expect them to blaze a trail out of bounds.



Trail Cutters
If you've got some over-grown, wild property that you'd like to tame, you'll need the machete-like cutting action of a trail cutter.

Tow-behind trail cutters - also known as rough cut mowers - use a series of steel cutting bars that swing back and forth to cut vegetation up to 3” in diameter.

Trail cutters feature powerful engines designed to thresh thick brush off the beaten path with no problem.

They will help you find your lost ball in the rough, but trail cutters are not built to actually mow grass.