BX Owners: What deck number do you cut grass at?

[Henro]

Hi,

Just a curiosity question...

I never bothered to figure out what the deck height numbers mean. But my grass cutting is always between 3 and 4. I see significant difference between 3, 3.5 and 4. Today I cut at 3 which is not my normal number. Normally it is 3.5 or 4. It is just that the current weather seems right for rapid growth so I am being more aggressive than normal.

Level setting 4 is used when things are dry and I just want to maintain height of the more robust weeds.

Actually I said grass cutting, but reality is that we have short weeds that look like grass when cut... :laughing:

So...what is your favorite deck level number when cutting whatever you may have on the ground at your place?

Bill

 

[davesl708]

I set my deck with a height gauge. My BX is 13 yrs old and has 1400hrs on it so I set the height to 3.5 to get 3" cut. Set at 3 gets me 2.5" due to wear.

 

[dgraves49]

I was cutting at 3 but just replaced the lift arm so now I cut at 2 3/4
Our yard is nice and level and smooth. If it were rough or hilly I would probably go to 3.5

 

[dieselcrawler]

2.5 for me... never compared that to actual cut hight, and some times drop to 2, but that scalps the yard in a few places. Wife likes it cut short...

 

[TripleR]

I used 2 1/2 for years, but got tired of sharpening nicks and went to #3.

 

[HeLa]

i cut to ~3.25" and use one of THESE

grass should be cut such that no more than 1/3 of the height is removed at once (i.e. cut the grass before it reaches 5", for 3.25" blade height)

my wife likes the grass cut short as well, but i find a taller cut better at keeping weeds at bay.

 

[Al Mac]

3 when the grass is growing and 3 1/2 when it is dry.

Al

 

[nikerret]

3 or 2.75, is what I've done. My yard is so uneven with small hills it doesn't matter. I've also found i like the gauge wheels higher than manual recommended. In fact, 60" is too big for my uneven terrain. No matter how I drive around, I have high spots and lot spots, with grass height.

 

[Henro]

I just checked my mower deck settings and it drops in .5 increments to 1, and then the next step is zero.

I don't have a clue how these numbers relate to actual cutting height, but I cannot imagine going less than 3.0 in my application. For me, Zero would probably be cutting the dirt and having a brown surface everywhere.

I have no complaints as I can find a setting that works for me. I just don't know how to equate the number I choose and the height of the grass after cutting.

As a sidenote, I started putting 20 pumps of grease into each Spindle rather than 10 pumps every 10 hours. I changed my mower blades this spring it it seemed like I needed to put a lot of grease in before it started coming out the bottom of the spindles

Bill

 

[JWR]

I use 3.5 setting on the MMM on my BX2200. However, the wheel height makes a lot of difference too. If the deck is already riding on the wheels, letting down your lifting point say from a 4 to a 3 makes no difference (of course.) Should note that some Kubota decks are designed to be ground riders and others are designed to be suspended and use the wheels only for anti-scalp purposes. The best deck I ever owned is a MMM on an old B2150. It is a ground rider designed to run on the wheels. Does a better more consistent job than the deck on my BX2200 which is designed to run suspended from the tractor.
Those numbers are intended to be inches (I think) but I have not found any close connection between the numbers and measured inches of ground clearance. To me they are just relative.