F Series Bagger / Grass catcher?

[toy1]

well I just got the F3990 back on Friday, it was 18 degrees out and a good 6 inch of snow on the ground with flurries in the air.
all new parts on the bagger, so into the carriage barn until spring.

 

[cold1313]

I'm still interested to see if I can run a similar setup, but just with the boot and blower...but now I'm worried that it would clog up when I get into taller grass or if it was damp.

 

[toy1]

Well I can tell you that when I did use it with the undersize pulley it did a ok job, based on the new pulley size I thing it will make a big difference, come spring I will let you know how it runs.

 

[Gkk20011]

sorry, I am joining in late but thought a reply might be helpful. yes, I have the grass catcher on a 2012 model F3680. I added it after the fact buying a used but good condition unit.
It works well but the concerns of many replies are valid. yes, it can clog if the grass is tall and/or wet. I would say forget it if wet. If tall, to an extent, you can compensate with a slower speed but I have been in such tall grass (knee high) where even very slow would not work. With regularly cut grass and dead fall leaves, it works quite well.
I wanted to mulch the clippings and dump the bagged grass or leaves in one area that becomes several truckloads eventually. It composts well and leaves great soil conditioner or for weed control.
I also used a mulching deck before, that serves the same purpose but leaves it on your grass.

 

[Gkk20011]

Don't forget, you really need hi lift blades as well. They create the suction needed. They are not perfect, you will not get every single dead leaf but you will get 99.8% of them.

 

[toy1]

Well it is that time of year my grass is growing fast and will need cutting in the next few day, I did take the F3990 out on a trial run to pick up some leaves left over from last fall and to my disappointment it did more to blow them and did a poor job sucking up the leaves, the first pass on the lawn it was very clean on the path I just made the second pass all it did was blow the leave into the first path I made and this just continued and I got concerned that this machine is a poor choice for a mower. I have a call into the dealer and have asked him if I have the proper blades for a bagging unit, he will be picking the machine up in the next day or so and will try different blade I will make sure he tries high lift blades if no I am thinking about telling him to take it back. I will say I have a very good dealer we go back 40 years, from the international Harvesters days.I will keep you posted, look like I will be using the exmark for now it does a supper job put does not do well in the blueberry field when I need to get close to the bush the F3990 does that very well.

 

[J H Musser]

Early in the spring I have been known to double cut an area. The FIRST TIMEI cut pretty low, maybe 2.5 inches without the boot connected to the deck. This produces LOTS of finely cut leaves and grass clippings and it also chops the twigs and smaller branches up into pretty small pieces and then I let them dry. A day or two later, I then put the boot on and go SLOW to pick up the overwinter trash. I dump everything on my fence line for my neighbors cattle or in my
tree line as mulch. The first time is a pain in the a**, but so is getting out of the cab and unclogging the suction line. Do not try and mow wet grass or you will clog constantly. Once you have raised the deck a few times, it is easy to get your lawn up to the height you want. I mow at 4.5 inches to keep dandylions from getting the chance to germinate. My front yard is 5 acres and a mix of cool season and warm season fescue grasses. Go slow and maybe don't even cut a full deck width. It took me about 30 hours of mowing until I figured out my machine. I hope you get your machine tweeked for your mowing purposes.

 

[toy1]

the latest update on my F3990 as I stated in my prior post, my dealer took the unit back to see if they could figure out what was going on with the cut, it appeared that the machine was blowing out more clipping then it was collecting in the bagger it was worthless on picking up leaves. So they put a new collector boot on the discharge and it helped but even with high lift blades it was not great, they then installed Gator
blades and what a difference, it made the machine in my opinion top of the line, if I compare it to my Exmark with bagger which I consider a great machine, the F3990 I would rate as good if not a notch above with theses change, I took it thru foot high grass cut and bagged without a hitch, no clogging and a perfect cut.So my advise if you are buying a F series with bagger do not settle for the boot that comes with it and get gator blades.
this has been a long journey however in the end it worked out fine, this is a good reason to make sure you have a good dealer and will stand by you when there is a long road ahead. My dealer is a family business where I purchased my first tractor in 1975 and would recommend them to everyone.

 

[J H Musser]

Do you happen to have a part number for that newer upgraded boot? Gator blades chomp!!!!

 

[toy1]

the booth is from a trac vac it is a metal boot the thing about it it extends 1/2 inch lower then the bottom of the mower where the Kubota one was flush to the bottom and the kubota had 3 vents in the front which I would tape up.in the next day or so I will take a picture of it os you can see the actual set up.