Lawn Mower Sulky?

Ninja Edit (TLDR): I bought a sulky and built a hitch. I love them both. See Page 2 for more details.

I've always liked the idea of my walk behind mower, as it guarantees me at least one day of physical activity per week. The problem is, I'm having knee surgery in September. I can still walk the lawn at this point, but I can't walk for the following three days. A zero turn mower is not in the budget, but I've been thinking about adding some kind of sulky behind the Hustler Super Mower. I've seen one wheel, two wheel and flat plates, plus some with seats and wheels.

I'd prefer to build something rather than buy new, but if something showed up on Craigslist, it would probably be foolish to pass it up. Any suggestions regarding one particular style over any other?

Here's the mower:

And these are the options as I see it:

Nice mower! I like the idea of sitting my butt down. My back hurts just watching those guys on the sulkys mow. Just a hunch, but the skid one is probably for striping.

also be careful with the sit down ones, if you have a lot of hills there is the chance of your torso becoming a bump stop between the seat and the mower

Tyler H wrote: Just a hunch, but the skid one is probably for striping.

Good point. I didn't think of that. There goes the easy option.

My FIL had the bottom one for a Gravely. It could be a ball buster when you back up.

The bigger the sulky tire, the smoother it goes over bumps.

If you can't spread your feet on the sulky, you have to hang onto the handlebars to keep from falling over sideways. That gets tiring fast.

Even on smooth ground, you take a pounding from the bouncing. Standing in a slightly crouched position helps, but probably doesn't help your knees.

I've spent a bit of time on one like the first one pictured. I get sore just looking at it I'd prefer one with one wheel in the center so you have a bit wider stance. Having your feet almost touching makes it hard to maintain your balance.

spitfirebill wrote: My FIL had the bottom one for a Gravely. It could be a ball buster when you back up.

Gravely also makes a steering sulky that only pivots in pitch like a hinge, not pitch/yaw like a ball hitch. There is a steering wheel that sticks up and steers the sulky wheels to drive the entire combination. It has enough steering angle to rotate the tractor around the inside wheel, plus you can back up.

I mowed a lot of grass sitting on one of these:

I came here expecting a lawnmower that didn't run well and left knowing a new word

We got ya covered here.Staying Grassroots and all that...

As a former landscraper I never liked using a sulky seen many people eat E36 M3 trying but as far as not being able to walk that much, the two wheel flat deck style would be best. still wont feel good on the leg

Woody wrote: I can still walk the lawn at this point, but I can't walk for the following three days.

Unless your grass grows really fast, can't it wait until you're mobile again?

I found one of these locally for $100. This is not the actual item but it's the same model. With it's own steering system, it looks a little bigger and more complex than I expected but it seems complete and comes with a mounting hitch. I'm hoping to check it out this weekend. I can probably make this work.

Now that I've thought about it a little more, I'm pretty sure that a non-steering Gravely sulky is what I want. They seem to be both cheap and plentiful.

This one's painted up in John Deere colors, but it's a Gravely.

I have one more those, and it's pretty burley. To build one these days I would probably start with a lightweight bicycle trailer and add a comfortable seat.

I've always loved the slider plate that my dad had.... you can still slide sideways in tighter corners (can't do that with wheels) and it had the added benefit of feeling like you were flying.

Even making something yourself, bouncing around behind a mower while standing up can't be good for the knees.

I vote tractor seat.

I've spent a lot of time on one of these.

Two pivot mounts to the machine and one caster in the back. It rode pretty smooth. The machine can undulate up and down but the platform barely moves. Backing up is no problem. It's a good design if you can roll your own and adapt it to your mower somehow.

I use a single wheel, and it is awesome. except on hills. than it tries to kill you.

my 36" walk behind doesnt have brakes, and its enough of a piece of garbage that I dont want to spend the 100 bucks to fix it. I end up doing a ski slolam when I go down my 20 degree bank.

I wouldn't do a sit down. as much as you get beat around, there's not a whole lot to cushion it. I'd rather be standing for the bumps. also nice if I need to jump off and abandon the rig.

side note, sulky's are stupid expensive for what they are.

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

That's a pretty good design. I like it, but I don't think that the mounting area on my mower would be wide enough. That crossbar is 3/8" thick but there's only about 11" between the outside holes. It should be strong enough to mount a hitch to. I'll sandwich it between a heavy piece of angle iron and a backing plate.

I'm going to look at this in the morning:

I love the simple elegance of the Gravely hitch. The bottom part of the sulky is a hollow tube. There is a hole that goes from top to bottom about two inches from the end. The two halves of the hitch go around the hitch ball and slide into the tube. There are half round slots in each one and a pin holds them into place. Cool.

I've been thinking about mowing. I don't think I did last year. I think it's about time. Maybe.

My grandfather had one of the Gravely ones at his vacation house. I don't know if its still there but we used to go to a place in Torrington for parts.

How about pay a local kid untill you mend up?