Riding Mowers for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCXX

rear-engine riding mower

If you were paying attention in the halcyon days of eHow.com, you're probably well aware that the site's reputation was one of incompetents barfing up misinformation about whatever topics they managed to capture from a vast library of questions harvested from the 'net. Clearly, it did not matter that the "contributor" knew as little as – if not less – about the topic than the person asking the question. It was always all about the cash. If you still need convincing. all you have to do is take a look at some of the site's surviving content... content like "How Does a Riding Lawn Mower Work?" at GardenGuides.com, as barfed up by creative writing major-slash-musician Isaiah David.

If you were to believe David, you might accept his claim that,

"A riding lawn mower is essentially a small tractor combined with a rotary mower."

Then again, perhaps you've seen a riding mower or two in your life and know that there are a lot of styles, of which only one is "a small tractor." Based on that bogus claim alone we might assume that Isaiah has had little exposure to either riding mowers or to tractors (especially, we bet, the latter). Our boy also prattled that, 

"Riding mowers are powered by a single gas engine..."

...which, when you think about it, is true of darned near every land conveyance. Speedboats and multi-engine planes, no; cars, trucks, and lawnmowers, yes. We suppose that's Isaiah's attempt to get across the fact that the engine runs both the drivetrain and the mowing apparatus. Duh.

Some of David's other bogosity includes such "information" as, 

• "Riding lawn mowers have two side-by-side horizontal spinning blades..." – Some do. Others have one, three, or even four. It depends on size and design.
• "Some large riding lawnmowers use an entirely different system to cut the grass. The mowers used in golf courses are actually small tractors towing reel mowers..." – In other words, they're not riding mowers.
• "Mowers can go forward and backward and most can turn in place..." – No, only high-end ZTR (zero-turn radius) can turn in place. 
• "The driver sits on top of the mower in a seat behind the engine and controls the operation with levers..." – Again, it depends on design: some operators stand (especially on commercial ZTR models), and a many sit in front of the engine (especially on ZTR designs). For what it's worth, too, "levers" is a pretty weak descriptor for a throttle, clutch, steering wheel, or brake.

Of course, when all is said and done, Isaiah never actually mentioned how riding mowers work. He did not mention belts, electric clutches, throttles, or any other mechanical devices. Given his failure to answer the central question of the post – how the mower WORKS, we see no reason not to give this fool the Dumbass of the Day award.

SE - LAWNMOWERS