General lawn mowing with 54” deck

   / General lawn mowing with 54” deck #1  

jpilk99

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
358
Location
Bolton, MA
Tractor
1983 Ford 1700, 4WD, 770 Loader, Woods backhoe, Woods brush hog,etc.
Get ready to laugh, but in the last 20 years of owning a few nice riding mowers with 54” 3-blade decks, I hadn’t ever noticed the distinct “line” left between blades (see pics). Why am I just seeing this now?

Obviously the blades can’t overlap, they’d hit each other. Is the deck height so low that I’m only noticing the slight height difference between blade rows? I’m right where I usually have it at 2”.

Only way (it seems) to get a nice even uniform cut is to go up n back over the same cut areas but try and line up so I mow down the raised up stripes…. Again, never had to do that before.

Thanks for any suggestions/answers.

Jay
 

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   / General lawn mowing with 54” deck #3  
My guess is that you don't have your blades mounted correctly. They should be mounted like this: -/- Thus, they'll never clash and 'no line. Perhaps you even have the incorrect length blades?
Just a note however, I have two such mowers and never had them leave lines as you've shown. And, of course, I've gone through a lot of sets of blades on those two mowers.
 
   / General lawn mowing with 54” deck #6  
Deck angle and height.

It's too steeply angled front to back and off level
 
   / General lawn mowing with 54” deck #7  
Also, Low and dense grass like crabgrass will look like that after a cut, particularly when the sun is low in the AM or PM.
 
   / General lawn mowing with 54” deck #9  
Agree with all of the above - had the same issue with my Cub Cadet, and it was out of level, and blade tips were worn down. I havent used that mower since 2010, and use a ZT instead.

The other factor is height of cut, 2" is really short for New England now with drought we have in coastal NH, you should be cutting at least 3.5" or 4". I cut at 5" the last month to keep it from browning out,
 
   / General lawn mowing with 54” deck #10  
Tire pressure has always been the issue with mowers I have owned and used.
Having tubeless tires on lawn mowers has always been a problem for mowing
and holding snow and ice chains.
 

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