I have given up on trying to get the tractor mower to collect the clippings, it has just been far too wet the past couple of years - the cuttings just stick in the collection duct and build up until it extends into the cutting deck then jams the blade. The jammed blade then wrecks the drive V belt.
My first mod, was to fit a flap diverting cuttings from entering the duct, but even that choked up. So what I have done now is take the duct off completely.
Anyone else having issues with their mowers jamming up due to the constant wet weather over the past two years?
Well, many are around here, and short of fitting some form of warm air dryer to the front of a mower, I cannot think of a fix for the mulch that is created by cutting wet grass.
Yes, on Saturday. No rain for 2 days(!), waited until mid-pm. Grass was about 4" long (needed doing a few days earlier, but...) but is that 'rugby pitch' stuff - grows big and thick. Started at no. 3 (Honda motor mower), clogged up, hammering noise due to out of balance. Cleared it, went to no. 4 and managed to finish, then went over it again on no. 2. Then cleared a couple of kilos of clag from underneath - it was pretty solid and took about 10 min. to do. The cuttings don't clear the outlet and clog up an adjacent inlet, thus further reducing airflow. I must try to do that area more frequently - it hardly grows for a week then, while I'm not looking, sprints upward. Oh, to make it worse, it's a neighbour's garden, not mine!
My old Hayter ride on used to clog if I went too fast, but the current Mountfield seems to cope no matter how wet the grass is. It came with plug that goes in the discharge chute if I want to mulch rather than collect and even with that in it cuts wet grass quite happily.
I do make a point of cutting mine at least weekly, perhaps you are not doing it often enough and its getting too long?
It needs it's first cut now but it's far to wet today. It's about 6" but we only ever cut at the highest mower setting which is probably about 3". Cricket pitch or bowling green it is not...
Have you tried cutting it with the collector disengaged (if your mower can do that), leaving it for an hour or two (in dry weather) and then going over it to collect the dry cuttings?
Grass is 85 or 90% water, drying the cuttings for a while should make it easier to collect.
Yeah, but if we leave it until we've had a few dry days in a row, most peoples grass will be about 6 foot tall.
We usually mow out lawn every fortnight, tuesday afternoon, because that's when the recyc bin is emptied, and the following day it's collected again for garden waste,
My GF got the strimmer out and had got half way around the edges when it started hailing, that buggered up that plan.
We finally got the grass cut yesterday, it was still partially wet, but we had no choice, the dog turds were getting lost in the grass and overlooked,
GF made a start with the hover mower, then it discovered a cows hoof the dog had taken out and dropped in the grass, one bent blade, but thankfully the drive belt didnt go as she turned it off the second she heard the rattle (i got the mower off ebay for next to nothing, last owner had ran over a rock, but must have kept power on, as it melted then shredded the belt.... not that he knew that, sold as totally kaput for spares only, i had the exact same mower but with broken switch levers and a cracked deck, so i swapped the bits over from mine to make one good mower.
Anyhoo, i got a new blade from Been & Queued (if the belt had gone i'd have been stuffed as they dont seem to stock them) and blimey, what a difference, i was emptying the collection basket almost every run up the garden, before it was a good 6 or 7 runs before it was full, and even tho the grass was wet the new blade sliced through it nicely, i had attempted to sharpen my old blade, but prolly got the angle wrong or something.
When the mower began to clog the deck i just wobbled it side to side and most of the mulch came down, shredded by the blade and then picked up by the suction inlet as i went over, maybe that's a little to do with why it dosent clog that much, as it collects the grass by sucking it up after the deck has gone over it, i.e. the inlet for the hover fan is at the back of the deck, and sucks through the collection basket, hence grass clippings and the occasional light weight dog turd are sucked up nicely, but the wet stuff dosent get to clog it up as it's not blown in like most mowers do.
If mulching is the object and the grass is long and wet then a flail mower is the ideal solution to getting a good finish without clogging.
Sadly most lawn tractors don't have a PTO or a three point link so they can't make use of such things. John Deere apparently do, but most things with "lawn" in the description are built down to a price.
Just a few inches down, it is heavy clay, so we can't even attempt to go on it until it is dried out after the winter. The first attempt at cutting in mid April saw it jam up and it burn the cutter belt out. The third attempt last week saw the main drive belt fail probably due to age. So when the replacement for that arrived, which is quite a job to fit, I decided the choking up duct would be better taken off.
The collector is a very large one on the back almost 3' square. Leaving it off, there is a flap which is supposed to allow it to flow through the duct, then dump it back on the grass. Except it just builds up in the duct, fills that up then gradually chokes up the blade. The duct is about 2' long and a hell of a job to clear out when it is impacted.
Last year I tried modifying it by fitting a flap to stop it even entering the duct, but it still choked up with the air pressure from the fan. Now I have removed the entire duct and it just blows the clippings straight out of the deck. Hopefully that should fix it.
It works fine collecting, if and when the grass ever gets dry enough.
The first cut of the year is sometimes a pain with mine... the solution seems to be cut on the highest setting (or one from the highest), and then do it again at the normal position. If I then do it every week to ten days it seems ok, but its still possible to get to occasional clog.
Alas my ride on does not have the option to just cut and drop (it can cut and collect or cut and mulch) out of the box. You can spoof its various interlocks to run with the collector off, but then it sprays clippings in a huge fountain some 10' behind you ;-) No doubt a bit of added on deflecting baffle would fix that and make it less likely to clog.
I am told the one that use a rotary brush for collection like the Contax ones are better with wet grass.
Not in my experience. My old Hayter 18/42 was a re-badged Countax 42inch with a PTO powered sweeper behind and it was forever clogging unless I went a a snails pace on wet grass.
One might argue that "collects if driven slowly" is better than not at all regardless though! Still, not really a problem - I took a look at the price and decided against!
(I know someone who set his mower to simply eject the grass, and mows with a tow behind sweeper attached... I tried that with mine and it just spat the clippings clean over the top of the sweeper).
I have given up on trying to get the tractor mower to collect the clippings, it has just been far too wet the past couple of years - the cuttings just stick in the collection duct and build up until it extends into the cutting deck then jams the blade. The jammed blade then wrecks the drive V belt.
My first mod, was to fit a flap diverting cuttings from entering the duct, but even that choked up. So what I have done now is take the duct off completely.
Anyone else having issues with their mowers jamming up due to the constant wet weather over the past two years?
Technique......It's all about technique. (And a bloody sharp edge blade, so file an edge on the bugger before starting to cut when wet!)
Set cut height to slice off about the top 1" of sward if it's very long. Lower as required after a full area cut. Repeat. If cut sward outlet is at RHS toward rear of machine then second line of cut should overlap the first line of cut by only HALF the blade diameter to the LEFT side. This allows sward to be flung better out of exit chute as you are flinging it over an already cleared area and not across the top of uncut sward. Simplez!
Empty after a few runs, listen to the engine, when it's labouring then you've overdone it. Watch the excess cut sward behind, if there's lots you're either full up in the bag or there's a blockage.
If you're on clay generally, over a period of time across the season, add a thin (½") of 30/50 topsoil and mortar sand mixed evenly every so often across all the worst areas after cutting to the desired height, this will allow the grass to grow through and give a more drainable top layer. Take time to keep it raked level, and you'll have a good surface building up that will look better and be more managable. The more you do it, the easier the surface will drain, the more level it will be and the grass will benefit.
After 10 years in the Golf industry sorting these problems on *very* expensive mowers and idiot operators it's all about doing it right and making it look nice, and it's easy, when you know how.
What about if your machine is like mine with centre outlet (i.e. between two counter rotating blades). That presumably limits you to only using a quarter of the deck's width?
The "worst" areas in my case would be the third of the lawn you could water ski across with a good run up ;-)
Mine also has contra rotation. The makers supply a choice of *collection tube* or *mulch attachment*.
I just mulch until the weather allows the collector to work. I can confirm that cutting, drying and then collecting works well.
One downside to persistent mulching is that my mower does not leave the clippings evenly spread. Spiral mowing (about 1/3 acre) can leave a strip of mulch dense enough to discourage grass growth.
I find I need to cut every 4 to 5 days if I mulch to prevent leaving lots of visible clippings. It also uses more petrol, and creates more vibration when cutting. So I only tend to do it in the height of summer to save the hassle of collecting huge amounts of clippings and also to give the lawn a bit more protection from the heat.
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