54'' deck on X700 series.

[JDTank]

I purchased my X700 in September 2012, and I am very pleased with the performance. I ordered it with a 48" deck which cuts better than my old TroyBilt Wide Cut. I selected the 48" deck due to the steep road bed that I can side hill cut, and because the deck is only a couple of inches wider than the tractor I can climb on or off the the slope without the ends of the deck digging into the lawn. I am running JD mulching cutters along with the mulching kit. Trimming around the flower beds is not an issue... YES I am very happy with the set-up!

The only other downside to the 48'' deck besides it's small width is that you cannot use front fenders on the x700 series with a 48'' deck. For some people they don't care, but I can say now after taking delivery of my tractor without them, and then installing them 2 weeks later, I won't ever go without them again.

 

[jenkinsph]

I agree, keeping grass at least 3" long gives you all the benefits Gittyup mentioned. I wish my lawn would grow as fast as the OP's. I can't get mine to grow fast enough. There is nothing more relaxing to me than cutting a nice thick lawn on a sunny day.

In the summer I will cut my grass in the evening where I can finish cutting it just before it gets dark. Takes me about 1 1/2 hour to cut everything. I have three sections to mow so I start the watering as soon as I finish the first section this takes about 10 hours to run through all the zones. Mowing in the evenings is less stressful on the grass from everything I have read.

 

[Carl Bert]

In the summer I will cut my grass in the evening where I can finish cutting it just before it gets dark. Takes me about 1 1/2 hour to cut everything. I have three sections to mow so I start the watering as soon as I finish the first section this takes about 10 hours to run through all the zones. Mowing in the evenings is less stressful on the grass from everything I have read.

Hmmm interesting, I really never thought about the time of day you mow being more or less stressful on the lawn. Makes sense I guess.

10 hours of watering, you either have a large lawn or you do some deep watering. I do 45 minutes per zone, times 9 zones comes to just under 7 hours. I don't know what your area charges for water, but doing that every other day around here brings my water bill to over a grand a year.

Jenkins if I remember right, you recently wrote a post about top dressing a lawn. I don't remember if you were making an implement or buying one to do it. I need to do it to my lawn this year and was thinking about using this manure spreader. What do you think?

Newer Spreader

 

[Mechanized ME]

Hmmm interesting, I really never thought about the time of day you mow being more or less stressful on the lawn. Makes sense I guess.

10 hours of watering, you either have a large lawn or you do some deep watering. I do 45 minutes per zone, times 9 zones comes to just under 7 hours. I don't know what your area charges for water, but doing that every other day around here brings my water bill to over a grand a year.

Jenkins if I remember right, you recently wrote a post about top dressing a lawn. I don't remember if you were making an implement or buying one to do it. I need to do it to my lawn this year and was thinking about using this manure spreader. What do you think?

Newer Spreader

Wow, and I wait until late afternoon to mow my lawn so I don't dirty the mm deck or the tractor!

 

[jenkinsph]

Hmmm interesting, I really never thought about the time of day you mow being more or less stressful on the lawn. Makes sense I guess.

10 hours of watering, you either have a large lawn or you do some deep watering. I do 45 minutes per zone, times 9 zones comes to just under 7 hours. I don't know what your area charges for water, but doing that every other day around here brings my water bill to over a grand a year.

Jenkins if I remember right, you recently wrote a post about top dressing a lawn. I don't remember if you were making an implement or buying one to do it. I need to do it to my lawn this year and was thinking about using this manure spreader. What do you think?

Newer Spreader

Carl,
I don't have much faith in this unit doing a good job, I suspect a better manure spreader would yield much more satisfactory results. Metering out the compost isn't that simple.

 

[Carl Bert]

Carl,
I don't have much faith in this unit doing a good job, I suspect a better manure spreader would yield much more satisfactory results. Metering out the compost isn't that simple.

Yeah I was afraid you were going to say that. I'm glad I held off. Even when I spoke to the salesman, he didn't seem absolutely sure that it would work. He was more like "yeah it should work ok with top soil", not very reassuring. I wouldn't mind spending the extra bucks on an actual Top Dresser, but they are just too big for me to store.

I guess I'll have to just dump and spread the top soil with my plow or maybe a York rake. My only concern is, I want to apply it thin enough that the existing grass can still grow through it. Thanks