Woods DS96 not very good in thick grass

[LD1]

This mower cuts phenomenal and very fast on my regular jobs. The ones that get done monthly or every other month. The 12" tall stuff. And when I say fast....that's 7mph.

Here is part of the 9 acre job I just did this morning. Full speed, medium range...7.3 more iirc



But the thing don't do so well in 3' high stuff. Not that it's lacking power cause I don't think 100pto hp would do any different. The deck just plugs up. The small opening in the back is not large enough to discharge to discharge the volume required. Not to mention the way the back is angled down where the tailwheel supports are. That eats up 3-4" of vertical open area.

I am considering cutting a little out. What do you guys think? I can always weld it back on....but really want to make this cutter more efficient in taller thicker stuff. Any other ds96 owners experience similar?

Here is where I am thinking about cutting on both sides. (Along the black line)

 

[Turbys_1700]

I had the same issue with my PRD 7200 and took the rear chains off...
It helped quite a bit...
My old Land Pride side discharge still did better dispersing the clippings than the PRD rear discharge...
Still like the PRD better though...
Don't see how you could go wrong...
You might want to cut a little out at a time and see what your results are...
I would go perhaps a couple of inches on each side to start with...
See if it helps and then go more if you don't get the dispersion you want...

 

[TripleR]

Probably won't hurt and certainly may help. We cut stuff up to 10' tall with our Woods DS 10' Woods and have no issues, but it certainly leaves residue in 3', we get a great cut and often mow a side yard with it. We use an M8540, but we don't mow as fast as you which I am sure would degrade the cut quality.

To get more mulching action, we cut with the rear of the cutter a bit lower than the front, but it take more power and goes against normal setup for rotary cutter.

 

[LD1]

Probably won't hurt and certainly may help. We cut stuff up to 10' tall with our Woods DS 10' Woods and have no issues, but it certainly leaves residue in 3', we get a great cut and often mow a side yard with it. We use an M8540, but we don't mow as fast as you which I am sure would degrade the cut quality.

To get more mulching action, we cut with the rear of the cutter a bit lower than the front, but it take more power and goes against normal setup for rotary cutter.

Yours even still has the rubber deflector on it.

On mine.....like I said, it dont seem to be speed or HP related, rather the clippings just have no where to go. Its like you can mow for ~8-10'......then you just hear everything load up. Like 10' worth of clippings are trapped under there. Continue going, and it almost sounds like running over a dirt mound, and you look back and see a big wad of grass and clippings kinda piled up. Rinse and repeat every 10' or so. And it does it even going extremely slow.....like 1-2mph. The tractor dont run out of power until the moment right before it spews 10' worth of clippings out the back. Then it loads up and boggs just a bit as I mentioned.

I have tried cutting higher, and running the back of the deck quite a bit higher than the front....like 3-4". No difference. Just not a large enough opening to disperse clips.

Heck, most 5' cutters have more open area in the back than this one.....and an opening that goes all the way to the deck surface, and not loose that 3-4" from that angled piece that reinforces the tailwheels.

 

[TripleR]

I can't figure it out either as mine doesn't do that and I mow everything from brush to pure stands of grass. I was actually surprised at how small the opening was on mine once I pulled a picture up, it's smaller than my 6'.

Having looked at all other factors, I'd be looking at the same option as you.

I had problems similar to your with my L5740 and LP RCR2672 with rubber rear guard and cured it by replacing the rubber with chains. I often mow along roadways with it and couldn't leave it open, so flow rate helped there.

Let us know how it woks out.

 

[LD1]

I can't figure it out either as mine doesn't do that and I mow everything from brush to pure stands of grass. I was actually surprised at how small the opening was on mine once I pulled a picture up, it's smaller than my 6'.

Having looked at all other factors, I'd be looking at the same option as you.

I had problems similar to your with my L5740 and LP RCR2672 with rubber rear guard and cured it by replacing the rubber with chains. I often mow along roadways with it and couldn't leave it open, so flow rate helped there.

Let us know how it woks out.

Are you running lift type blades? or just standard flat ones?

 

[TripleR]

Standard flat blades, we are on our second set. We run at full 540 with a high or low cut depending on the needs.

 

[LD1]

Might be the difference??? I got high lift blades.

Standard flat blades don't do as well on the 12" high stuff....that I do several times a year....like the job pictured. At least not at the speed I like to mow.

 

[TripleR]

Yep, high lift blades will do that, I tried them years ago and unless the grass was really dry, mine would do that and cake the deck pretty bad, made a heck of a racket when the clumps came out.

 

[ishiboo]

I have a Land Pride RCR2572 which obviously is 2' less deck, yet the rear opening is probably twice the height of your Woods. I would cut it above the blades, but leave a provision to add a rubber guard in the future. I have chain guards on the front but the rear is open.

I think if you cut it right about where the blade hits, the edge is going to be pretty beat where rocks hit it... but I might be wrong.