Deere Toyz
Member
Hi all-This forum has been a great resource and is in many ways responsible for my love and loyalty to all things the correct shade of green. I have owned 3 Deere tractors, with my current being a rock solid 2520 with FEL, 62D green deck with Deere blades, blower, plows, york rake, etc. My previous 2210 was a good one too. I need the 2520 primarily for grading a long driveway, snow work, the garden and processing fire wood for the wood stoves(it helps stacking about 7 cords a year). I also have used it for 8 or 9 years now cutting 2 1/2 acres of lawn. The 62D required a TracVac to achieve a groomed look. The cut was pretty good and looked a lot better than the neighboring lawns, but the amount of grass processed would leave heavy grass clippings undispersed every other pass. The TracVac is great and took care of the issue when I use it. However, that process took about 4 hours to complete the lawn with light trimming. Now to the point of this thread.
This year I went without the TracVac and just left the clippings to save time. That cut the mow time down to about 2 1/2 hours with a light weed wacker trimming. The lawn looked good when cut, but the 2520 is a heavy machine and I decided to deal with the tire depressions in the lawn that I had become used to and accepted. I thought, time for a Zero turn to compliment the 2520 and other green gear. I wanted a Deere. It had to have a 52" to 58" deck to fit my trailer. All of the Green dealers had stock, but all available units had the 62" 7 iron decks. I looked at the Scag Tiger Cat and the Ferris IS2100z's as well. I made my mind up to spend some cash and my beloved green was not immediately available. I lost sleep. I found myself dreaming of infidelity and the color was RED! I could not believe I actually got seduced by the red one with suspension and the oilguard Vanguard. I was feeling a little guilty.
Now here we go. This year, up until last weekend, my 2520 took care of business but all of the grass clippings for the year would still seem to rise to the surface as the grass grew. It was all over the tractor after cutting--I mean quite a bit. I assumed that this was the nature of big deck cutting. I cut once a week at about 4 3/4 inches as the weight of the 2520 would sink into the turf a little. I will figure out how to post pics from an i pad and show you the amount of grass that was left on the machine . Well, I took the Ferris out for a spin last Saturday and All all the grass clippings from the entire season disappeared! The ICD deck ate up and dispersed all of it. The lawn looked like it had been gone over with the Trac Vac. Cutting time was easily halved, if not more. And, I was a newbie nimrod figuring out zero turn operation for the first time!
I read all of the forum posts here and elsewhere about the ICD decks and wet grass, caking decks, etc. I have the luxury most of the time to avoid cutting wet grass. I vacillated over JD vs Scag vs Kubota vs Ferris vs Xmark. Man, I sort of wanted them all. I love my JD but I have to say adding a little bit of red, while initially painful, seems to have been the correct decision for me.
Has anyone had similar experience with the 2 belt ICD deck's cut and ability to really finely process the clippings and is the 7 iron deck that much different from my 62D? I am toying with the idea of getting a 7 iron for 2520 just in case the Ferris needs servicing at some point.
Anyone else engage in Green infidelity? Is my soul damned?
This year I went without the TracVac and just left the clippings to save time. That cut the mow time down to about 2 1/2 hours with a light weed wacker trimming. The lawn looked good when cut, but the 2520 is a heavy machine and I decided to deal with the tire depressions in the lawn that I had become used to and accepted. I thought, time for a Zero turn to compliment the 2520 and other green gear. I wanted a Deere. It had to have a 52" to 58" deck to fit my trailer. All of the Green dealers had stock, but all available units had the 62" 7 iron decks. I looked at the Scag Tiger Cat and the Ferris IS2100z's as well. I made my mind up to spend some cash and my beloved green was not immediately available. I lost sleep. I found myself dreaming of infidelity and the color was RED! I could not believe I actually got seduced by the red one with suspension and the oilguard Vanguard. I was feeling a little guilty.
Now here we go. This year, up until last weekend, my 2520 took care of business but all of the grass clippings for the year would still seem to rise to the surface as the grass grew. It was all over the tractor after cutting--I mean quite a bit. I assumed that this was the nature of big deck cutting. I cut once a week at about 4 3/4 inches as the weight of the 2520 would sink into the turf a little. I will figure out how to post pics from an i pad and show you the amount of grass that was left on the machine . Well, I took the Ferris out for a spin last Saturday and All all the grass clippings from the entire season disappeared! The ICD deck ate up and dispersed all of it. The lawn looked like it had been gone over with the Trac Vac. Cutting time was easily halved, if not more. And, I was a newbie nimrod figuring out zero turn operation for the first time!
I read all of the forum posts here and elsewhere about the ICD decks and wet grass, caking decks, etc. I have the luxury most of the time to avoid cutting wet grass. I vacillated over JD vs Scag vs Kubota vs Ferris vs Xmark. Man, I sort of wanted them all. I love my JD but I have to say adding a little bit of red, while initially painful, seems to have been the correct decision for me.
Has anyone had similar experience with the 2 belt ICD deck's cut and ability to really finely process the clippings and is the 7 iron deck that much different from my 62D? I am toying with the idea of getting a 7 iron for 2520 just in case the Ferris needs servicing at some point.
Anyone else engage in Green infidelity? Is my soul damned?