Lawn from Hell, Mower from Heaven, June 2016 

The "flight attendant" visualization at the beginning is gold! 😂

One of the most common comments is a statement that I should use a Ventrac/Ventrak or other brand of riding/stand-on mower. Some are polite/intelligent but others are rude or idiotic. Ventrak's website includes a page stating the maximum safe slope for its various models. Only one, its most expensive mower, modified to add dual wheels, is rated for 30 degrees. That mower, used, is over $20,000. Other manufacturers also give the maximum safe slope for their products. Several automated/slope mowers are rated for steeper hills. For example Husqvarna. I am unaware of any other stand-on or riding mower that the manufacturer believes is safe at 30 degrees. Many are rated below 15 degrees. If you can point me to a manufacturer's website or other reliable resource that says a product is safe at 30 degrees, please post it; I would love to know of it. Skip any comments that you "don't care about the rating because you have used it safely for years." I believe you but more strongly believe the manufacturer's rating. Sorry for my tone but I am tired of rude comments

If there's one thing i love, its ingenuity, and creativity! Well done, sir!

yup , I have reached the edge of the internet . I have seen it all.

SOD, I think you're a genius. Not only is your invention brilliant and simple, I think your video is brilliantly and simply told, in a very compact amount of time.

Damn... no offense i expected really bad results after looking at that mower, and was pleasantly surprised when i saw how amazing a cut that made! Good job!

I’m an Australian, but touring England a few years ago, I observed a lot of very steep mowed hillsides around monuments. I thought this was because they used sheep or goats, but I was wrong, one day I saw a man mowing the steep hillside using a modified “Flymow” on a very long tether. He stood at the top of the slope and it swung from side to side like a pendulum!

Necessity is still the mother of invention! Great job

MacGyver would be so proud of you! You've mastered "improvise adapt and overcome". Necessity truly is the mother of invention.

This guy here innovates better than Apple, Inc.

"all done" "until next week" - i love that because its so damn true... very well done!!

Truly great, it seems that so few people actually make things these days. Well done that man

Goat is another option here.

that hill must be awesome to sled in the winter

Can we be just as impressed with his mowing creation as we are with his presentation (voiceover, hand movements, etc.)?

Mr Schley, You, sir, are a genius! I love your creative problem solving.

Got a few compliments about the video. Thanks. My daughter did the filming and was creative, including filming with the camera low to the ground.

I am getting so tired of the word Ventrac and a couple other brand names. I assume it's a fine product, and works well on hills but it tears them up when you have to turn around tightly, and costs $20K compared to $100.

Now here's a serious man with great sense of ingenuity...Great job sir.

Necessity is definitely the mother of invention. Never question the creativity of a man who has experience and high standards at the same time. This is fantastic stuff! Great job! You need to patent a system of pulleys in a mower that can safely do a hill like this.

I liked the video because of your great hand signals

you should of patented this before uploading tbh

Genius! Pure Genius! This is one of those things that make me think, "DUH! Why did I think of that?" I guess that's why you're the genius.

IN 1978 I went from Georgia where i live to Pennsylvaniar to visit my sister. On the way I tried a schortcut and wound up on a back road. A guy was cutting grass on a straight vertical slope about 20 feet high. He had a push mower attached with rope and lowering down the vertcal slope and it was working. Your video reminded me of that and the saying "Where there's a will there's a way"

I wonder how much gas, time, and money get spent on "lawns" in the US. I bet Saturdays alone, could feed a major city lol.

That was some amazing ingenuity! Improvise, adapt, and overcome!

Absolutely love your hillside mower! While I own a Ventrac Mower with Duals and the capability to mow that, I don’t think you need one , you seem to have it covered pretty good with what you have! I really like the setup it doesn’t disturb anything either.

Oh man, that's pretty inventive!! the results and time are phenomenal. well done.

A brilliantly simple solution to a big problem, offer to mow your neighbors hills for a fee 😀👍

I'd have me a bad ass slip n slide going down that hill😂😂💯

Bloody awesome. A tip of my hat to you from Australia

Good job, Sir 👍🏾 Improvements to be considered: • Use a winch • Allow the winch to move along a rail laterally • Automatize the entire mowing • Add fans that suck the gras upwards ✌🏾

A few goats might be the cheapest solution.

142 losers who never accomplish anything 1 home owner who is a genius

I wished I had a 1/3rd of your knowledge. Truly Guinness.

Now thats a very SMART way to avoid excess wear & tear on a body while still getting health benefits from the cardio & strength workout involved. Genius!!!

Well that saved my summer, brilliant idea.

landscapers wone touch that hill? well fuck im coming there then.

Had a steep hill I cut years ago for a fella that's now passed, I took a regular push lawn mower and took the handle and all that off and had a rope tied to the mower to do pretty much the same as you're doing here. Work smarter, not harder folks!

Awesome idea and execution! Well done!!

And that is why you check houses before you buy them!

Necessity is the mother of ingenuity.

You win. I couldn’t compete with that. But I’d be taking pictures and notes so I could build my own. Great work Sonofdodie

Necessity is the mother of invention... Great stuff man 👍👍

Better than just sitting around on your grass!

Problem solving at it's finest!

Genius. We have 6 acres we have to mow up and down hills. Absolutely brilliant

HELL YA!!!!! That’s homebrew ingenuity at its finest I love it!! Don’t listen to the negative comments what you did was pretty awesome!

And when your arms go out, get a winch!

I agree bigger wheels.

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm going with 10 in wheels from walk/pull behind golf carts. Before my current unit, I built a trimmer that was a single trimmer strapped to one of those carts so I already have one pair. It was a light-weight mower but was useless on the hill. I paid $2 for that cart and bought a second one a week ago for $1 so I couldn't be cheaper. I don't need much reduction in resistance to manage all of the hill from the crest. I have a large enough flat area at the bottom, some behind a flower area, that I will still have to take a normal mower down there anyway. The bike tires are a good idea. If the non-steep area that I can access from the top of the hill was larger, the bigger wheels would add more coverage. One disadvantage would be the need for a bigger storage area. Thanks.

Great idea, you really helped a lot of people by showing them this invention. Thanks for your time!

You need to make a handle so someone at the bottom of the hill can pick up/drag/slide it over so when you pull it up you cut a new row.

GREAT WORK!!! BRILLIANT!

This video was inspirational man. I have some bad slopes in my back yard to and my ankles are killing me. Cool contraption.

Who doesn't love to see creativity and ingenuity solve a problem? Awesome build. Now you just need to find a way to automate the thing so you can cut that hill from your deck. Nice job.

Now if you can figure out a remote control way without rope, then you will be all set. Great ideas come along sometimes after many trials.

So I just need to get a hill under my grass yard... Challenge accepted!

I am impressed!!! This is more American ingenuity at its finest!!!

Well done man. Love the ingenuity.

"until next week" yeah, if I had to do that every week, i'd just pour kerosene on it and light it on fire.

Genius!

Great idea, that's how you do it, make it yourself. I love people who can take a problem and solve it in the coolest and easiest way. Bravo sir

Ingenuity at it's best. I bet you neighbors want you to mow their lawns now. Great job.

why not use a riding lawnmower and build roller cage wheels on it so it cant tip over

Why not just plant a perennial ground cover, problem solved

That is an amazing piece of ingenuity you've got there! And, I would mow that lawn. ONCE.

American ingenuity, love it. Nice work.

HEY! This is a great idea. Congrats on MANY levels. There are so many clever ideas out there just waiting form someone to think of them. I own 9 acres of flat land in Central Florida, and I don't really mind cutting it, but I've often considered using multiple (5+) Echo string heads powered by a small gas engine on a frame to construct a very light cutting machine. I don't need rock slinging steel blades. Sometimes smaller IS better. Its the same concept, as yours sir, except I would push it, or if big enough pull it behind a deck-less rider. SonOfDodie, you stepped outside of the box, and came up with a very useful gadget that solved YOUR problems. If 1% of the human race could step out of that box, and solve THEIR problems, AND share it on a video, perhaps we could undo the damage caused by Public Schoolz [sic]. Keep up the good work, and... THANKS FOR THINKING! Mr. Brown (57) Florida

when I was in South Korea, I watched the Korean landscapers use a regular push mover and long rope to mow the grass over the large ammo bunkers on base. it was steep, but they had a good rythem and started at the top going horizontal across and going down

You can also get those tractor mowers you ride on. Those always seem fun to me

Brilliant ! Nice work - you are on to something there :)

I really appreciate the effort and thought to value put into this mower. It looks great. I'm just wondering why a ride-on mower wouldn't do the trick? You said that there wasn't a mower that could do it but I don't think the hill is steep enough to not have any rider mowers be able to cut it easily. If you meant that there wasn't an affordable mower that could do it then I retract my statement.

now patent it...

i remember being on the farm, we had a 1960's "wheel horse" 1075 that we would mow 4' clover and alfalfa with :) that old girls was tough, we still use it to this day!

Great idea! I have a pond with a steep dam. I've had to pull my mowers out of the waters edge many times. You have just solved my dilemma. Thanks for sharing!

0:43 cue third Reich music

Why not get a Ventrac. They go much faster, can do many more things, and they can climb a hill up to 45 degrees!

Very creative & most excellent contraption. Congratulations on your great problem solving skills! I love American ingenuity. Too bad there's not more of it these days.

That's one hell of a hill to mow!

hook that sucker up to an electric wench/ garden hose roller

good idea! but, why even bother mowing it when u can't use the slope for anything productive?

Incredible work! You've really come up with a great solution.

I have often wondered how the gardeners cut the grass off the enormous moat at Warwick Castle England, then one day I watched the hi-tech/low-tech method. A Fly-Mo on a long rope. Brilliant. Well done sir.... This is a great example of someone thinking outside the Grass-Box!😂

Buy a goat!

Shouldn't of posted that. You have money on your hands with possible patent

Hats off to you sir...you found a solution to a problem you alone had to solve and you did it with style !

That might be the most clever invention I've seen in a long time! Well done sir!!

you need a Ventrac!

Peak RU-vid content. Will I ever find a video better than this?

That's pretty dam ingenious there. Well done, and good job!

I've heard it said that "necessity is the mother of invention". I beg to differ! In my life I have learned that desperation is really the mother of invention.

Necessity IS the mother of invention. Outstanding contraption man.

Besides being a wing dinger of an idea, there was no annoying music. I give it a thumb's up!

Lawn mowing Genius! Kudos Sir!

Pulling it up that hill a few times will require a couple cool drinks. From the cooler I would have sitting right there!

I love American ingenuity. Being able to do this is what America and freedom is all about.

Very creative solution! My neighbor had a steep embankment and I've seen her tie a rope to her gas mower and pull it up and down the hill.

Looking at that lawn, allí could think about is how awesome a slip-n-slide would be there...

very impressive. Never seen something so simple so effective