Inverting Mower Blades

[tarcoleo 119]

As a result of a senior moment, I installed sharpened blades on a 48" deck upside down.

I attacked a lawn that had grown out control because of continued very wet conditions

this spring not knowing that the blades were axbaxward.  Low and behold the grass and

weeds were layed down as a grassy mat, not cut.

 

Had anyone done this under conditions too tough to mow?  What if the back edge were

sharpened (in addition to the front edge) and run upsidedown.  Would that enable the

tractor and deck to partially or moderately cut the growth without binding or loading the

deck up?

Edited June 21, 2017 by tarcoleo

[Ed Kennell 40,673]

I have never met an overgrown lawn that a WH could not handle.   Just raise the deck and use Low gear at wide open throttle.

 

[tarcoleo 119]

Did that, very tough going, build up and binding underneath.

Have about a 1/2 acre of lawn that was flooded long enough

to produce 20" of hay.  Still wet.  Thanks all the same.

 

Using C chassis with 13 hp Honda clone, 48" deck.

Edited June 21, 2017 by tarcoleo

[Uncle Buck 246]

46 minutes ago, Ed Kennell said:

I have never met an overgrown lawn that a WH could not handle.   Just raise the deck and use Low gear at wide open throttle.

 

You must not have been trying to slay that grass with a twin blade rear discharge deck. I will grant you, it will cut high grass but not very well. The results look wind rowed like some 100 year old binder had at it!

The only way I have found to have satisfactory results using my Lawn Ranger with twin blade rear discharge deck is to cut the grass before it gets very high, otherwise the results have always been quite disappointing.

 

Do not mistake my unkind comments about the grass cutting abilities of my WH as distain for the brand. I love the brand and have 5 machines and multiple attachments to prove it. Grass cutting with my WH has been the one huge disappointment in my WH experience.

 

Sorry to be the negative guy.

 

[Jerry77 1,218]

27 minutes ago, Uncle Buck said:

Grass cutting with my WH has been the one huge disappointment in my WH experience.

I don't think you are negative - just realistic -most any brand machine will cut grass - I usually use big box store stuff for cutting grass - my wheel horse is for everything else, which the box store stuff CAN'T do..mine is 29 years old and still going strong...

[Thisguyisnew 114]

Cut some very tall grass with a c-160 42 inch deck. Do results very by series?

[EricF 589]

I have a 48" side-discharge deck on my 520H and have some sections of my lawn that grow thick and tall. No problems cutting through it with the , where my old Bolens suburban had difficulty. Very little wind-rowing with the Wheel Horse deck, although the I have the discharge chute guard intact and attached -- it does seem to be the only cause of what little wind-rowing I get, only when the grass is taller and thicker than ideal for cutting. It's been said here on the forums that removing the chute guard (lots of decks have it missing anyway) or holding it up with a bungee will stop any wind-rowing -- the deck does a good job of dispersing the clippings. With the blades nice and sharp, the cut it leaves behind is smooth and even whether the grass is dry or damp. I do tend to adjust the travel speed slower for thick patches. Hydro transmission is getting me "spoiled" for that!

 

Getting the deck angled correctly to have the blades about 1/8" lower at the front than the back seems to help a lot with a smooth cut. That's not just for Wheel Horse decks, I've seen similar recommendations for others as well. I can cut thick, tall grass effectively with less need to overlap passes as much with the  than most any other tractor I've had.

[Tankman 3,520]

Seat time. Mow often trying to never cut off more than 1/3 of the grass when mowing.

[Ed Kennell 40,673]

4 hours ago, Uncle Buck said:

You must not have been trying to slay that grass with a twin blade rear discharge deck.

 

You are correct Buck.    I would never use a rear  discharge deck in thick high grass.  I only use my rear discharge decks later in the summer when the grass is thin and slow growing and I do not plan to collect it.

I have 48 and 42" decks, but early in the spring when the grass is heavy I prefer to use the side discharge  42" to windrow it and then clean it up with a sweeper.

My 42" SD on the Raider 12 regularly mows the tractor paths between the fields and has mowed an abandon property that had not been mowed for two years.

3 hours ago, Thisguyisnew said:

Cut some very tall grass with a c-160 42 inch deck. Do results very by series?

Without a doubt,  not all tractors perform alike.       The C-160 with the 42" SD deck  is one of the best mowers.   Plenty of power to handle the heavy tall stuff and the 42" decks extend out beyond the tires enough to make trimming easy.

[AMC RULES 37,153]

7 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

...and has mowed an abandon property that had not been mowed for two years.

 

 

[ohiofarmer 3,353]

Edited June 22, 2017 by ohiofarmer
Add text--10 Horsepower 42" SD two passes

[lobo 22]

I mow several acres and use this product and I must tell you that it really works. Just clean your deck well ( I use a wire wheel) then just spray it on, blades too. Did it last year and still no build-up or sticking, set or dry, tall or short. I got it at Bailey's Outdoors.com.

[Uncle Buck 246]

14 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

You are correct Buck.    I would never use a rear  discharge deck in thick high grass.  I only use my rear discharge decks later in the summer when the grass is thin and slow growing and I do not plan to collect it.

I have 48 and 42" decks, but early in the spring when the grass is heavy I prefer to use the side discharge  42" to windrow it and then clean it up with a sweeper.

My 42" SD on the Raider 12 regularly mows the tractor paths between the fields and has mowed an abandon property that had not been mowed for two years.

Without a doubt,  not all tractors perform alike.       The C-160 with the 42" SD deck  is one of the best mowers.   Plenty of power to handle the heavy tall stuff and the 42" decks extend out beyond the tires enough to make trimming easy.

I have decided the real issue is the rear discharge deck. I think if I was able to fit my LR with a side discharge deck I would have no problems at all.

16 hours ago, Tankman said:

Seat time. Mow often trying to never cut off more than 1/3 of the grass when mowing.

Agreed, that is the only way to get a decent job with a rear discharge deck. It is just a shame that such a fine looking and running machine when equipped with a rear discharge deck simply put just performs so poorly when conditions (taller grass) demand more and better performance.

[tarcoleo 119]

My original post suggested that the mower blades were upside down resulting in the long grass being matted down and not cut.  WRONG!

The belts were crisscrossed thus reversing rotation direction resulting in matting down.  There may be a purpose to this where conventional

cutting doesn't work.  We'll see.

[Dakota8338 115]

I purchased a 42 inch rear discharge mower, because I wanted to pull a sweeper behind the tractor to collect the grass clipping all in one pass.  I did purchase a Craftsman's sweeper, but it was a huge disappointment.  Small sticks and sweet gum balls would cause the sweepers tires to slide which caused the paddles rotating the sweeps to stop rotating.  The tires were just a shell and sliding quickly wore them out.  The things were $40+ each back in the early 80's, but I did replace them once.  Then tried using weight on the sweeper, which helped some, but it did not eliminate the sliding problem completely.  When the second par of sweeper tires needed replacing, I abandoned the sweeping thing completely.  The rear discharge desk does not/will not discharge grass clipping from underneath the deck, therefore cutting tall grass with a rear discharge deck presents problems.  The side discharge deck handles taller grass and weeds much better.  I have had both, and based on my experience, would never purchase a rear discharge deck again.  

[953 nut 58,216]

The best deck for tall grass is the older (early to mid '60s) gear drive rear discharge decks, they were like a bush hog!

[Ed Kennell 40,673]

On ‎6‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 6:21 AM, AMC RULES said:

 

Here Ya go Craig.....I found this while deleting some old pics.     That is my Raider 12 w/ 42"SD mowing the two year growth.