Well that worked rather well - wish I had done something similar years ago:
Yep, incredibly wet this year, like driving on a blancmange. I attempted the first cut of the year yesterday, in absolute desperation. I only managed to cut most of it, what was left, took hours of struggling in wellies, with a strimmer - too wet to drive on.
For when it's a bit less wet, I tried a small, hinged, alloy deflector at the outlet, where you fitted your modification. My version, made the choking worse - I fancy trying your version this time around.
For a regular push mower, I've found wedging a piece of batten or similar to partially open the flap that would normally cover the hole where the grass box goes works wonders. If you aren't collecting the grass it blows it out the back enough to clear the mower, meaning it won't clog up underneath the machine. By partially wedging it open the flap directs it downwards behind the mower for the effect you describe, and avoids twigs or stones being thrown up towards you.
Makes it so much easier to mow as well, because the clippings don't build up underneath and snag the blade.
Theo
You're doing better than us. Our garden is so sodden that I've come close to losing a shoe simply by trying to walk to the shed. Mowing/strimming is simply not happening.
There was a patch on our lawn where the grass grew very long and very thick, but the ground was too wet even to walk on (with a walk-behind mower) let alone to risk driving my ride-on mower across.
I waited as long as I could for the ground to become less squelchy and then cut it first with a strimmer to get it as short as possible to help the ground to dry in the sun and wind, and then eventually I went over with the walk-behind mower to collect as much as possible before (when I dared!) cutting it with the ride-on mower which mulches.
I've raked up as much of the thatch of grass that cutting created but which was not collected by the mower, but that whole area looks as if it has been attacked with a flame thrower and then liberally trampled by hundreds of people. Hopefully it will improve as the year progresses.
Fortunately most of the lawn was dry enough to drive the ride-on across, after a few walk-behind cuts to begin with. Some parts are bare earth where our pond filled so full that it flooded patches of the adjacent lawn and killed the grass, but that will gradually re-grow. It's just this one area that grew incredibly long and was luxuriant green at the tips but yellow and rotten-looking at ground level - the colour that grass cuttings go a couple of weeks after cutting the lawn, but still attached by roots in the ground.
I have been waiting weeks to be able to have any chance of driving on it. It was still soft going but I could at least move without getting stuck... Just wanted another few dry days, and, it rained again today!
I was trying to impede the air flow as little as possible - and also make it a gentle ish curve. I was not holding out much hope, but it did seem to do the job.
Some bits of mine were like that last week... That's the thing about clay soil - it seem to go from too wet to too dry in the space of a fortnight :-)
The deflector does work rather well :-)
I made one this morning!
I cut the curve on a 12" radius, from some scrap block board. For the curved panel, I used a piece of scrap, thin alloy sheet, just tacked onto the edge of the block board, with galvanised roofing nails. Like you, I fixed a piece of timber along the top, using a couple of steel L brackets, then (like you) tested it with a couple of spring clamps...
It worked, so the next trick, was to find a way to keep it in position, but still allow it to be hinged up to unclog the duct when it did become blocked. My first idea was to add hinges, but instead simply installed two 6mm roofing bolts, fixed onto the flat steel bracket that the timber rests upon, thread protruding up, so it simply retains the timber in place, rather than bolted through the timber. That way, the deflector can simply be lifted off, without need for any tools at all, or hinged up to clear the duct.
The next trick, is to devise some way to confirm the blades are actually rotating, without needing anyone to look, whilst I remain seated on the tractor. Maybe a strong magnet, fixed to a rotating part, passing a coil, which generates enough current to illuminate an LED?
I did contemplate a more "sophisticated" solution, but figured I will probably only need it for one cut per year, so will probably stay with the spring clamps.
I find mine makes significantly more noise with the blades running - not to mention the sound of the airflow from them.
Also I got fed up with most of the interlocks, and have defeated the ones that "require" someone be sat on it, that the grass collector be fitted, and possibly the one that stops the blades running when in reverse (can't remember if I knobbled it or it just stopped working).
That makes it much easier to clear a blockage now - I can get off with the blades running and poke a sacrificial stick down its chute to wiggle the stuck grass enough for the airflow to blow it free.
Or a white mark on the PTO pully, and an optical RPM sensor of some sort?
Say a LED illuminator, a photo transistor, with its output charging a cap feeding your indicator etc. Or if being fancy stick and arduino in there to drive a LCD panel and show a real RPM.
(or magnet and hall effect sensor)
Normally when I notice it sounds like the blades are running a bit slow, it indicates that the deck belt has jumped a pulley somewhere and is dragging on something it should not be. Last time the blue smoke and smell of burning rubber was also a clue! So I took the deck off, bent the reversing pulley spindle upright again, and took the chance to weld up any other bits that showed signs of cracking where they fix to the body of the deck.
We used to have a very good local gardener, who had had his gangrenous right arm chopped off during his time working on the Burma Railway during the war. We had a self-powered walk-behind mower, and he had made some simple changes to be able to use it more easily with only one hand. After he died, I took the mower out to use it myself, and found that it now failed unsafe, i.e. if you let everything go, it would just continue on at the same speed as it had been going, instead of stopping.
Beware of bypassing safeties. I understand the feeling, but they are there for a reason, and ones that prevent the blade rotating are particularly important, however awkward in use.
With a "self propelled" traditional mower, that could be an issue certainly. Less so on a ride on that needs a foot on the accelerator to keep it moving.
Indeed - but often that reason is not an actual concern about safety, or at least one that will apply in all cases.
Much depends on your use cases...
The only case I can see where having the blades stop without a rider present would be particularly important, is if you need to mow on slopes or near to drops etc, where the mower could slip, fall, or tip over and there would be scope for you to end up under it. On flat open spaces, there does not appear to be any particular risk.
The interlock to stop mowing without the grass collector fitted is presumably only there to stop you spraying grass all over the place. In this case that was what I wanted (and to be fair it would have been easy to make my redirector actuate that interlock if I had not already disabled it for other reasons)
The reverse operation interlock perhaps makes it less likely you will reverse into something you can't see - but again it seems to be more of a nuisance that an benefit if there are "dead end" areas that you need to drive into and reverse out to mow, or narrow strips with inadequate space to turn. In both cases you still need to use reverse - just more often if you can't cut a second strip on the return movement.
My Hayter ride-on has no interlock associated with the grass catcher or reversing, so I don't have to worry about them. It is puzzling, though, in that the speed while in reverse is faster than the slowest forward speed, so precision back-and forth operation can be 'interesting'. The engine stops if the rider leaves the seat, and the only occasion I want to bypass that is when I want to use up the fuel in the carburettor, and I can keep pressure on the seat while getting off it to close the fuel valve.
Mow safely....
In message <v00epn$3lrdb$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Davey snipped-for-privacy@example.invalid writes
Hmm. There are safeties and *features*..
I use a Jonserad ride on mower which has endless *Swedish* safety interlocks. Poking a twig down the outlet duct with the cutter running might be a step too far but:-
Special start switch position for reversing with cutter engaged? Why?
Interlock preventing operation without the cuttings collector fitted? Why? Mine has a Croc clip in the toolbox to overcome this issue.
Drivers seat interlock seems reasonable as does starting with the brakes engaged.
The thing they missed is a fuel stopcock! High mounted tank overfills carburettor while parked leading to an exhaust explosion when next started. I also fitted a fuel filter to mine.
>
Is it a geared design? (mine is a so called "hydrostatic" one - basically belts with "throttle" adjustable tensioner - so you an go same speed forward or reverse)
The engine stops on mine if the seat lifts (it is hinged at the front), so would still stop of the mower tipped enough. However I took off the print that pushes it up a bit when weight is not applied.
About the worst mischief I have managed was to get it to try an ingest a manhole cover... it did not like that. The manhole cover was not impressed either!
Mine used to have a bamboo cane tied under the levers that are pushed up when the collector is fitted. I worked out in the end, that just unplugging the lead to the microswitch was enough to disable it.
Yup mine has a starting brake interlock - odd thing is that the mower does not actually have any brakes :-)
Mine had a filter as standard, but no fuel shut off.
Yes, 6 speeds forward, one reverse. We had a 'Snapper' in the US that had a rubber-tyred disc that ran in and out on a rotating disc driven by the engine, to give a DAF-like transmission. It seemed horribly crude, but in fact worked well.
The design on mine is pretty crude as well:
How about a bold upgrade :-)
Mine is similar to John's, and I found the safety interlocks completely OTT. Like John, I defeated the cutting collector safety. It also cuts the engine, if you try to reverse with the PTO engaged for the deck, as I have one area, where I have to shuffle back and forth several times to cut it, I ended up defeating that too - I could think of a valid reason to need that.
Like John's it has one where it cuts the engine, if you leave the seat, but fail to put the handbrake on. I have so far, left that in place.
Doesn't applying the handbrake, allow you to do that?
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