reverse overide in lawn tractor

Hi all, I know safety is a must when dealing with lawn equipment, but I hope maybe someone can (will) help with this. I am considering buying a new lawn tractor, but I do not like the fact that most of them will not cut in reverse. On my old rear engine rider I simply just re-wired the safety switch so you would not have to cut off the blade before backing up. But this mower is/was going on 20 years old. Can anyone tell me if this action is still possible with these newer small lawn tractors such as the Troy Builts.....etc ?? Or is there another EASY way to accomplish this ?? Thanks. And please....no sermons on the value of safety while backing up....LOL.

 

It can be done. Do yourself a favor and steer clear of the troy bilts though, or any MTD made mowers these days. Nothing but problems, mostly belt troubles.

 

I appreciate your concern, but the problem I have is this. My yard is so small that it does not really justify a lawn tractor. I could easily get by with a small rear engine rider, but as you probably know, you can't find a decent rear engine rider for much less than you can buy a tractor for. Sure one can get a Weed Eater brand rear rider for maybe $700-$800....but talk about cheap. So I figure I might as well spend another hundred or so on a small tractor and at least get a 42 inch cut and maybe a little better resale if I ever decide to go that route as I'm not sure how much longer i'll be mowing our own lawn. Another problem with the plain rear engine riders is that they don't have floating decks for which the reason is obvious. What brand would you recommend that won't break the bank ?? Thanks.

 

None from the peanut gallery on that issue, believe me. It is obviously a government regulation to help protect ourselves from .......ourselves While 99% of people know how to operate machinery safely, there will be that 1% that will back over something without looking. I drive a Kubota ZTR and I'd hate to think everytime my levers went toward reverse, the blade would stop.

Cheese will be back after breakfast to give excellent recommendations. He won't steer you wrong. Good luck with the choice.

 

All of my John Deere's can now mow in reverse so it can be done on modern tractors. I don't know about the specific models you are considering though. Luckily it's usually either a normally open (NO) or normally closed (NC) set of contacts. Because unplugging a connector or cutting a wire is too easy to defeat many require you to jumper a pair of contacts to defeat the backup mowing interlock.