Buying Tips

Buying Tips

Tips When Buying a Zero Turn Mower

Often, buyers are tempted to base their purchasing decision on factors that are not fundamentally sound: empty features like maximum ground speed, excessive horsepower, or lowest price (often at the cost of quality, capability or performance).

At Walker, we feel the public deserves to make an informed choice, and with more than 20 years of engineering history and mower design at our backs, we offer the following advice:

  • Before buying any commercial ride on or garden mower, have a thorough demonstration performed on-site at your property.
  • Compare the actual mowing time and cutting quality of all the machines you are considering.
  • Remember that a lever-steered machines’ steering levers must be held forward for driving. To avoid operator fatigue, look for machines offering Forward Speed Control (“Cruise Control”) type features.
  • Test the mowers handling and overall safety on any hills or sloping terrain.
  • Compare the operators’ field of view of the mowers cutting area — you can’t accurately mow where you can’t see.
  • Try trimming precisely with the mower — within 1/4 to 1/2 inch along a delicate area.
  • If your lawn is contoured, you will need a deck that floats to avoid scalping the lawn.
  • Check ease of access to the underside of the mowing deck, and to all moving parts.
  • Does your dealer offer a “No Downtime” guarantee? What back-up and service is offered with the mower?

Many of the Walker’s features discussed in this site need to be demonstrated.
Ask your Walker Dealer for a demonstration today

Precision Steering and Handling

Steering a Walker Mower is intuitive and nearly effortless, with controls that are light, yet precise and responsive. The patented Forward Speed Control (FSC) functions similarly to cruise control allowing the operator to set a base speed while still allowing steering input to temporarily override the FSC for relaxed, precision control without operator fatigue (unlike other lever-steer mowers, where holding the control levers forward is required).

Versatile Mowing

There are 6 ways the Walker Mower will help make lawn care maintenance easier for you. A comprehensive range of attachments can be fitted in mere minutes to suit multiple applications.

  1. Dethatching, 2. Mowing, 3. Fertilising, 4. Weed Treatment, 5. Overseeding, and 6. Utility

Working on Hills and Slopes

Walker Mowers offer superior traction and handling on slopes and hills due to their low centre of gravity. The operator generally sits 20-30 cm lower on a Walker Mower than on a typical mid-mount lawn tractor, and their weight is centrally positioned over the drive wheels offering peak traction at all times. In comparison, most mid-mount mowers and garden tractors have the weight positioned forward of the rear driving wheels resulting in reduced traction, and loss of steering when going downhill forwards on anything more than mild slopes.

Grass Collection Capability

Grass collection is a key consideration when deciding between a Walker and a regular mid-mount mower or lawn tractor. While you may have only part-time or seasonal catching requirements, the additional vacuuming and collection capability offered by the Walker are powerful features that shouldn’t be overlooked. Many Walker models come with the fully integrated Grass Handling System (GHS) as part of the tractor design, meaning no additional bulk when catching is required, and retain a smaller overall size than a mid-mount mower with a collection system attached.