The question “How to make a lawn mower go faster?” is a common one among those that own this machine. Are you tired of your mowing getting slower each time you take it out on the lawn?

How To Make a Lawn Mower Go Faster

Many things cause lawnmowers to become slow such as using low-quality fuel, underinflated tires, small pulleys, and dull mower blades. Let us look at some of the most common ways to increase the speed of a lawn mower.

How Do You Make Your Lawn Mower Move Faster?

To make your lawn mower move faster, there are so many things you can do such as using high-octane fuel, installing large tires, or fixing the engine pulley. Most importantly, make sure that your engine is in top condition and that the machine is regularly maintained.

1. Invest in a Fast Lawn Mower

If you want to make your mower go faster, you must invest in the fastest mower. A push-type mower can go only as fast as you can push it. It would help if you had a riding mower with engine power to push it to high speeds.

An average but good-quality riding type of mower has the potential to go up to four miles per hour, while a zero-turn riding type of mower can go as fast as seven to eight miles per hour.

Invest in a Fast Lawn Mower

You want to look for a hydrostatic lawn mower with zero turns. The lighter and sleeker the machine, the faster it will accelerate. You want to look for one with a steering wheel so that you have complete control over the machine as it reaches high speed.

2. Use High-Octane Fuel

While electric-powered mowers have many advantages over fuel-powered ones, speed isn’t one of them. To make such a mower go faster, you need the best fuel quality to power your engine. Your gas needs to be of an octane level of 92 or higher without adding ethanol.

Buy premium-quality fuel with added stabilizer, which will prevent it from decomposing. Using high-octane fuel makes your engine run smoothly, and you can accelerate the machine without harming it.

Use High-Octane Fuel

This is especially important when you own an expensive machine requiring premium fuel. If regular fuel is used on such an engine, it will cause premature firing of the sparkplug, commonly called engine knocking. You can feel a jerk every time you ignite the engine or accelerate it. Over time, this condition damages the engine, and it won’t go any faster.

3. Install Large Tires

Replacing the mower’s regular tires with larger ones is an instant trick to get it rolling faster. With bigger tires, you cover more ground with each rotation and move faster. Each tire should be the same size and width to keep the machine balanced.

Install Large Tires

Not all lawn mowers allow you the freedom to install tires of your own choice to them. If yours does, then this is an option worth looking for. On the downside, larger tires will increase the distance between the cutting deck and the ground, and you might need more time to mow the grass as low as possible. There is also a noticeable decrease in the torque of the machine’s motor.

4. Properly Inflate the Tires

To make your lawn mower fast, ensure its tires are inflated. The air inevitably leaks out from tires over time. This will slow them down, and the engine will have to double its efforts to keep them revolving.

The mower’s instruction manual has clear specifications regarding the ideal inflation levels of tires. It would help if you had a compressor to fill the tires at home whenever the air level within them falls below the ideal requirement. The gas station crew nearest to you will also perform this task if you take the mower over to them.

If the tires are too old and have been through much use, then it’s best to change them. This will improve the speed and is also important for the machine’s overall performance.

5. Make Sure the Air Filter Is Working Properly

An air filter is the most important part of the engine because it protects it from all sorts of contaminants and dirt in the surrounding air. If it gets clogged, the engine is directly affected, and its speed and efficiency will decrease. Cleaning it would help accelerate the speed of your mower instantly.

Cleaning the air filter is straightforward, and you can easily do it at home. Search for where the air filter is located in your mower or refer to the instruction manual. Turn the mower off, disconnect the spark plug and wait for the engine to cool off.

Loosen the nuts holding the shroud covering the filter and take the filter out. If it is a paper type of filter, then hold it toward a light source. If no light shines through, it needs to be replaced; otherwise, tap it on a hard surface to loosen the dust from it.

If your mower is of the foam type and is completely discolored, then it is best to change it. Otherwise, soak it in soap water made of dishwashing soap. Put it back only when it is 100 percent dry. Upon restarting the engine, you will notice that your mower’s speed has increased significantly.

6. Fix Your Engine Pulley

Modern lawnmowers are manufactured using a belt and pulley system that transfers energy from the engine to the tires. The speed of riding lawnmowers can be increased simply by replacing their existing engine pulley with a bigger pulley.

Fix Your Engine Pulley

This trick works only for those mowers that have a two-pulley system. One pulley is attached to the engine, while one is located at the back of the mower. You must replace these pulleys with bigger ones to get the belt rolling faster.

If you are not that tech-savvy and handy, it’s best to take the mower to the mechanic. The engine will have to be exposed, and there is a chance you might end up damaging it by accident.

7. Sharpen the Blades Well

The sharper the blades are, the quicker and faster the mower will move ahead. Blades get dull over time, creating more resistance to their forward motion. That is why you need to constantly sharpen them after an approximate use time of 20 to 25 hours.

Sharpen the Blades Well

When sharpening a blade at home, you must dismantle it from the machine, then use an electric grinder or any other easy-to-handle machine to sharpen the blade at a 45 degree angle.

8. Get Rid of the Engine’s Governor

The governor is the part of a lawn mower’s engine responsible for controlling its speed. Each engine has its speed limit set by the manufacturer, and it is the governor’s job to ensure that the engine does not speed up beyond this point.

If your engine is not speeding up, how can your mower? Just remove this thing altogether and see how fast the machine goes. Turn your mower off and disable its spark plug before exposing the assembly that houses the engine.

The governor is made of plastic and looks like a flap with two springs. One spring will be attached to the carburetor and the other to the throttle. Disconnect both springs using a wrench, then take them out and reassemble the engine’s housing back.

9. Mow the Right Way

This might surprise you, but how you mow grass can make a lot of difference. You want to cut grass in straight, long lines with as few turns as possible. Cutting grass in a straight line becomes much easier if you have a square or rectangular lawn. Divide the lawn into vertical and horizontal segments and try to follow this pattern only.

10. Routinely Maintain Your Machine

Regular maintenance is the most neglected aspect of keeping a mower in top-notch shape and speed. Make sure its fuel tanks are full, regularly lubricate with engine oil, and keep the blades sharp.

If you need more time for constant upkeep, try to get it professionally checked once or twice a year at least. If everything is working well, then there is no doubt that the machine will run faster.

11. Keep the Oil Tank Full

Your mower speed is directly correlated to the level of oil present in the tank. When the tank is full, the engine runs the fastest. As the level of fuel in the tank decreases, more air enters the tank. The combusting fuel fumes evaporate into thin air, greatly decreasing the engine’s efficiency.

It would help if you kept the oil tank’s levels up while using it. The oil tank has a dipstick that helps you check its oil levels. Unscrew the cover of the tank and take the dipstick out. Keep refilling it with the best-quality oil whenever needed.

Once every six months, you should change the entire tank completely. You should tip the mower to the side and empty the old oil first. Another process you can execute is to use a suction pump to siphon off the old oil before replacing it with a new one.

12. Keep the Muffler in Check

While the main purpose of a muffler is to reduce the noise produced in the engine, it also affects its speed. When the muffler gets damaged, it creates back pressure into the engine.

Mufflers generally should be replaced every one to two years if the mower is used regularly. We suggest lawn owners get their mowers checked by a trusted mechanic regularly. Ask the folks over at the mechanic shop if they can change the muffler for you. Otherwise, you can do this in just a few simple steps.

13. Regularly Change the Oil

You must regularly change the old oil in the tank with fresh oil to keep the engine running efficiently. Oil with stabilizer added to it will last longer than oil without stabilizer. However, even stabilized oil breaks down over time, and the breakdown products damage the whole engine.

Manufacturers set certain guidelines for how often the oil needs to be changed. For push type of mowers, change the oil in the tank every season or after an estimated use of 50 hours.

Riding type of mowers can be used for 100 hours before their oil needs to be changed if the mower has been left unused for a few months such as the winter dormancy time. If this is the case, then iit is best to change the oil before taking it out for the growing season. We recommend emptying the tank altogether before packing the machine up.

Conclusion

Here is a summary of simple ways you can make a lawn mower faster than ever.

  • Buy a riding type of mower, always buy high-octane and premium fuel, and keep the gas and oil tanks full for maximum engine speed.
  • Cleaning the air filter or replacing an old one with a new one will immediately speed it up.
  • Replacing the mower’s tires and engine pulleys with larger-sized ones will also make it grow faster.
  • The governor (a part of the engine) is responsible for slowing the engine down. Getting rid of this part will help make the mower go faster.

After reading our guide, you now know many ways to increase the mower’s speed. Try them out and enjoy having a super fast lawn mower!

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