Imagine the shopping cart you see at the grocery store. It has two little wheels in the front that can spin and two big wheels in the back that roll straight. You can push the handle and make it go forward or backward, and the front wheels swivel so you can turn.
Now imagine if that cart could spin all the way around in one spot, like a dancer doing a twirl without moving across the floor. That’s what this tractor can do. It’s called a zero-radius-turn, four-wheel-drive tractor.
The ubiquitous zero turn mower is like the shopping cart except that the back wheels drive the machine because they are powered by the engine or battery, and the front wheels just roll. On Towles’s zero radius turn tractor, all four wheels can push or pull. That means it can climb hills or drive through soft dirt without getting stuck, as four wheel drive vehicles are wont to do.
The Slope Control tractor also works well on side slopes unlike typical zero turn mowers which lose steering ability if the uphill drive wheel loses traction, and it can turn much more sharply than a traditional tractor because of the novel steering axle. Instead of only being able to turn a little, the front wheels can twist half way around. 180 degrees from one direction to the other—so the tractor can turn about a point within it’s own space without any wheels sliding sideways.
Farmers, builders, and landscapers often work in tight spaces—between trees, near fences, or on hills. Most tractors need a big circle to turn around, but this one turns inside its own shadow. Because every wheel helps, it can work on steep slopes.