Buying Advice Best mulching MMM for SCUT

[dieselscout80]

Diesel,

I think you are focused way too much on speed. If you are cutting step slopes, you'll have to lighten up on the foot pedal on any deck choice because you take more power to go up steep slopes. . . . Not to mention you were talking about 6 inch tall grass. But that would be no different with any normal lawn tractor or Zero turn.

Next, if you have "nice lawn" you should be cutting it when it's 5 inches or less (technically 4.5 inches to leave 3 inches). Which is why I gave you two quite different examples.

Next, we use absolutely no fertilizer. The lawn was designed for it, and so is my time. I mulch because it's good for the lawn and allows worms to live much close to the surface which is good for the lawn. I use some herbicides but zero fertilizer. This means I cut about every 6 days where many have to cut every3 because of fertilizer. I irrigate less often than my neighbors also.

Lastly, I have steep sidehills for my liking but I don't cut full speed on those either because I'm not in a race to get hurt.

Yes, on my less quality flat yard I can cut in either low or high gear but in high gear I don't go at full speed accelerator because it's washboard so I go in high but only mid accelerator.

I'm guessing someone is encouraging you to either get a standard deck that they have in-stock or a zero turn mower because you combine 6 inch height with "how fast". That's fine. But there is no way I can render opinions on your lawn density or quality because I can't see I and I don't know the growing conditions you establish for it.

What I can tell you is I have lots of small knolls and I don't have problems with scalping because my deck has 4 outside wheels plus a front roller and 3 hiiden rear rollers.

By the way, when I bought my mulcher I cost less than the standard 60 inch deck (they didn't have the drive on then).

In 3 years, I've sharpened the blades once at the end of each year and as a result I've never needed more blades (neither 3 or all 6 blades).

Axlehub, the speed question relates to the large flat spaces that we need to mow. It takes about 3 hours to mow all of our lawn.

My concern about the slopes is that in some places we mow near the pond are about 22° and have to be mowed across the slope not up and down.

Will a GC1715 handle mowing a 22° slope? I currently mow it with both my IH 424 with a Ford 74" 917 flail and a Husqvarna lawn tractor with a 54" deck.

I'm interested is knowing the low range speed to use a mowing calculator.

 

[Ron of Va]

I own the 54-inch Massey mulching deck. I do not recommend it. It leaves (pun) un-mulched leaves in the center of a swath. Note the photo where a single pass left a poorly mulched area.
I also have a JD with a 48-inch mulching attachment. It does a far superior job of mulching.

If you tow a sweeper behind, it will pick up most of the debris. (For what it is worth, Sears has their 42 sweeper on sale from $369 to $241 with an additional 10% coupon get if for $217. I bought one to store in the box for when mine wears out.)



Edit; They jacked up the price again. The sweeper price has been going up and down over the past few months.

 

[dalola]

My concern about the slopes is that in some places we mow near the pond are about 22° and have to be mowed across the slope not up and down.

I really hope you meant 22%. No way I'd mowing anything 22 degrees, that's 40+%.

I've had the best results mulching with just a blade change on the open chute. If you can find blades that are sharp for the full face length of the blade, you don't need to cover the chute or install baffles. Gator blades would be a second choice for mulching with an open chute.

 

[dieselscout80]

I really hope you meant 22%. No way I'd mowing anything 22 degrees, that's 40+%.

I've had the best results mulching with just a blade change on the open chute. If you can find blades that are sharp for the full face length of the blade, you don't need to cover the chute or install baffles. Gator blades would be a second choice for mulching with an open chute.

I laid down a 6' piece of angle iron and set a magnetic angle finder (see pic) on it and in most places it read 20°, but in one it read 22°.

 

[dieselscout80]

I own the 54-inch Massey mulching deck. I do not recommend it. It leaves (pun) un-mulched leaves in the center of a swath. Note the photo where a single pass left a poorly mulched area.
I also have a JD with a 48-inch mulching attachment. It does a far superior job of mulching.

If you tow a sweeper behind, it will pick up most of the debris. (For what it is worth, Sears has their 42 sweeper on sale from $369 to $241 with an additional 10% coupon get if for $217. I bought one to store in the box for when mine wears out.)

View attachment 546713

Edit; They jacked up the price again. The sweeper price has been going up and down over the past few months.

Ron, I’m not to worried about leaves, but I’m hoping to eliminate windrows of grass during mowing season.

Axlehub’s pictures look like the mulching deck does that.

Does yours eliminate windrows of grass?

FWI I’m not sure who said it, but someone mentioned in on tractor byte that letting the grass get taller helped when mulching leaves. We just hit our leaves with the regular deck with gator blades and that takes care of the leaves for us.

 

[Ron of Va]

Short answer, yes, it leaves a wind row in the center of the cut of un-mulched grass. Grass that has been cut, but not mulched. It almost looks weed whacked. Long pieces of grass that were just cut once and never touched by a blade a second time. Very strange

The outside blades of the deck mulch very well.

It is hard to see what I am talking about, but if you look carefully at the photos in this post, you can see what I am talking about. And this is one of Axlehub's posts. See the photo in #11
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...38765-new-gc1715-its-fine-its.html?highlight=

 

[dieselscout80]

I own the 54-inch Massey mulching deck. I do not recommend it. It leaves (pun) un-mulched leaves in the center of a swath. Note the photo where a single pass left a poorly mulched area.
I also have a JD with a 48-inch mulching attachment. It does a far superior job of mulching.

If you tow a sweeper behind, it will pick up most of the debris. (For what it is worth, Sears has their 42 sweeper on sale from $369 to $241 with an additional 10% coupon get if for $217. I bought one to store in the box for when mine wears out.)

View attachment 546713

Edit; They jacked up the price again. The sweeper price has been going up and down over the past few months.

Ron, I’m not to worried about leaves, but I’m hoping to eliminate windrows of grass.

Axlehub pictures look like the mulching deck does that.

FWI I’m not sure who said it, but someone mentioned in on tractor byte that letting the grass get taller helped when mulching leaves. We just hit our leaves with the regular deck with gator blades and that takes care of the leaves for us.

If our looks as good as Axlehub’s in the link you referred to we’d be happy.

 

[AxleHub]

Greetings Diesel,

I'm a little concerned about you doing sidehills at such steep angles (depending on angle definitions). My concern is 2 part. Part one is it being sidehill steepness is a different set of concerns compared to slope angles (going up and down). Now the gc1715 I chose specifically for my slope and side hill issues. However there's part two concern, that you have wet ground in that area. Remember that a Gc1715 with fel detached and essentially all weights taken off the rear, that a mmm is low slung (good) but still 245 lbs. Add to that 1433 lbs for the tractor and an additional 150+ pounds of rear wheel liquid weight. Meanwhile a lawn tractor will weigh 500 pounds. Around wet ground on a sidehill or near sidehill, the tractor will apply a lot of weight on the low side on sidehills and if that ground is wet or spongy, it creates some concerns for sinking in on the lower side and exacerbating an already steep angle.

Given your amount of cutting on sidehills and near pond, maybe you should consider a 3 pt finish mower with a wing on one side. That would allow for less laps in general as well as getting closer to your pond without putting wheel pressure in the lawn area of dampness or spongyness.

My rule in cutting on steep slopes and sidehill is. . . . "if it's wet, don't take the bet".

Also you are correct about leaves, grass grows a bit taller and then set the deck a bit higher and you can mulch substantial leaves as long as they aren't wet. Dry leaves make excellent mulch. Wet leaves make a mess.

If I were to do it again would I get my mulching deck again? Without hesitation and with certainty. . . but like all tools, it must be used correctly. That absolutely means that dense quality lawn does not get cut too short or wet and if it's just OK lawn you can cut 6 inches without problems. Too often people fertilize the heck out of a lawn and then it gets too tall on them and they cut too much height in less than fully dry conditions and then they don't want to double cut.

Professionals will tell you that double cutting is not an immediate return to quality of cut. . it's merely a way of fixing mistakes and then start the normal effort afterward to head toward correction.

Can I make my mulcher give a poor cut? Absolutely. I choose not to. Remember, I only cut every 6 or 7 days so I'm not the primper category. But you still have to use it properly. I choose to operate it properly to get decent results.

Everyone has to choose their own path.

Jmho

 

[dieselscout80]

Axle, currently I will not mow it if it's wet and a different mower will not change that.

This spot only gets wet from rain.

This steep slope area is about 80' long and from top to bottom is less than 30'.

I has one guy said he thought low range in the GC1705/10/15/20 was about 4 MPH does that sound right.

 

[AxleHub]

Axle, currently I will not mow it if it's wet and a different mower will not change that.

This spot only gets wet from rain.

This steep slope area is about 80' long and from top to bottom is less than 30'.

I has one guy said he thought low range in the GC1705/10/15/20 was about 4 MPH does that sound right.

Greetings Diesel,

I know I can go 4 mph in lo gear but that doesn't mean that is as fast as I can go. I typically cut grass at about 2500 or 2600 rpm (yes I could be doing 3000) - because it is one of the sweet spots on the engine/mulcher for both sound level and clean cutting. If I'm in thick grass that is higher than 5 inches I can choose to move it up to a higher level. I think you need to test drive a GC1715 (doesn't need to have a mmm attached) - and compare the speed in lo gear to the speed you are used to traveling when you cut. Then you'll have a much more accurate answer. Then and only after you've done that - shift it into high gear and vary the accelerator foot pedal to see how it compares.

The problem in attempting to calculate - is that you have a "mixed use" for cutting. You have slope and sidehill - and that's one speed of activity - and depending on how steep those slopes and sidehill are - may determine low or high gear for you - because you can go slower and still be in high gear if you desire. And then you have stretches of flat - and those could be cut in 2wd or 4wd and depending on your grass density and quality - will determine how fast you want to cut.

Speed of travel and power for cutting and climbing - are two different things - and you will have to be the judge how much accelerator pedal you use and in which gear.

You have to understand that the thickest grass (density) I have ever cut in 50 years is black sod Kentucky bluegrass. My measurements and timeframes are based on thick lush bluegrass as my measuring point. I also have lots of regular fescue and also clay sod fescue - and each of those is lower demand. I have no way of determining your lawn quality. On my other lot of 1 acre plus of clay sod fescue & rye - I could go full speed, high gear, full accelerator pedal thru 6 inches if I weren't limited by the considerable washboarding of that lawn.

My point is really simple - I can tell you many things about the GC units and mulcher - but I can't tell you what your result will be unless I was standing on on your lot - the variables are too great. I can tell you that I paid last year for a commercial lawn service person who is very experienced and not a kid - to use a $9,000 zero turn J.D. on my poorer quality lawn - and they had a hard time each time it was cut - not ripping sod on turns - and I have no problem what-so-ever and my unit is more than double their unit's weight.