Mowing Kubota Rear Discharge Mower

[littlediesel]

I have a Kubota F3680 front mount with a 60" rear discharge mower deck. I bought this deck because of safety reasons. I had a couple of close calls with a zero turn throwing objects. The problem is that the rear discharge cut quality is terrrible. The deck windrows and clumps the grass. I am not looking for a great cut, just some improvement. Does anyone know if the muching kit would help? Kubota has a mulch kit available for the rear discharge deck for a cost $300. I would appreciate any thoughts or experiences.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

I have a F2680 with the 6' RFM rear discharge and the cut is great and it lays the grass down level/spread out on the cut area. I've used it for 2 summers and have never even sharpened the blades. I don't have mulching blades or baffle. Sounds like something is wrong with yours. Is yours new? How long have you mowed with it and has it always done this?

 

[Couple of Achers]

I have the same mower and deck. There is no doubt that in really tall grass and especially with leaves in the fall, it does have a tendacny to wind row the clippings. If I don't let the grass get really tall, I have had no problems. I also mow the grass at 3 1/4" height during the summer. By mowing the grass taller and more often, I have never had an issue.

 

[art]

Rear discharge decks will cause windrowing between the blade ends when cutting to much.

I found that this past year for most of the mowers that I had at home for a good job with the cool weather and the rain that the longest I could go was five days!!!!
That was right into September with a mowing in October with it really needing a four day rotation depending on the mowers that I was using.

Our local school also uses a Kubota with a 72" and they too had to be on a five day to six day schedule at best and they had some windrows from all three of there mowers.

 

[whistlepig]

I have to keep the deck relatively clean on my rear discharge. Not sparkly clean but if there is a couple of clumps the size of my fist in the wrong places it will cause it to start wind rowing. I also have rear safety chains that I clean after every mowing. Air has to be able to get underneath to the wind tunnel in these mowers or they won't evenly distribute the grass. I think this may also be the case when the grass is too tall. It won't allow the wind tunnel to work like it should.

 

[littlediesel]

Thanks guys for all your comments. It was much appreciated. Have any of you guys tried gator blades on your rear discharge mowers? Also, what do you think about the mulch kit option? Would that stop the windrowing?

Thanks,
Jon.

 

[Couple of Achers]

Thanks guys for all your comments. It was much appreciated. Have any of you guys tried gator blades on your rear discharge mowers? Also, what do you think about the mulch kit option? Would that stop the windrowing?

Thanks,
Jon.

I've never tried Gator blades, nor have I tried the mulching kit on the the F3690, but it has been my experience with mulching kits, to get a decent looking mowing job, you need to mow more often than with non-mulching mowers.