Rear discharge finish mower vs side discharge

[dieselscout80]

I'll throw in my 2 cents on my experiences with mowers, both rotary and flail.

Rotary:
Bush Hog 5' 3 blade side discharge- typical SD windrow, great for windrowing leaves

Kioti 6' 3 blade rear discharge- the Best at a nice unnoticeable distribution of grass and even cut. Kioti is a rebranded something, not sure what.

Simca 91" 5 blade rear discharge- two distinct windrows coming out the back after removing safety chains. Wheels are at extreme ends so will scalp on uneven ground. (current machine)

Woods 7' 3 blade RD- still windrows with restricted rear discharge.

Woods trifold finish RD- similar to 7' Woods, remove safety chains to improve results.

Flails:

Ford 5.5' and 6.5' model 917 flails with single piece duck foot blades (fine cut)- even distribution of cuttings, same direction rotor rotation means poorer quality cut at higher speeds. Stripes. Little vacuum effect for picking up wheel tracks. Horse power hungry in tall (1' to 3') material (creeper speeds), bush hog ability in brush.

Ford 5' model 918H with 2 knife per station side cutter blades- For some unknown reason it leaves windrows (2 sometimes 3) while finish mowing. NOT horsepower hungry in heavy grass, roadside and brush mowing (run normal speeds). Stripes. Little vacuum effect. (current machine)

Mathews Company Lawn Genie 6' lawn pickup flail w/hopper- strictly a finish mower, has baffles on rotor to assist with suction and leaf pickup, able to bypass hopper and spread clippings. Stripes. The BEST finish flail I have used, even cut and even spread. Currently in storage and used mainly for leaf collection in the fall.

Hope someone gets something useful out of this.

Halftrack, can take some pictures of the baffles your Mathews flail has to increase suction?

 

[Halftrack]

As I said above, the Lawn Genie is stuck in the back of a shed till this fall, although I plan on listing it and will dig it out beforehand. I have attached a link to MC's website and the manual for the LG. Page 39 shows what they call a vacuum paddle and they list an additional kit with larger paddles. Mine does not have the additional paddles but does an adequate job with leaves and grass.

https://www.mathewscompany.com/uploads/1/1/5/5/115558437/lg268_lg60b_and_lg72b_manual.pdf

 

[pmsmechanic]

I had a Farm King 72" side discharge. I converted it to a rear discharge. I need to add baffles underneath to help spread the grass better but it's one of the best conversions I have done. I also added an anti scalping roller behind the middle blade. I cut my lawn mowing time by a third with the conversion.

For those that are curious I also have a 72" side discharge on an F-935. It whoops the Farm King in just about every way but being able to mow either direction. The John Deere cuts faster and uses less fuel than the Farm King on my 4410. If I mow with the flap up the John Deere leaves next to nothing for a windrow.

Edit to add that I also have a 72" Lawn Genie with a hopper. It works for cutting grass but the finish mowers do a better job. I also use it mostly for picking up leaves. I only paid $200 for it so it can stick around for a while.