Best Lawn Mowers For Tall People

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To some, mowing the lawn is a burden, a chore they wish never existed. But for me, it’s quite the opposite. There’s a sense of accomplishment from turning an overgrown lawn into a nicely trimmed work of art. But… the plot thickens when you’re a tall person. The pain of lower back strain turns the once loved household duty into a battlefield. Anyone above 6 foot is looking for the best lawn mower for tall people.

But sadly, the reality is that when it comes to mowing the yard, us taller people have to suffer. To an extent anyways as you will soon discover. It seems as tho these engineers that design these wonderful outdoor tools have forgotten about us tall people.

Most lawn mowers are lucky to have handlebars that are 40 inches from the ground. Which for the average height American is perfect. But once you start creeping over 6 foot tall, your back becomes more and more hunched.

While an extra long grass trimmer takes most of the burden out of doing the lawns, having a hunched over back while mowing does us no favors.

Mowing The Grass – The Tall Persons Options

While technically speaking, no one has designed the best push mower for tall people yet. Hopefully they see this article and get right onto it!. But in the meantime, we do have a few options. Some more involved then others. Here’s the brief rundown:

• Easiest Option: Slightly modify the Honda 3 position quick release series by drilling 2 tiny holes to achieve an extra 3 inches in handlebar height.
• Easy Handlebar attachment: Buy an attachable handlebar extension and add it to any mower to get an increased handlebar height of about 2 inches.
• Moderate Difficulty: The DIY method involves buying wall hangers or anything of that nature and mounting them onto your current mower handlebar. Above option is easier if you don’t have the tools or desire to be drilling holes and screwing things together. But this option allows you to get an extra 7 inches in height and reach.
• Visit you local mower store: Find a mower that has the arm joint further up the arms of the mower. Now ask the dealer for alternative spare arms which come from another mower which are longer. Provided they fit perfectly, you can get an extra few inches height out of your Frankenstein lawn mower. Doing this the opposite way around is a good method for a short person to have a lower handlebar height mower.

The Best Lawn Mower For Tall People

As I previously mentioned, there’s no one true mower that is simply height adjustable suitable for people that are 6’5″ for example. Until they day they invent a telescopic lawn mower or such, this is the best option for someone that does not yet own a lawn mower.

The Lawn Mower in question is the Honda 3 height position push and self propelled series. While it does offer you the ability to extend the handlebar height by 3 positions, in reality its still not tall enough for anyone over 6’2″ in my opinion.

The handlebars raise by a screw in knob located on the arm joint. You simply unscrew the knob position the screw over the next hole and the handlebars become slightly more raised.

Once you have the screw knob in the lowest hole, you have a maximum height of 41.75″. Which isn’t too bad for people around 6 foot. Its high enough to alleviate much of the back strain associated with pushing a lawn mower hunched over.

 

Modify The Mower For Taller People – Easy Fix

For taller people that are about 6’5″ you can make a simple modification to this mower so that the handlebars now sit around 45 inches tall. This extra 3 inches in height means the world to taller people.

All you need to do is screw 2 more holes into the arm bracket. One hole on each side just below the lowest existing hole. This literally takes one minute and before you know it, you now have a 4 position height adjustable lawn mower.

Don’t be concerned about the complexity of this task, its dead simply. Attach a metal drill bit to a drill and create a hole lined up with the lowest hole. Drill in until the drill bit pops through the other side of the bracket. Now simply twist the drill around in circles to create a smooth and circle hole.

Now simply raise the handlebars and the arms joint plate will lower into position of this new hole. Insert the screw plug on both sides and mission accomplished. Simply the easiest and best way to obtain a lawn mower for a tall person.

*Find The Honda Lawn Mower On Amazon Here

 

Alternative Mowers With Height Adjustments

Some lawn mowers come with height adjustable handles, like the above Honda. Whether they are tall enough for your height is another question. However here’s a few more options that have height settings or pivoting handlebars to make it more comfortable for taller people.

 

 

Handlebar Extension Kit

Another way to modify your lawn mower to gain an extra inch or 2 is to attach a bike handlebar extension kit to the handlebars of your existing mower. This is also a popular extension used on jogging strollers for tall parents.

This approach is less DIY and doesn’t make you lawn mower look completely cave man like. However, it only adds a couple inches of extra reach to your mower.

These handlebar extenders are designed to fit a 31.8 diameter tube. But this particular handlebar extender by Gub comes with spaces so that it can fit thinner mower handles.

But the only problem with this type of setup is that the extender handle is just short of 8 inches in length. This doesn’t give you much hand room to comfortable hold onto the handles while pushing the mower.

So unless you mow with a single hand, I would suggest putting on 2 of these bad boys. One for each hand so you can have your arms spread apart as they should be. These are super simple to attach and require no drilling into your mower. Add a tube of foam over the top for added comfort!.

 

DIY Approach To A Lawn Mower Fit For A Tall Person

In the below video you can see how easy it is to extend the handle bar height by an extra 6-10 inches with a little outside the box thinking and a little bit of elbow grease.

While it’s not visually appealing, it’s a quick and simple solution to a tall persons back pain caused from mowing the lawn. One could also add some rubber grips to these handles to make them more appealing, but most of all more comfortable to hold onto.

How It’s Done?

First you need to buy some wall hangers. These are easy to find at any big store or you can grab this 6 pack by Shepard Hardware on amazon.

Whats great about this 6 pack is that it is doubles of 3 different lengths. So depending on how much extra height you need, you can custom fit it to your height. The longest being 7.5″. So this gives you an extra 7 inches in handlebar height, but it also extends the length of your handlebars by 7 inches.

This is important because the higher the handlebars raise, the closer your feet get to the back of the lawn mower. Which as you know can be very dangerous. So this option may in fact be the best option of all. Even tho it does look a bit dodgy, it is the safest option and gives the really tall people the best options in regards to height of the handlebars.

The wall hangers come with pre-drilled holes. So all you need to do is line each one up with the arm of your mowers handlebars. Drill 2 holes into each side of the arm of the mower. Next insert a bolt, washer and nut to fasten the extenders into position. Preferably use a wingnut so that you can hand tighten them while mowing if needed.

Finished in a matter of minutes with an extra 7 inches of both reach and height. Until manufactures come out with some better lawn mowers for tall people, these options are all we have I’m afraid. If you know of a better way, please do share below in the comments section.