# Tearing up the lawn **URL:** \ **Category:** Support & Solutions\ **Tags:** lawn-mower\ **Created:** [August 5, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407 "2025-08-05T18:43:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nalcott](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/nalcott/32/487_2.png) [@nalcott](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/nalcott)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/1 "2025-08-05T18:43:27Z")
Hi everyone - I have a couple of areas that get a bit narrow and the Yarbo is really tearing up the lawn where is needs to turn around a lot. I have it on smart turns but it’s getting pretty bad. The wife is now complaining lol. Is there a way to mitigate this? What worked for you? I was wondering if I need to separate out those spots as a separate area and maybe use a different method? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/2 "2025-08-05T18:51:34Z")
> [@Unwanted Zero Turns with Smart Enabled](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/unwanted-zero-turns-with-smart-enabled/3388): > > Please add to the list of scenarios you’ve witnessed the damaging zero turn behavior while smart turn is enabled. Docking Pathway alignments before starting path Deadend alignment before starting No go Zone boundary lap alignment before starting (might also do on departure for next zone) First perimeter lap on tight turns Check the bullets of this original post and add to the list if your specific behavior is not mentioned. This screams hot fix but only get the typical blah blah blah from YarboForum. ---
**Author:** ![bryan.wheeler](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/bryan.wheeler/32/215_2.png) [@bryan.wheeler](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/bryan.wheeler)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/3 "2025-08-05T20:05:06Z")
You can do some dead ends to cut these areas and use no go zones to exclude them from the area cut. Straight dead ends will help eliminate turning. You can also NGZ them and just give the grass a few weeks to recover periodically by enabling and disabling them. Hopefully they can find a software path planning fix to help here long term. ---
**Author:** ![Micke](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/micke/32/257_2.png) [@Micke](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Micke)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/4 "2025-08-05T20:45:16Z")
And also this thread with a lot of tips to obtain the best results: > [@Unsollicited advice to have a nicer lawn](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/unsollicited-advice-to-have-a-nicer-lawn/3385): > > A little thread for those who want to share advices on how they get the best results from their mower. I’m quite satisfied with the results I get, but I had to try several things (and destroy quite a bit of lawn) before finding a solution that works. So here are some advices: If you can, docking station on concrete/asphalt or anything that is not grass. If you can, have your areas overlap around the perimeter an area it can’t destroy such as an asphalt entryway, concrete pathway. If 2) … ---
**Author:** ![Yarbo-Forum](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/yarbo-forum/32/126_2.png) [@Yarbo-Forum](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Yarbo-Forum)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 3:57am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/5 "2025-08-06T03:57:33Z")
Hi there, Sorry to hear about the lawn tearing issue. Yes, as some of our community members have shared, you can try drawing multiple deadends can help handle narrow areas. Please note that the machine may still perform a zero-turn before entering a deadend. Additionally, as mentioned in Micke’s thread, you might want to try using the spiral pattern, which may help reduce damage in tighter spaces. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/6 "2025-08-06T11:33:44Z")
Sorry to hear the product is damaging your lawn. Try some of the community work arounds as the update that introduced the behavior over a month ago is so complex Yarbo can’t unwind the damaging behavior in a timely fashion. Have you tried? - Tediously aligning the starts of multiple deadends to alignin with the algos approach angle to the dead end area or the the previous deadend - Remapping the NGZ boundaries from a different starting place to align with \*most\* of the algos approach angles - Making extra pathways and hack NGZs you manually switch on or off to spread out the damage of your _automatic_ mower? - Just don’t mowing that area - Mow those areas yourself - Hire someone to mow those areas - Place flagstone throughout your yard in the worn patches to avoid mud spots Despite all the apologies and escalations due to overwhelming feedback that our users don’t like the product ignoring a key damage preventing setting, we have no timetable for a real fix as the end of mowing season approaches and grass repair window closes. In the meantime, please enjoy all the promotional emails touting upcoming features and many “current” features that don’t actually work. ---
**Author:** ![duanejones043](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/duanejones043/32/1869_2.png) [@duanejones043](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/duanejones043)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/7 "2025-08-06T12:40:10Z")
I have the same problem. I have trellises for my grape vines and fruit trees. They are about 6’ apart. When yarbo mowes in between them it does a zig zag pattern that is really rough on the grass in the middle. I use the diamond setting but it also does this on the spiral setting but not as bad. I ended up just making that area a nogo zone and I cut it with a weed eater. ---
**Author:** ![bryan.wheeler](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/bryan.wheeler/32/215_2.png) [@bryan.wheeler](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/bryan.wheeler)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/8 "2025-08-06T20:13:03Z")
Have you tried making that its own area and then adjusting the angle to get the lines parallel with the space in the middle? ---
**Author:** ![cobradunn](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/cobradunn/32/298_2.png) [@cobradunn](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/cobradunn)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/9 "2025-08-06T22:11:43Z")
This is my favorite approach. ---
**Author:** ![Micke](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/micke/32/257_2.png) [@Micke](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Micke)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/10 "2025-08-06T23:10:02Z")
I failed to understand what you meant by now but recently I think I understand. You mean setting the angle and then hit preview until it aligns? ---
**Author:** ![Micke](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/micke/32/257_2.png) [@Micke](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Micke)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/11 "2025-08-06T23:22:45Z")
Ban the zero-turns… the only solution. Keep asking. they say they do it for safety… 1) not true; 2) let us decide. Put a disclaimer. I don’t care. Those zero turns are responsible for 80-90% of destruction… The non varying pathways probably the rest (but we have to see what happens once they ban those zero turns…) @Yarbo-Forum don’t you get it? We don’t want zero-turns when we disable them? ---
**Author:** ![bryan.wheeler](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/bryan.wheeler/32/215_2.png) [@bryan.wheeler](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/bryan.wheeler)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:41am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/12 "2025-08-07T00:41:07Z")
Yep, I have an area that it was zig zagging like crazy. Lots of little turns. I set the route angle in increments until I got it to run long ways instead of the short paths. I turned off route rotation degree and have that area static to the same pattern for every mow. Works great. It’s mostly ditch anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/13 "2025-08-07T00:55:38Z")
Today’s angle did enough damage here to follow that suggestion. ![Screenshot_20250806-175356](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/uploads/yarbo/original/2X/9/9c7c2bd6ca2c2f3aba1aba766e63b2bf76b9fb73.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![bryan.wheeler](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/bryan.wheeler/32/215_2.png) [@bryan.wheeler](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/bryan.wheeler)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/14 "2025-08-07T00:56:48Z")
you could potentially NGZ and dead end that if you wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Micke](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/micke/32/257_2.png) [@Micke](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Micke)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/15 "2025-08-07T01:07:03Z")
Dead end = zero-turn… might be worse… @Yarbo-Forum did we tell you that we DO NOT WANT zero-turn? ---
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/16 "2025-08-07T01:47:40Z")
I am still learning when/why it decides to zero turn between each deadend. At the moment I’m just migrating worn spots to the start of the dead ends… ---
**Author:** ![bryan.wheeler](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/bryan.wheeler/32/215_2.png) [@bryan.wheeler](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/bryan.wheeler)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 4:39am UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/17 "2025-08-07T04:39:49Z")
A dead end is just a type of pathway and it almost always zero turns coming out of or going into a pathway. It will also zero turn inside a dead end UNLESS that dead end is within an area. At that point when backing, it will use the entire area to do smart turns (if set to smart turns). ---
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/18 "2025-08-07T18:17:36Z")
Wouldn’t a zero turn inside a single dead end swing the mower outside the path of the deadend? ---
**Author:** ![Micke](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/forum.yarbo.com/micke/32/257_2.png) [@Micke](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Micke)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/19 "2025-08-07T18:30:41Z")
Zero-turns should not be mandatory. They should be left to the discretion of the user. Maybe add a warning stating that if smart turn is enabled it might go out of the deadend limits… So the user can either decide to accept the zero-turns (there are situations where you are less interested by the look, you just want to “clean up”. But in more strategic area, you may need a deadend to improve accuracy, but you could overextend the start and finish of the deadend to to enable a smart-turn… ---
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.yarbo.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407/20 "2025-08-07T18:33:12Z")
So when will a dead end have the unit back out the exact way it went in? [Next page](https://forum.yarbo.com/t/tearing-up-the-lawn/3407.md?page=2)