OK. Winter is finally setting in up here in VT. I've got a lot of lawn - 3 acres - so I keep the grass pretty high. Half of that has a lot of large, mature trees and I have a lot of leaves that build up. Noticed last year that when the grass is high, the leaves tend to get gummed up which doesn't look so great and makes spring cleanup a challenge. Decided this year to wait until most of the leaves are down. (****! Those big oaks are stubborn!) Dropped my finish mower down nice and low today, and started mowing. Noticed pretty quickly that the leaves wouldn't go under the mower while going forward. However, my Frontier GM1072 is rear discharge with the chains, so I tried backing up. It did a great job! Two problems. 1. My neck hurts. 2. 3pt hitch clearly isn't made to push. Broke the cotter pin on the iMatch due to excessive side load. Any recommendations on an easier way get the same result without the neck strain?
Welcome to TBN! :thumbsup:
I have a rear discharge mower, that is mounted on my FEL arms. So I can see the leaf buildup in front of the deck that you mention.
As others have mentioned, next year, as soon as the leaves start to fall, lower your deck and mow the grass shorter in prep for the leaves.
As to this year, again, as others have mentioned, raise your deck as high as you can and make a pass over the leaves, then drop it down and make more passes.
One of the things I don't like about rear discharge is that you can't widrow leaves or grass...
On the other hand, one of the things I like about the rear discharge is that it does NOT leave a windrow! :laughing:
Can't have your cake and eat it too. :licking:
If there are a lot of leaves, and I don't want to leave them on the lawn, I tow a lawn sweeper cart behind me and pick up most of the mulched leaves and dump them in my composting area. Then as fall progresses, I'll just chop up any stragglers and leave them on the lawn.