BX Finecut Mower- Gator Blades

[simoutdoors]

Mostly happy with my 54" finecut deck with mulching kit on BX2360. I do find that if grass gets long or isn't dry it seems short on lift. The cutting sare very fine and it is great when we have dry grass and I keep up with mowing. Without the mulching kit in the lift is better, but I don't like the clippings. I have checked blade torque and keep up on deck maintenance.

Anyone use the gator blades with the mulching kit?

Should I ditch the mulching kit and just do gator blades with the side discharge?

 

[Scooby074]

Im having the same issue.

The front wheels are crushing the grass and the deck doesnt have enough suction to lift the grass back up for cutting. I can see my tire path for the full time until i mow the next time.

Im using the P deck (54 finecut) with the mulch kit and factory mulch blades.

I bought the pro deck because my dealer said it was the better cut. Im rather disappointed in the Pro deck.

Dealer isnt much help other than suggesting that i run at WOT and lower the deck. I like to mow at 3.5" but now have dropped down to 3". It seems to have helped a small amount but its lower than i like to mow at.

my old 54" on my Deere was 10x the mower this one is. Hopefully there is a solution out there.

 

[OrangeRidge]

Don't hold your breath guys ! The fine finish deck front contours
render it a useless deck . Should have bought a standard version.

 

[Scooby074]

Don't hold your breath guys ! The fine finish deck front contours
render it a useless deck . Should have bought a standard version.

Wonderful!

I wanted the standard 60" but the dealer talked me into the 54p. Said it was a much better deck And i even had to wait ~2 weeks for it to come in.

I pray there's a solution. My dealer wont likely take back a used 54p deck!

 

[mjpalmer]

I don't think the standard deck is going to make that much difference. I have the 60" deck and went to a high lift blade. They are not standard for the BX and require a spindle spacer. The whole size is 1.125". These blade work a lot better than the low lift standard blades that come on the machine.

 

[Danner]

My 54" fine cut deck (no mulch kit) on a BX2660 has been very good for mowing the lawn. However, I have used it a couple time to cut back a pasture with knee-high Texas grasses and it couldn't produce a good finished cut. Not a problem really, but I was a bit surprised.

 

[Scooby074]

I don't think the standard deck is going to make that much difference. I have the 60" deck and went to a high lift blade. They are not standard for the BX and require a spindle spacer. The whole size is 1.125". These blade work a lot better than the low lift standard blades that come on the machine.

Are these factory blades?

Im not sure what the exact difference is in the mulch blades, but they looked higher lift than the original 54 blades.

 

[Scooby074]

I had some time to kill so i mowed part of the lawn.

Done at Wide open throttle (34xx RPM) cut at 3", low range 4 wd. driving very slow

heres a couple pics. notice the uneven cut particularly on the corners. This same lawn was cut with my x540 at a much faster pace with no issues. it came out nice and flat.

Hopefully the pictures will show the problems im having with my cut. I might create a thread just to detail my issues so as not to sidetrack the discussion on gator blades.

In the following picture it looks nice and flat with decent striping, however looking carefully you can see the grooves where the tire tracks are.

 

[Scooby074]

I started a thread to discuss the overall issues with the Fine Cut deck's cut. I didnt want to derail the Gator Blade discussion, however it might turn out that GB's are a solution.


The thread i created to discuss Cut issues can be found here:

Problems with Bx "Fine Cut" rck54p23bx deck cut - TractorByNet.com

 

[shrekbelly]

just my own two cents. most all of the commercial zero and walk behind mower decks are "deep decks," holding greater volume (of air & grass, allowing high blade tip speeds to better stand the grass up before it's cut). i previously mowed with a commercial toro z master 100. it gave a beautiful cut. the fine cut deck on my bx2360 also does a nice job. i also try and cut a bit high. 3.5" hoc, however at 3" the cut looks better . . . due to the increased vaccuum of the deck being set lower.
i should be in jail for the neglect i've put our grass thru (especially since i'm a true turf and equipment junkie). what kind of grass are you mowing? in south eastern pa, am working with a turf type tall fescue blend and some bluegrass added.
currently, i use the standard blades with the 54" p deck . . . if i were to go to a gator blade, i would not use a mulch kit blocking plate on my deck . . . and pray i get the time to cut with greater frequncy.

good luck - shrekbelly