Lifeguarding your robotic lawnmower might be over, but tracks still have their learning curve.
If you’ve owned a wheeled mower bot, you know how often they get stuck. There is very little you can do especially if you are away at work or doing whatever. I’ve spent years "rescuing" wheeled bots from the simplest obstacles.
I recently switched to a tracked chassis; It doesn't spin out when things get damp; it just climbs over obstacles. I’ve watched it transition over exposed tree roots and across my gravel driveway. For the first time, I'm not worried about a small hole in the lawn trapping the lawnmower.
However, tracks aren't a magic fix. Because tracks have so much grip, if the bot does a hard zero-turn on soft soil, it will literally grind the grass right out of the root. I learned quickly that you can't just let it turn sharply on its own. What I needed to do was to use the smart turn setting that forces the bot to do wider, multi-point turns, kinda like a car. Pretty cool to watch, ngl.
The Result: It makes the total mowing time longer, but it’s the only way to avoid leaving bald spots in the turf, which I learned the hard way.
It’s a different way of managing the yard. I am more of a "site manager" making sure my settings match the soil conditions. If you have a yard with "character" (slopes, roots, divots), opting for a mower with tracks might be a smarter move.