Rear Discharge Decks

[LDPosse 2]

How well do the rear discharge decks disperse grass clippings? I saw they were available for the 200 series lawn tractors.

My 30" single blade deck does an awesome job, but my 37" side discharge tends to leave clumps of grass in the yard. I saw a rear discharge deck for a 200 series for sale locally and was thinking about picking it up.

Thanks!

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,685]

I've seen the 42"RD decks with and without baffles in them. The one I had did not have the baffles and it did not disperse the clipping well at all. Makes me the think the baffles are nessasary for speading the clippings out evenly.

Mike.......

[Forest Road 594]

I removed the mulching baffles from my 42" rd. I used to leave tiny clippings. Now it leaves quite a mess. It gets used at the vacation house so im not to concerned. At home I'd reinstall the baffles and run a sweeper behind it.

[Doorvip 1]

I'll stick with my SD with a bagger cause I love stopping to clean out my tube.

[tomtractor 71]

My rear discharge does a good job. It spreads the clippings nice and even. With a sweeper it works really great.

[lobo 22]

I will have to agree with Tomtractor, I have a 42"RD and with my 42" sweeper it does an outstanding job.

[JackC 616]

I use the rear discharge only on areas where I need to mow near vehicles or gardens.

I have decks with and without baffles.

The baffles are OK as long as the grass is not wet or too long.

If I could have only one deck it would be a side discharge.

If it leaves clumps I just go over them.

[Hydro 130]

I've had both SD and an RD. The RD without baffles really does not discharge, it pretty much leaves the clippings where they were cut. The only advantage I see is you can mow from either side of the tractor and flowerbeds, walkways, driveways are not an issue.If you want clean you need the sweeper.

[dcrage 621]

Also remember that a RD would be the way to go if you have to do some real heavy "brush hogging" -- SD really adds to the deck load when cutting thick heavy 'pastures' -- Especially on the first 2 or 3 passes before you get a cut area made to discharge in

[LDPosse 2]

Thanks for the replies! I think I might look into getting the RD deck, seems like it might be a good option to have on hand!

[KC9KAS 4,741]

My regular mower (a Simplicity) took a dump a couple of weeks ago (hydro went out), so last week I mowed the entire acre with a push mower.

Wife laughed at me 'cause I have 8 horses in the barn and none were ready to use for mowing.

Well, yesterday I removed the snow plow from the 654 and put the RD mower on it for the 1st time (in my ownership) and proceeded to mow the lawn.

I was amazed at how well it cut the grass and how nice the grass was spread out the back. I did borrow dads lawn sweeper and ran over the lawn and most of the grass was cut so fine that I didn't get that much in the sweeper bag. I was pleasently surprised, and will use it for the mowing.....guess I need to take the tire chains off of it now!

[GlenPettit 1,714]

The use of "Gator Blades" with the high-lift fins on the back really improves the throw and spread of clippings, especially on 42" RD without the baffles.

Also, consider leaving the original blades on, lower and at 45º, so you'll have six blades cutting with 12 edges, equals finer clippings.

[leeave96 487]

I'm a little late to this discussion, but reading - I see several of you folks mention baffles for the rear discharge deck. I've never seen these. My 42 inch RD deck began life as a recyler. I promptly pulled the recycler baffle and have been using it as a rear discharge deck - but no baffle. I looked at parts tree's diagrams of some random 42 inch RD decks, but didn't see any baffle. Can someone post a deck model number I can use to look-up this baffle and if someone had a pic of it, that would be great too.

To the OP, I like my RD deck. It does a fine job, I can mow on either side, it doesn't stir-up a bunch of dust when moving over dirt/driveway and I can sweep while mowing If I choose.

Thanks!

Bill

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,130]

I went searching, some where on here there used to be a picture of the RD decks with the baffles, not the recycler baffle but a separator for the 3 blades on the RD deck. I couldn't find it. I have both SD and RD. The RD is by far more versatile AND doesn't throw clippings in front of the tractor like the SD does. Mine is also a recycler with the recycler baffle removed. The clippings do not get dispersed evenly out the back, but more concentrated on the right side. When the grass it tall and wet, the RD will plow right through when the SD will get plugged up.

[LDPosse 2]

I ended up getting a fairly nice 208-4 with the 36" rear discharge deck. The deck doesn't have baffles, but it seems to disperse the clippings pretty well. I picked this machine up for my parents. I'm tired of wrenching on their perpetually broken John Deere LTR166. The deere just has too many overpriced plastic parts to break, and it tears up belts like they are going out of style.....

Here are a few pics of the new horse!