RYOBI 80V Lithium Zero Turn Ride-On Mower

Poor Ergonomics – Trialled this lawn mower for a month on loan from my father-in-law - and not for me. Machine beautifully put together and a really excellent cutting action - especially where mulching was concerned. But the joy-stick - an engineering marvel but an ergonomic nightmare. Problem was two fold. The joy-stick fights to return to neutral. In… Read more

consequence, after a hour of lawn-mowing, my right forearm was in agony! The constant pressure on my arm made the mow extremely onerous. I found the support for the right-arm hopeless: the arm-rest was too far back, too high and too close to the centre of the machine - and it, unlike the arm-rest for the left arm, cannot be adjusted. Secondly, unlike with a traditional zero-turn, the joy-stick translates both side-to-side action and front-to-back action into drive/direction. With my less than bowling-green smooth lawn, this meant that every bump in the lawn transferred to the joy-stick and caused the mower to wobble. No problem when I was mowing in the middle of the law but extremely difficult maintaining a sure course when it came to trying to mow along edges and around fence -posts, etc.. The joy-stick was also a nightmare when it came to backing; a real trick trying to get the machine onto a trailer. It's extremely sensitive. I also found it difficult to judge the cutting edge on the left side of the machine - the side usually at issue when trying to cut close around edges and objects. The cutting deck is not in alignment with the front wheels on the left side - though it is on the right side - the side impeded by the grass shoot - and sits behind the rider. I think Ryobi would have been better advised to work on zero-turn steering-wheel technology like Ego, rather than the joy-stick.