What Side to Discharge Grass Clippings?

JackIL · Jun 23, 2001

Glenn,
The "stripped effect" is produced by mowing as you described. This pattern of just moving over one swath width is commonly used by professional grounds maintainence operators. Their mowers may or may not have the full width roller but it still produces the same effect. In addition to the Simplicity units you mentioned, two others are Steiner (www.steinerturf.com) and Ventrac (www.venturepro.com). By the way, these 2 are compact articulated units that have many of the desirable characteristics you noted in your recent post about tractor design.

hayden · Jun 24, 2001

I always discharge to the already cut side, but for a different reason. I believe tractors, like any well designed machine, is meant to do hard work, and one shouldn't heasitate to work it hard (but never abusively), so for me it's not about strain on the tractor.

I find that if I discharge on the uncut side, the next pass discharges both the new cut and the old cut. This is a cumulative process and eventually you might as well be raking hay into rows for a baler.

If the grass it too high to fully cut without leaving excessive clippings, I drive slower or cut more narrow swaths. You can also cut more often and enjoy more tractor time.

glennmac · Jun 24, 2001

With high grass and to avoid long clippings, you can of course mow it once with the deck set high and then mow it again with the deck set lower. Again prolonging the experience.

looch · Jun 25, 2001

Glenn,
Sorry for the delay, out of town. I don't think I was clear enough in my explanation of my mowing pattern. Say you a have rectangular section of lawn 100' North to South X 200' East to West. You're mowing along the 200' length. Make one pass down the middle at the 50' mark from East to West. Turn 90 degrees and travel South (not mowing) to the 0' mark. Turn another 90 degrees and mow back along the 0' mark from West to East. Turn and travel North up to the 55' mark (assuming you have a 60" deck), turn and mow. Let's say your discharge is on the right. Your middle paths will be discharging into the uncut side and the "edge" paths will be discharging into the cut side. Depending on how thick the grass is, when I'm mowing the middle section I will skip rows. Mow 55', skip 60', mow 65', go back and mow 60'.
Working this way, I slowly make my across the lawn. I'm not particularly concerned for the appearance of my lawn, as long as it is cut. This method makes half the lawn look different from the other. It's the most efficient way I can think of to get the job done. If you find that the travel distance in between mowing paths is too great, break it down into smaller rectangles - say, just enough to turn the tractor around comfortably.

glennmac · Jun 25, 2001

As a result of this thread and my related one on the side discharge chute, I mowed my two acre lawn in a new pattern yesterday. I used the alternating row, "striping" pattern with the chute up. I'm glad I misunderstood Paul because I like the result a lot. Each blade gets cut and then gets recut on the next pass. But since the discharge alternates row to row, there is not the continuing build-up that Peter describes. There is even a subtle stripe effect. I like the look a lot. The downside is the sharp turns at the end of every row--but that is why God invented hydro.

One problem I found is that I apparently can't drive in straight lines. I now need to invest in a tractor mounted compass, gps and laser guided surveyor's transit.

skent · Jun 26, 2001

I ALWAYS had that problem when planting corn. My corn rows (and beans and potatoes) were all crazy looking. I would make the first pass and then try to guide off of that for the second pass and so on. Then I learned to fix your line of site on something beyond the end of the garden, like a tree or shrub, and head straight for it, trying to forget what the planter is doing (or in your case the mower). It works real good. Now we have nice and STRAIGHT corn rows. I taught my daughter the same method when cutting grass. It's improved her rows too.

Steve

Bird · Jun 26, 2001

Steve, I guess you know the same thing works with driving a car; drive as far ahead as you can see instead of trying to look at the road right in front of you and you'll stay centered in the lane better.

Bird