What Are The Headlights On Riding Lawn Mowers For?

Riding mowers' headlights help you see in the dark. You're still reading because you suspect, quite rightly, that it's more complicated than that. This is revealed in some spirited Reddit discussions in which men and women of goodwill and good intentions disagree immoderately about not only why you'd use headlights on your mower — mowing, but also plowing, towing, and recreating — but also whether you actually should. 

It should go without saying that any time you can't see where you're mowing, you should either turn on some lights or do something else until dawn. Many things, from bunny nests to bocce balls, can be destroyed by carelessly mowing in the dark. It's important to navigate accurately in low light. On large properties that are time-consuming to mow, it's not uncommon to run up against dusk before you finish mowing. And don't forget that lights also help you to be seen, which can be just as important as being able to see.

While manufacturers like Toro and John Deere emphasize this safety angle, some Redditors — immune to lawsuits from themselves — bring different points of view to the discussion. Mostly, Redditors want you to know they have reasons for using mower headlights. In one discussion on r/lawnmowers, u/Nero092807 puts it succinctly: "So you can mow in the dark duh." Meanwhile, u/Podmoscovium brings the folk wisdom, claiming that "if you're not coming home from mowing in the dark, then your lawn isn't big enough for a ride-on mower."

But there are many more uses for mower headlights than, you know, mowing in the dark. One Redditor explains that residents of the far north have less winter daylight, and while they probably aren't mowing in the dead of winter, they might well be pushing snow around with lawn tractors. Some like to save daylight for family time, as u/StrikeSea7638 explains: "I do a lot of my yard work late when my family is down for the night." That outlook is also part of the Thursday Night Mowing League ethos, a positive re-imagining of the place mowing has in our lives. Others might simply be avoiding the heat of the day. And, as with snow plowing, modern riding mowers are often used for more than harvesting your grass crop. You might pull carts with them after dusk, for any of a number of reasons. You might even be using your mower battery as a jump-starter for a car or a generator, both of which could be critically important after dark.

Others have more arcane reasons. "My daughter plays with the light switch in the garage," says u/SchoolOfYardKnocks. Another has a very different reason. You need headlights, says u/Past_Roof5628, "[s]o you don't get run over when [you're] making a beer run after dark!" u/Tbone0785 agrees, asking, "How am [I] supposed to get home from the bar without headlights?" Safety first, y'all. Obviously, there are downsides to a lot of these ideas, particularly the last few. But even simple mowing at night has drawbacks.

The language many Redditors use to discourage nighttime mowing can be somewhat strident, especially when describing the potential for disturbing neighbors. u/Glittering_Name_3722 asserts that serial killers are among those likely to cut their lawns after dark. Robotic mower maker Eufy warns hyperbolically that "nothing spoils a weekend morning faster than the relentless roar of a lawn mower before 8 a.m." Obviously, many things that can make life worse than a loud neighbor, but being noisy can cause you to run afoul of your neighbors and of local noise and air quality ordinances. Typical mowing-safe hours are from 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. The New York City administrative code specifies end times relative to sunset, though what anyone is mowing in New York City remains to be seen. Schedules often vary between weekdays and weekends, sometimes with differences between Saturday and Sunday. Rural areas might have more relaxed rules. Noise regulations are typically controlled by your city, county, and/or HOA.

Redditors sometimes claim that nighttime is not the best time to mow your yard from a lawn health point of view. In a r/lawncare post, u/fractal324 emphasizes that you should never mow wet grass, claiming that "cutting wet only works for hair." The problem, he explains, is that grass tends to get wet with evening dew. "[W]et grass clumps, making the cutting blades [have] to cut through those clumps, resulting in a poor cut of other blades of grass," he says. Furthermore, "wet grass can lie flat due to the weight of water on the blades, especially when [it's] long, resulting in uneven cutting."