Re: BX 60\" MMM mulch plug project
Mulch plug update:
Spring has finally arrived and along with it came time to try out this brand shiney new 60" MMM & the mulchplug project I started many moons ago. I had actually tried it out in a very limited fashion last week with pretty good results but this update is based upon the
BX23 w/60" MMM & mulchplug mowing the entire 2.5 acres.
Prologue:
The
BX23 & 60" MMM did even better than I anticipated. The ride, comfort, manuverability, power & cut was better than I had hoped. It's one thing to read & study up on how a machine will perform and an entirely different sensation to see it, touch it & feel it. And at the $$$'s I dropped for this machine, you just don't know how happy I am it performed as advertised /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Positives:
I mowed with the mulch plug installed the entire time and I didn't notice any lugging of the engine nor clogging up of the deck. At a setting of 2.5" there was very little blowout/blowby from the front or sides and that includes some leftover leaves from last fall.
I ran over some dead twigs & very small branches and the blades made short work of reducing them to shavings. If the plug was made of anything lighter thoses twigs would have either dented the plate or perhaps even broken through.
The bungee cord held tight without any slippage or sign of the hooks being jarred from the anti-scalp wheel brackets they were connected to.
I found a few spots w/some accumilation of fall leaves and it chopped them up pretty good. I did have to make a few passes on the larger piles to reduce them tho. This just may do for fall cleanup.....
Negatives:
I had to slow down quite a bit once I got into the thicker growth inorder to cut down on the row of clippings being deposited on the side discharge/mulch plug side. That is common for all mulching decks but I'd say I had to go slower than a similar 60" MMM with a factory mulch kit installed.
I also had to overlap when cutting the rows inorder to cut down & disburse the row(s) of clippings from the previous cut. This isn't unusual for std mulching decks either so I can live with this also.
Epilogue:
The grass was wet somewhat and not nearly as thick as it will get later on but for the 1st cut of the spring it did pretty good.
And taking into considering that I used std blades as opposed to mulching blades, I have reason to think the performance can be refined moreso with the edition of these blades should the need arrise. As with mulching in general I'll have to keep up on cutting and not let the grass get anymore than 1" higher than the height I cut at inorder to mulch effectively. If the grass does get away from me and become taller between cuts then I can simply remove the plug and go to full side discharge and only use the plug to keep the clippings off of the deck, patio & driveway.
So after the 1st full cut of the season, the mulch plug performed well enough to earn further usage.
Volfandt
