Keeping the shoulders and ditches along the rail trail clear has been an overwhelming chore that consumed several weekends throughout the growth season. Our only available tool for the job was a hand-held brush cutter.
Any kind of ride-on mower does not work on slopes and would roll over or fall down one of the steep embankments with the operator still on it.
Regular push mowers, even when self-propelled, are slow and just not cut out for the harsh job. Walk-behind brush cutters are too wide to get to the bottom of narrow ditches.
When we saw videos of remote-controlled track mowers pop up online, we knew that one of those could be the solution for efficient trail shoulder maintenance.
After mulling over the expense for a while, we jumped and ordered a $2,000+ Chinese-made Aiweiya AWY-550. After 3 deployments and a total operating time of about 4 hours, this mower cleared 80% of the growth along the rail trail. Operating it is actually fun.
A big Thank You! to our donors who made this purchase possible!