Bit I’d advice and input needed please.
I recently took on a group of Parish Councils, mostly verges, and a decent sized community field, cut on a monthly basis. I tackled it the first time with my Lawnflte 553 HWS minus the grass box but although it was OK (just about) for the field the very uneven verges gave the wheels and transmission way too much abuse.
As such I purchased a second hand 32 inch Ferris Hydrocut, with a twin deck at no small cost. It did OK the first time but the growth was long this week and on both the verges and the field I got a slightly off centre line of grass that had been flattened and remained uncut. If I reversed back then it re-cut it OK but this was not practical overall.
Unless I’m missing something is seems like a major flaw in the mower as the finish looked atrocious and I was slightly embarrassed particularly in terms of the field. I assumed as there is not a third central deck as per the ride ons I use the two decks on this machine were offset and overlapped each other??
Any observations from people, have people experienced this, any advice??
Cheers guys!
Views: 578
Replies
We run a Ransomes version of the same machine on a factory contract.
With twin decks, there is an overlap in the blades - however if the blades are worn on the ends, they can start to 'miss'.
Also if the under deck is clogged it can force the grass down and it can miss the blades.
Not sure what configuration your deck is (ours is a rear discharge that has been welded up at the back, had 'rings' fitted under the deck and had mulching blades fitted).
Some playing around with the height settings can be necessary to get a good cut in longer materials, sometimes its necessary to set the front castors higher than the rear wheels to feed material through the deck better.
If your cutter belt in good condition and not slipping (we get through several belts a season).
Different ages of Ferris had vastly different height adjusting methods, a photo of your machine may help.
We ran one that did the same and it had incorrect blades fitted, when the correct new ones were fitted it was quite a good finish it left.
Most of my mowing is commercial, including parish council work. I would never contemplate using any kind of hand mower/walk behind on such contracts. It would be very inefficient and very tiring.
I have a Stiga 740 Pwx and a John Deere Z535m. It comes down to both finish and speed. Both machines mulch and both are very fast over the ground. They produce a perfect finish.
My sub-contractor uses a Ransomes 2250 with Magna cylinders on the very large playing fields. One playing field is nearly five acres in size.
The John Deere will mow at eight and a half miles per hour, so even when a second pass is needed for perfect mulching, this isn’t a problem. The Stiga is also very fast.
Of course, if they only require ‘cut and drop’ then there is no problem and if they only want the field cut once per month then they obviously aren’t too worried about the finish.
This example is two passes as it is technically a ‘grass collection’ job. First pass cuts perfectly but only mulches to about 90% efficiency, so an even faster second pass on a slightly higher cut level, then perfectly mulches the remaining 10% of visible clippings. This image is May 2022.
FEA2B9AE-C8D4-49B7-94EA-F7C5FE805DB6.jpeg
60412DB9-BB41-4A37-A816-A8AAF5C9A6F1.jpeg
E8A29627-7FDD-45F5-BB01-5EBCF7CD70CC.jpeg
Sorry for delay in responding to the helpful comments above. It takes Fathers Day to get any time off work at the moment!
I've attached some pictures that might assist the situation.
Not sure it's possible to alter the font/rear height?? In terms of the blades I assumed they were offset or set at right angles to each other so there was an over lap but there isn't so there is a gap of 5-7mm in between them so I assume it could never cut the middle line??
The other point to make is that it seems to cut without leaving the line when run backwards??
Any other observations?? I assume the blades look the right length or they would clash??
Thanks again for any assistance!