As a kid, I envied any friend of mine whose parents owned a riding mower. It seemed like the perfect trade-off: I get to learn how to control a motorized, four-wheeled device and be helpful around the house, while my parents got to get out of mowing the lawn while knowing that there wasn’t much I could do to get hurt short of losing control or reaching under the mower deck while everything was engaged. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards for me growing up, but even as an adult I’ll take a riding mower…especially a zero-turn with control sticks for operation, since it makes me think I’m driving a tank around my property…over pushing a manual mower any day of the week, like I did for years.

However, this guy is taking the fun of a riding mower just a bit far, we think. His rig is a built-up Murray with a 12.5 horse Briggs and Stratton up front and a locked rear differential. Most mowers I’ve been on try to bounce you out of the seat when you run over rough ground, groundhog tunnels or a good-sized stick and spin their tires on wet grass. How was this a good idea?