Lawn and Garden Trailers and Wagons, Which is Best?

With the lawn and garden season rapidly getting underway, many people will be looking for a lawn trailer or wagon to pull behind of their lawn tractor. Most folks do not understand the differences between a wagon and a trailer and use these terms to describe the same piece of equipment even though they are very different.

Both items, a lawn wagon and a lawn trailer and used for the same purpose, hauling material around behind of your lawn tractor. But what makes these units different and which is best for your jobs is really a matter of personal taste.

A lawn trailer has a fixed position tongue which attaches to the back of your garden tractor. These units many have one of two axles depending on the size of the load you have purchased it for. With the fixed tongue, this makes backing the trailer up very easy, but the downside to this type of unit for the home gardener is the tongue has to be left hitched to your tractor or propped up with something if you wish to leave a load in the trailer.

A lawn wagon has a steerable front end, which allows the wagon to track directly behind of your lawn tractor. The wheels on a lawn wagon are normally spaced at the front and the rear of the unit, where a lawn trailer, if it is a tandem axle unit will have the wheels narrowly spaced in the middle or towards the back of the trailer. The wide spacing of the wheels on a lawn wagon allows the home gardener to unhitch the wagon from the tractor and use the wagon as a platform for potting plants and other tasks. The major downside to the lawn wagon is the steerable front end makes the wagon very difficult to back up.

Which is best? It depends on what you intend to use the unit for. If you will be having to back into an area several times, I would suggest that the lawn trailer would be your best bet. If you like the idea of being able to use the unit as a mobile work platform and backing up is not an issue, then the lawn wagon would suit your needs the best.