Home Built Mulching kit?

   / Home Built Mulching kit? #1  

hazmat

Elite Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2002
Messages
4,051
Location
West Newbury, MA & Harrison, ME
Tractor
Kubota L5460HSTC
Anybody modified their deck for mulching? The leaves are starting to fall & I'd like to shred them more so I don't have to pick them up.

I have a New Holland 914A 60" Rear discharge mower. Each of the three blades have a circular shroud. It is deepest at the front and lower in the rear. It is lowest in between the blades.

My plan is to get some aluminum (easy to work with) and build up the shroud so that the back is the same height as the front. I would bolt it on w/ 1/4-20 hardware. I would leave it stock between the blades. I flipped the deck over last night (sorry no pics- too dark) and there is room to add the sheet metal on the outside of the stock shroud.

Question: Do most mulching decks "share" the clippings between the blades? What thickness aluminum do I want to use? I need to be able to form it into a 21-22" diameter circle w/o special tools.

It needs to be removable because I am very happy with how it worked in the spring & summer. Just looking to shred the leaves up so I don't have to blow & tarp them.
 
   / Home Built Mulching kit?
  • Thread Starter
#2  
Follow up question. I did a search here on mulching blades. The "gator" brand got some bad reviews. On lawnsite they get good reviews for leaves, but OEMs are considered better for just grass.

Anybody here use the gators in the fall?? Comments? My plan of attack is to go with stock rear discharge for spring & summer & then transform into the mean mulching maurader/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif come fall.
 
   / Home Built Mulching kit? #3  
Hazmat, I got a set of Gator blades for free last year (friend in the biz) for my riding mower. My wife laughed, having tried to mulch leaves with a mower before. Our yard looked like it had been touched up with compost when I finished - they were great. It did in some instances take 2-3 passes, but, that was generally where the leaves were a foot deep. As for grass, they worked just fine. All in all, they were much better than the OEM's. In fact I changed them out yesterday as the boss has been known to hit a rock or two or a hundred!
 
   / Home Built Mulching kit?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Dob,

What kind of deck are you running them on? Is it a mulching or side discharge? How big? How many blades? How much HP? Thanks for your input.
 
   / Home Built Mulching kit? #5  
Hazmat,
Remember, this on my riding mower.
It's a:
yardman 42' cut dual blade
side discharge, but with mulch plug installed, no discharge really
16.5hp Kohler

Hope this helps.
 
   / Home Built Mulching kit?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Dob,

Thanks! Maybe some of the guys with bad experiences can articulate their problems so I can make a balanced decision.
 

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