What to use on a steep hill
The short answer. Measure the slope before choosing a machine, because the threshold is lower than it looks. OSHA advises riding mower operators to avoid slopes over 15 degrees where no other information is available, and to follow the manufacturer's own lower limit where one exists. Fifteen degrees is about a 27 percent grade, or a rise of about one foot in every four.
Past that you have four honest options and only one of them is a purchase: replant the bank so it does not need mowing, cut it with a string trimmer, walk it with a self propelled mower, or take yourself off the slope entirely with a remote control machine driven from level ground. This page is about picking between those four, not about ranking mowers.
First, measure it. You are probably guessing high or low
Slopes are difficult to judge by eye and the two scales people quote make it worse. Percent grade is rise divided by run times one hundred; degrees are the angle.
A 100 percent grade is 45 degrees, not a cliff, so a percent figure always sounds more dramatic than the same slope in degrees. If you take one number away from this page, take this one: 15 degrees is 27 percent.
To measure your own, lay a straight board up and down the hill, put a spirit level on it, and lift the downhill end until the bubble centres. Rise divided by board length, times one hundred, is your percent grade. A four foot board lifted one foot is 25 percent, about 14 degrees, and that is already at the edge of the guidance.
A phone inclinometer app resting on the same board gives you the angle without the arithmetic. The conversion table on our slope mowers page lines those numbers up against what different machines are rated to.
What the guidance actually says
It is worth quoting carefully, because the figure gets repeated online with the conditions stripped off it. OSHA's riding mower guidance is to avoid mowing on slopes with an angle over 15 degrees if there is no other information available, and not to operate on slopes beyond the limits the manufacturer specifies.
In other words the number is a fallback, and your own machine's manual outranks it in both directions.
Two further rules in the same guidance rule out more ground than the angle does, and they get far less attention. The first is direction: mow slopes up and down, not side to side, because mowing across shifts weight onto the downhill wheels.
The second is edges: keep the drive wheels at least five feet, measured from the outside wheel edge, away from the unprotected edge of a retaining wall, embankment, levee, ditch or excavation. A great many domestic banks are steep because they end in exactly one of those, so that five foot strip is often the part that most needs cutting.
The guidance also pairs rollover protection with a seat belt, because a rollover bar without the belt does not keep the operator inside the protected zone.
Note on walk behind mowers. The up and down rule is for riding machines. With a walk behind mower the conventional advice runs the other way, across the slope rather than up and down, because the hazard changes: you are no longer tipping a machine, you are trying not to slip and pull it onto yourself. Do not carry one rule across to the other machine.
The four options, cheapest first
| Option | Are you on the slope? | When it is the right answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Stop mowing it | No. The hazard is removed rather than managed | A bank genuinely past the guidance, replanted and cut back once or twice a year. We earn nothing if you choose it |
| 2. A string trimmer, worked from above | No. You work from the top of the bank | A strip rather than a field, and especially the five foot margin along the top of a retaining wall |
| 3. A self propelled walk behind mower | Yes. The risk changes shape, from rolling to slipping | Firm, dry, obstacle free ground inside the maker's stated limit, worked across the face |
| 4. A remote control mower, driven from level ground | No. A traction loss costs you a machine rather than a hospital visit | Ground that is a real part of the property rather than a corner of it. For a single small bank the honest answer is usually no |
1. Stop mowing it
The option nobody selling mowers puts first. A bank replanted with ground cover, ornamental grasses or shrubs is cut back once or twice a year with a trimmer instead of weekly with a machine that can roll.
It costs less than every other answer here, it removes the hazard rather than managing it, and on a bank that is genuinely past the guidance it is the option a careful adviser should raise before any purchase. We earn nothing if you choose it, which is exactly why it is at the top.
2. A string trimmer, worked from above
For a strip rather than a field, a trimmer used from the top of the bank keeps you off the slope and costs a small fraction of any mower. It is slow, it is unpleasant on a hot day, and on anything larger than a strip it stops being realistic.
But for the five foot margin along the top of a retaining wall, which is the exact ground the guidance tells you to keep a riding mower away from, it is often the whole answer.
3. A self propelled walk behind mower
You are still on the slope, so this is not a solution to the hazard, it is a change in its shape: the risk becomes slipping rather than rolling. On firm, dry, obstacle free ground within the manufacturer's stated limit, worked across the face rather than up and down, it is a reasonable and cheap answer that millions of people use.
On wet grass, on loose ground, or where a fall ends against something hard, it stops being reasonable quickly.
4. A remote control mower, driven from level ground
This is the option that removes you from the slope without removing the grass. The operator stands on flat ground with a handset and drives the machine up the bank, so a traction loss costs you a machine rather than a hospital visit.
It is also the most expensive answer on the page by a wide margin, it is not autonomous, and you are working for the entire session. Whether that trade is worth several thousand dollars depends on how much of this ground you have and how often it needs cutting, and for a single small bank the honest answer is usually no.
If it is a real part of your property rather than a corner of it, that is the case where the machine earns its money, and the next section is which one. The buying guide for the category covers how these differ from the autonomous robot mowers they get confused with.
If you have decided on a machine, which one
These are three variants of one machine, the Mowrator S1, and they are here because it is the only remote control mower we hold an affiliate relationship with.
That is a real limit on this section rather than a shortlist of the market: Spider, RC Mowers and Gravely's remote line exist, we have no arrangement with any of them, and we will not point you at a retailer to make the list look longer.
They are ordered by the grade their manufacturer rates them to, which on this page is the number that decides the choice.
The fourth variant in the line is deliberately not below. The wide wheel edition is rated to a shallower grade than the grip tread edition despite sitting near the top of the range on price, because wide wheels are built to spread weight on soft, wet or easily rutted ground rather than to hold an angle.
It is the right answer to a different problem than this page is about. Our slope mowers page carries the full range including that one, with the complete specification tables.
Some drawbacks are shared by all of them, so read them once here rather than three times below. You drive the machine for the entire session with a finger held on the blade button, which owners describe as genuinely tiring on a long cut, so this buys you safety rather than time. It weighs over a hundred pounds and takes two people to fit the wheels at setup.
Zero turn manoeuvres can tear moist, well kept turf, so none of these is the machine for a slope you are proud of the look of. And one owner reports losing the handset signal at about fifty feet, which on a wide property means walking along with it rather than watching from the porch.
Mowrator rates the remote at up to 400 metres, about 1300 feet, and says the working distance is a setting that can be raised, with 100 metres treated as enough for safety and line of sight. So check that setting before you take the fifty feet as the limit of what you bought.
Affiliate links. We may earn a commission through MaxBounty if you buy, at no extra cost to you, and it never decides a ranking or a verdict. Full disclosure.
Our picks at a glance
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The cheapest way off the slope: Mowrator S1 2WD 45% Slope (24°)
Remote control, not autonomous. Two wheel drive, 21 inch steel deck, rated by the maker to 45 percent (24 degrees), which is roughly two thirds again steeper than the riding mower guidance above
$2,249.00 Prices verified August 14, 2026. Confirm the current price on the retailer page before buying.
Check price at MowratorIf the problem is only that the bank is too steep to sit on, and the ground itself is firm and dry, this is the least you can spend to stop being on it. Everything the class is for is present at this price. What you give up is grip, and grip is what you want on the wet morning you would rather not be out there at all.
Keep in mind: The 45 percent rating is the maker's own figure and no independent test we could find covers this variant at all. Two wheel drive is also the layout most likely to lose grip on wet grass or loose ground, which is the condition that makes a slope dangerous in the first place.
Best for: A firm, dry bank past the 15 degree guidance, where budget decides the purchase and traction is not the worry.
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The default for most banks: Mowrator S1 4WD 75% Slope (37°)
Remote control, not autonomous. Four wheel drive, 21 inch steel deck, rated by the maker to 75 percent (37 degrees). Sold in two battery configurations, and the price shown is the smaller one
$3,149.00 Prices verified August 14, 2026. Confirm the current price on the retailer page before buying.
Check price at MowratorBuy this one unless you have a specific reason not to. It is four wheel drive at the lowest price in the line, and 75 percent covers the great majority of residential banks. PCMag is the only outside test of anything in this line: it rated this variant 4.0 and calls it the best remote controlled lawn mower, but gives best for hills to an autonomous machine.
Keep in mind: The price shown buys the 12Ah battery, rated by the maker for 0.75 acres, and the 18Ah version rated for 1.125 acres is 850 dollars more. The collection listing shows only the lower figure.
Best for: A bank that has defeated a walk behind mower, where you want the drive layout that holds and a machine somebody independent has actually run.
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For ground nothing else here is rated for: Mowrator S1 4WD 119% Slope (50°) Grip Tread Tire Edition
Remote control, not autonomous. Four wheel drive with grip tread tyres, 21 inch steel deck, rated by the maker to 119 percent (50 degrees), the steepest rating in the line
$4,399.00 Prices verified August 14, 2026. Confirm the current price on the retailer page before buying.
Check price at MowratorThis is the variant for a bank that has got away from you, steep enough that nothing else on this page is rated for it. The tread is both the point and the limit, because it is the wrong surface for a lawn you care about. At 50 degrees a traction loss stops meaning a stuck machine and starts meaning one going down the hill without you.
Keep in mind: An owner who fitted this edition reports it digging up the yard on zero turn manoeuvres and mowing in straight passes instead. No independent test of this variant exists, so the 119 percent figure rests entirely on the manufacturer.
Best for: Genuinely rough, steep ground, drainage banks and scrub, where nobody is going to inspect the finish.
Three things in the fine print, before you order
| Term | What sets it off | What to do before you order |
|---|---|---|
| The return charge | Any return once the machine has shipped | Treat the decision as final. The cost, the video and the photographs are in the paragraph below |
| The repack condition | Any return once the machine has shipped, on a machine that weighs over a hundred pounds | Repack it to the original size or overweight fees are added, and the shipping figure itself is unpublished. Get it in writing |
| The unboxing video | Anything missing or damaged in transit | Film the unboxing before you open the box, and report damage inside the stated window |
What sending one back costs is no longer published. The policy we re-read on 27 August 2026 charges return shipping on returns made for customer reasons and names no fee, and the return still requires a video demonstrating the fault plus photographs of the packing.
The brand's own FAQ pages have stopped publishing the flat fee they used to carry, re-read on 27 August 2026, and Mowrator told us directly that the shipping cost is all a customer pays.
The FAQ does add one term of its own, that the machine be packed back to its original size or overweight fees are added. What the shipping comes to is still published nowhere, so get the cost of your return in writing before you order a machine that weighs over a hundred pounds.
Finally, film the unboxing before you open the box: the warranty page requires an unedited video recorded beforehand for free replacement of missing or damaged items, and gives you seven days from signing to report damage.
What we would not tell you
That an autonomous robot mower cannot handle a hill. Some of them are rated steeper than the machines we can link you to, and one of the larger all wheel drive models is rated on its maker's own page to an 80 percent grade, listed there at around $2,600 when we checked in July 2026, which undercuts every four wheel drive machine on this site.
The distinction that matters is the kind of work rather than the angle, and the number that shows it is the deck rather than the grade.
The remote control machines here cut a 21 inch swath with a steel blade, while the autonomous Husqvarna PCMag measured the Mowrator against cuts 8.7 inches with a light disc, because it is designed to take an inch off a kept lawn rather than to clear a neglected one.
An autonomous machine keeps an already tidy bank tidy, and a remote control machine goes into growth that has got away from you. Anyone who tells you robots cannot climb is describing a market from several years ago.
Frequently asked questions
How steep is too steep for a riding mower?
OSHA advises avoiding slopes with an angle over 15 degrees where no other information is available, and says never to exceed the limit the manufacturer states for your specific machine. Fifteen degrees is about a 27 percent grade, which is a good deal shallower than most people guess when they look at a bank they have been mowing for years.
How do I measure the slope in my own yard?
Put a straight board on the slope pointing up and down the hill, rest a spirit level on it, and raise the downhill end until the bubble centres.
Measure how far you raised it and how long the board is, then divide the rise by the length and multiply by 100 for percent grade. A four foot board raised one foot is a 25 percent grade, which is roughly 14 degrees.
A smartphone inclinometer app laid on the same board gives you the angle directly.
Is it safer to mow across a slope or up and down it?
For a riding mower, OSHA says to mow up and down and not side to side, because mowing across shifts the machine's weight onto the downhill wheels and is the position rollovers happen from. For a walk behind mower the usual advice is the opposite, across rather than up and down, because the risk there is slipping under the machine rather than tipping it.
What is the cheapest safe answer for a steep bank?
Stop mowing it. A bank planted with ground cover, ornamental grasses or shrubs needs cutting once or twice a year with a string trimmer instead of every week with a machine that can roll, and it costs a fraction of any mower on this page. It is the right answer more often than the equipment industry finds it convenient to say.
Does a zero turn mower handle hills better than a lawn tractor?
Generally the opposite on a descent. Zero turn steering works through the drive wheels, and on a slope those wheels can lose the traction the steering depends on, which is why manufacturers commonly publish a lower slope limit for zero turns than owners expect. Check the figure in the manual for your specific model rather than assuming the machine class.