50" LT1050 Deck Clogging, What Blades?

[NickTF]

I'm having excessive clogging with my LT1050's 50" deck equiped with the "3 in 1" blades. Is there a blade out there that deals with weedy grass a bit better and at taller heights? I refuse to cut a yard at the cruise control speed I'd fall asleep doing it lol. At the same time i'm not cutting that fast either. This mower only has 14 hours on it so the blades are sharp as could be. Just looking for a better blade option as I think it will make a huge difference in this problem. They don't have to be mulching blades. Thanks.

 

[dqdave1]

I do not understand "cruise control speed, I will fall a sleep". Cruise can be set at about any speed. You should be mowing at WOT. and set your speed to what you want.

 

[NickTF]

Everytime I try to engage cruise control it will only engage so high when cutting. The highest it will go is "turtle speed". I always mow at WOT.

 

[JTKub]

No such thing as WOT on a mower. The engine will only max out at a nice easy max governed RPM, which is where you should always be mowing at, especially with a hydrostatic drive system. Anyhoo, you've pretty much already answered your own question. One of 3 things is probably happening; 1) You are mowing at too fast a ground speed, 2) You are mowing with the deck too low, 3) The grass is too wet. My guess is you are letting the grass get too high, or the deck is set too low. The 42"-50" decks will clog easily. Probably easier than you are used to. Heavy-duty, commercial decks have HUGE outlet shoots, the 42"-50's do not.

Joel

 

[dqdave1]

When I had my 1050, it would let me set cruise wherever I wanted.

 

[micman32]

I agree with JTKub. I have a 44 in deck on my 2518 and if the grass is wet or too long it tends to plug up. I don't think the type of grass you are cutting makes any difference in regards to the blades.
My guess is you are cutting too high grass at too low a setting.

I also think the cruise control is a joke. I used it a couple of times and wasn't impressed with it!

Michael

 

[NickTF]

No such thing as WOT on a mower. The engine will only max out at a nice easy max governed RPM, which is where you should always be mowing at, especially with a hydrostatic drive system. Anyhoo, you've pretty much already answered your own question. One of 3 things is probably happening; 1) You are mowing at too fast a ground speed, 2) You are mowing with the deck too low, 3) The grass is too wet. My guess is you are letting the grass get too high, or the deck is set too low. The 42"-50" decks will clog easily. Probably easier than you are used to. Heavy-duty, commercial decks have HUGE outlet shoots, the 42"-50's do not.

Joel

Ofcourse they're governed, WOT in the sense of the maxiumum governed speed.

The 50" deck's outlet is about 90% of the front to back length of the deck which is why I was further shocked to realize this deck clogs so easily. I even removed the discharge gaurd to help a wee bit more as it seems to catch grass toward the back of the discharge.

I cut my neighbors yard and mine and because he's decided to save money I'm only cutting his every two weeks. I cut mine weekly. Yes I know my neighbor's is too **** tall but don't want to not do it for him either. I just figured a machine like this could get through it. Guess I was wrong. Was hoping there would be a blade better suited for this type of cutting and figured maybe a low lift blade would work better. The gras seems to want to clog up in the upper portions of the deck which suggests to me the lift has a large part of the clogging in this machine. I tried cutting his yard at the highest setting and no dice, it still clogs.

 

[JTKub]

Nick, another thing you could try is adjust your cutting deck so it hangs slightly nose down. The blades make a cleaner cut that way, instead of trying to plow through the blades of grass. I've seldom had a clogging issue with my 44" on my ~1.5acres of closely-cropped weeds, but I cut with the deck fairly high. My gauge wheels rarely touch the ground. Oh.. yeah, that cruise-control is a joke. I tried it for about 50ft once and never used it again. It's so easy to regulate ground speed it's a useless appendage IMO.

Joel

 

[NickTF]

Nick, another thing you could try is adjust your cutting deck so it hangs slightly nose down. The blades make a cleaner cut that way, instead of trying to plow through the blades of grass. I've seldom had a clogging issue with my 44" on my ~1.5acres of closely-cropped weeds, but I cut with the deck fairly high. My gauge wheels rarely touch the ground. Oh.. yeah, that cruise-control is a joke. I tried it for about 50ft once and never used it again. It's so easy to regulate ground speed it's a useless appendage IMO.

Joel

Ok, maybe i'll give that a whirl!

Yeah, I only tried the cruise control to see what speed Cub Cadet "recommends" I cut on lol. The **** with that, it's rediculous. Have to consider that's for mulching too though so ofcourse it will be very slow. I agree, the speed is very easy to regulate, these hydrostatic trannys are the best thing since bottled beer!

 

[dqdave1]

What blades are on it now? I used high lift blades from CC that came with the bagger and also used standard CC blade that was original equipment. Each type produced different results. Maybe "gator" blades?