Stand-On Safety Secrets

The ability to get on and off a stand-on quickly adds a built-in safety feature to the machine. If a user gets into trouble on an incline, safety is just a step away.

“You have the ability to jump off if you’ve lost it,” says Gilbert Pena, John Deere’s segment strategy manager for commercial. “The worse case scenario is that you bail out.”

That’s not always the case on a sit-down, Pena says. “The levers are trapping you and you can’t bail out,” he says. “That’s why sit-downs started using rollover protection devices and seat belts because they want you to stay in the seat if you roll over.”

Pena sees contractors pushing the limits on a sit-down on steep inclines all the time. “It’s a very dangerous thing,” he says.

Dale Denison, owner of a U.S. Lawns franchise in Overland Park, Kan., praises the safety factor of stand-on mowers. “We think that’s a major advantage because you’re not tempted to stay seated and ride it out,” he says. “We just tell them if the machine’s going to go, let it go and just step off of it.”

Because stand-on mowers aren’t as heavy as sit-downs, they have less inertia and will stop more quickly. “As soon as you step off of a stand-on unit, it’s off, whereas with a rider mowing on a steep slope that is pointing downhill, if the machine slips it’s going down – there’s no stopping it and you can’t get off fast enough,” Denison says.