Parallel or perpendicular blade orientation when mounting 3 blades to a mower deck?

   / Parallel or perpendicular blade orientation when mounting 3 blades to a mower deck? #31  
My retired neighbor who mowed twice a week was really complaining about how his mower was cutting.

I had an atv/ mower lift and a cordless impact, so he brought his mower next door to my garage to change the blades.

I jacked up the mower climbed underneath the deck with the impact and started laughing.

He asked what was so funny, and I passed him out his first blade.

They used to be mulching blades. But were worn completely flat and extremely thin, and half the width of the new ones
I can top that story. One day I was rushing to mow my yard before it rained. After installing newly-sharpened blades I began mowing. The 2nd pass I noticed the 1st pass looked terrible, so drove back to the shop and jacked up the ZTR. When I looked under the deck I immediately saw the blades were installed upsidedown.
There_ now I've said it
 
   / Parallel or perpendicular blade orientation when mounting 3 blades to a mower deck? #32  
I can top that story. One day I was rushing to mow my yard before it rained. After installing newly-sharpened blades I began mowing. The 2nd pass I noticed the 1st pass looked terrible, so drove back to the shop and jacked up the ZTR. When I looked under the deck I immediately saw the blades were installed upsidedown.
There_ now I've said it
Neighbor did that once as well

I spent a weekend aligning my deck, got everything perfect, and then when I tested it out, the bloody thing would mow crooked again. (Thought my son had hit something with it)

Back to the garage, and realigned it again, just to have it mowing crooked again.

Asked a coworker who used to be a landscaper about it. His reply "usually when it's mowing crooked, a tire is soft".

My reply "Son of a Bi##h!!!!!"

Got home and found the left front tire was soft.

Before you do anything, check the bloody tire pressures
 
   / Parallel or perpendicular blade orientation when mounting 3 blades to a mower deck? #33  
Neighbor did that once as well

I spent a weekend aligning my deck, got everything perfect, and then when I tested it out, the bloody thing would mow crooked again. (Thought my son had hit something with it)

Back to the garage, and realigned it again, just to have it mowing crooked again.

Asked a coworker who used to be a landscaper about it. His reply "usually when it's mowing crooked, a tire is soft".

My reply "Son of a Bi##h!!!!!"

Got home and found the left front tire was soft.

Before you do anything, check the bloody tire pressures
That happened to me the first time I used my SIL's ZT. Told him what a piece of crap it was and how horrible the cut was. Aired up the tire and all was good, I had a tasty dish of 🐦‍⬛
 

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