Thicker blades = slower tip speed?

[JDTank]

My BIL had a mowing business and always used others mowers and just charged for his time. Now he bought a big JD front mount and is done with mowing with other peoples junk, but has to charge more obviously.

He had a good friend who also mowed for money and was convinced by him to get a John Deere because he was mowing a bunch or other people lawns with a small "Brand X" mower. He was having trouble keeping it going and my BIL had to fix it for him all the time because he is handy with that.

So what he did, he went and bought a small JD, almost the smallest one he could find, but he was happy with it, surprisingly. Finally after a year of commercial mowing with it it started to fall apart on him and he began to complain and rant and rave to my BIL about how crappy John Deeres are, "It's a John Deere, it's supposed to last a long, long time." My BIL told him, not being used that way.
If you have a lot of lawn and rough lawn you have to get a bigger mower, like what you have in mind. Then it will last longer than a 1oo series or whatever the cheapies are.

Good Luck

I couldn't agree more.

The 100 series from John Deere is just a way to gain a foothold in the average joe big box store purchasing market. 80% of people will look for there riding mower at Home Depot, and never consider things like how thick are the front spindles, which transmission is in it, is it serviceable, etc etc. If you have a very small lawn to mow, and you don't do it all that often, sure, maybe a 100 series makes sense for you.

For even the average property owner I would not suggest anything other then a X3xx series machine, and only those with the K58 transmission assembly.

More or less, the 100 series is just there to make money off of, it isn't a true high end machine by any means.

 

[oldyellr]

Getting into this thread late, but the heavier blades will likely wear the belt more if there is any slippage when engaging the PTO. However, because of their greater inertia, they will slow down less when hitting a tough patch. Then again. if you hit a heavy patch and the blades slow down, they'll also take longer to get back up to speed. Another advantage of thicker blades would be better resistance against getting bent when you hit something. A disadvantage would be more metal to remove when sharpening.

 

[rsewill]

I may have to get one of those maintenance free Craftsman mowers next time and save a bunch of money over my Deere.

They are. The only value it holds is in the fresh oil, air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, and blades!

They never clean out there deck. It had been 5 years since the underside was cleaned. Needless to say, all that grass composting under there has rotted the deck to almost nothing. Believe it or not, the deck has not been removed on this machine in 5 years. I was the first one to take the deck off in 5 years time. They go 3 years before oil changes, or maintenance of any kind.

 

[JDTank]

I may have to get one of those maintenance free Craftsman mowers next time and save a bunch of money over my Deere.

:laughing:

Oh trust me, the lack of maintenance shows through. Drinks fuel like no tomorrow, and you have to mow so slow you could walk past at a normal pace. What should take 2 hours to mow takes 6.