It is well known that you cant get roller mowers that can mulch, you have to get a 4 wheeler. This is no good if you want good stripes and hang the mower over the lawn edges. I have'nt had a 4 wheeler in a very long time and from what i remember it was very tiring trying to hold up one side of the mower when doing the edges.
I have the above honda mower which is the pro roller version with 5.5hp GXV160 engine - very nice. I do a lot of mulching with my countax C600 which has a dedicated mulch deck on it and a home made roller attachment on the lift arms where the grass collector usually goes. The results are acceptable to me and my customers. I wanted to do more mulching on the lawns i currently do with the 21" honda so looked at the various options. I must have a roller for the stripes and hanging over the lawn edges - but as i said earlier you cant buy a roller mower that mulches.
The only way to achieve this was to either add some kind of roller to a 4 wheeler or try and get my honda to mulch. Adding a roller to a 4 wheeler would be quite a feat of engineering as it throws up loads of problems like where to mount it, you cant have it taking the weight as there would be no drive, it would have to be behind the deck and would cause problems with turning etc etc etc. The other option started to look far easier but also has its own problems.
The roller mower deck is'nt designed for mulching - its trying hard to get the clippings out the back and over the roller in to the grass bag. There are'nt any mulch plugs available. So i decided to do an experiment and just make a plate to block off the hole to the grass bag.
I cut a piece of 3mm aluminum sheet to roughly the right size, bent a lip over at the top and bent it at the bottom to follow the contours of the back of the mower. The grass deflector handly puts pressure on to the plate to stop it moving or coming away from the mower. I could'nt believe how easy it was to do and put on and take off - there was only some testing to do.
Tried it on a lawn that gets mulched fortnightly and low and behold it bloody worked. The grass clippings had been chopped up like a mulcher and were not overly visible. The engine did'nt seem to get strained and the whole experience was very pleasing. Next i tried it on some longer grass and it was'nt perfect but i would'nt even use a dedicated mulcher on grass of that length.
The only down side i could see with this conversion is that the grass accumulates behind the plate and when you take it off it has to be cleaned out. I'm going to try and fit a proper mulching blade next (like can be fitted to the 4 wheel hydrostatic version of this mower) and see if it fits.
Try it and see.
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