That’s another thing, Rear Engine or Front engine?
What are the advantages of both?
This mower I buy will only be used for mowing, not pulling wagons or plows................
Also depends on how big or the size of the lawn. They have push/self propelled also I think.
The rear engine ones have a drive plate about 8” in diameter on the bottom of the engine. The way you “switch gears” is to move the driven wheel out towards the outside of the drive plate causing the driven plate to turn faster.
The driven plate turns the pinion gear of the differential. There is no transmission per se to fail.
Only issue I have had is that if you get it all real wet, it might not want to pull itself.
I don’t know how much it would matter in the grand scheme of a mower, but having the engine over the drive wheels will add some traction.