uneven cut

[safari lawn]

everything i just read "went in one ear and out the other". i'm more a hands on guy. i probably need someone to actually show me what to check. all i did was take my hand and try and move the spindles and they didn't move, tight as can be. as far as the belts and pully's go i just visually inspected them and everything looked good to me.

this yard has received 2 uneven cuts this season. the first time it was the blades being dull. this last time i am leaning towards the fact that it was cut after a good rain. that day was the first time this season i have cut grass directly after a good rain. i have been told by someone that knows the type of lawn i have given the shaded area it's in and the fact that it was after a good rain is the reason for the uneven cut. also given the history that this is the only lawn i have ever had that has been cut uneven is the other reason i'm leaning toward it being the lawn.

you could be correct, it could be the machine, but everything on the machine to my knowledge checks out good. i inspected the machine when i bought it so i know nothing has changed since i bought it. besides that if it were the machine why would it be just this one yard? seems to me if the machine had something wrong with it other yards would be cutting uneven and no other yard is.



no my yard is not a diff. type of turf. one of the guys on this forum lives in my city and knows the condition of the yards in my neighborhood and mentioned given the condition my yard is in and the fact that its heavely shaded and it was cut after a good rain, that could be the reason it was cut uneven.

Thats why I suggested the pics, hard to get a visual, I have 1 yard thats real trouble with leaving streaks, but if I switch to the Gator Blades I endup with a few that are trouble, and its usually either wet grass or a mix of wet and speed.

[windshadow]

I have the same problem with one yard only the grass is very thick it i like walking on a shag carpet. any way I get it with the mulching deck when I use the ghs deck this problem goes away I think it is do to the vacum affect from the blower motor on the walker set up. when I cut my lawn wich is a harder surface I do not get the uneven cut .when I say uneven it is only a small amount the owner has said nothing so I guess it is ok .

[spotremix]

the uneven spots are on the right hand of side of the mower if your standing behind it. just a strip on the right hand side of every row has a uncut look. sorry i didn't get pics this week but it happened again, this time in the front and back but worse in the front. no other yards comes out this way. my dad thought maybe i had i my turf striper set to low and it was keeping the deck up a little bit on that side but we raised it and cut it again and there wasn't a real big diff. plus i have that bar set where i did to produce the stripes i want to produce. it has 5 hole setting and when i purchased it it was on hole 3. i moved it down a hole to make the stripes more prominant.

i have had absolutely no trouble with this mower except on my own yard and it has been the last 2 cuts and nothing ever changes when i mow it. i've always used the mulch kit with the mulching blades. i always mow at the same speed.

i'm trying one more thing and that is using horizontal and vertial patterns instead of the diagonal patterns to see what will happen. then i'm gonna have to take it to my dealer i guess.

[hardboiled]

Now it is a strip at the edge of the deck? Wasn't it a strip in the middle before? You alternate angle of cut each week but do you also move over half a strip and travel opposite direction? You should. You should be including more variety of patterns in your schedule. Dry grass wont stand back up as quickly as moist grass. Is your grass drier than the rest of the lawns? Have you had rain since your last cut prior to this one? Your caster wheels push down strips; is the right one of those the strip not getting cut? Cutting higher won't lift grass up as well and might require more overlap sometimes. What height of cut? Did you recently raise you H.O.C.? Have your blades been sharpened beyond their useful life. Remove too much off of the blade and the lift is reduced significantly.

[safari lawn]

the uneven spots are on the right hand of side of the mower if your standing behind it. just a strip on the right hand side of every row has a uncut look. sorry i didn't get pics this week but it happened again, this time in the front and back but worse in the front. no other yards comes out this way. my dad thought maybe i had i my turf striper set to low and it was keeping the deck up a little bit on that side but we raised it and cut it again and there wasn't a real big diff. plus i have that bar set where i did to produce the stripes i want to produce. it has 5 hole setting and when i purchased it it was on hole 3. i moved it down a hole to make the stripes more prominant.

i have had absolutely no trouble with this mower except on my own yard and it has been the last 2 cuts and nothing ever changes when i mow it. i've always used the mulch kit with the mulching blades. i always mow at the same speed.

i'm trying one more thing and that is using horizontal and vertial patterns instead of the diagonal patterns to see what will happen. then i'm gonna have to take it to my dealer i guess.

You still havent posted a pic, come on spot, I really would like to help but have a hard time visualizing it, and by it I mean the grass, slopes, and what its leaving, post before you cut and after, we may be able to prevent the trip to the dealer.

[GeeVee]

I'm with Boiled, I, too, thought it was the center.

Either way, the basic idea I get now (right side of deck) is that between blades, and deck baffling, and HOC, and ground speed, combined, the results are what they are.

If you will, understand the front edge of the deck "lays over" the tall grass, traveling ground forward speed and the deck edge and baffle plates may be keeping the grass layed over, and not too many get to stand up (or really, get SUCKED upright) and be cut.

There's two "signs".

Another contributing factor could be the blades and mulching. Mulching blades that have teeth instead of a solid curved lift can't create that suction needed to get the grass standing up. The DENSITY of your yard was reported to be less dense than others, earlier. This contirbutes to less 'Vacuum" as well. Density in terms of grass blades per square foot, eh?

The right side blade of ANY mower is ALWAYS going to be the first one to dull. Due to rotation of the blades, and the natural flow of the cut grass circulating under your deck, the far right cuts grass that has been lopped oof by the far left, whacked by the center and passed to the right one for another spin before going out the discharge. But you're mulching. So it goes around the carousel again. Not to the left, but back around and aournd the right side baffling.

The best part about all of this is, there really isn't anything wrong with your mower, if you've checked that spindle like I said to. Waste of time to go to the dealer.

If you grab that sheave on that spindle, ensure no belt is touching it and up and down or side to side, there should be no play at all. It should not make noise. Likewise, when you spin it by hand, it should not really freewheeel like a skate wheel, it should slow down and stop with the weight you have under it.

Not that you're interested, but high lift blades would take care of this, and you may still be able to keep the discharge blocking chute closed off. The lift looks like a spoiler, right? That little lift creates a vacuum that stands blades up for cutting, not as commonly thought, to propel the cut grass around the deck and out.

I always a had a mower set up with high lifts and a homeade discharge block plate that was simply expanded metal mesh. It didn't completely eliminate the discharged grass, but it kept if from going real far when we cut the dealership, and didn't BOG down the mower with re-cuting grass fifty times before it dropped out of the baffle to the ground.

There is NOTHING wrong with the mower. Its just a combination of circumstances you need to adjust for.

(Get rid of the striping kit, unnecessary to say the least)

[spotremix]

Now it is a strip at the edge of the deck? Wasn't it a strip in the middle before? You alternate angle of cut each week but do you also move over half a strip and travel opposite direction? You should. You should be including more variety of patterns in your schedule. Dry grass wont stand back up as quickly as moist grass. Is your grass drier than the rest of the lawns? Have you had rain since your last cut prior to this one? Your caster wheels push down strips; is the right one of those the strip not getting cut? Cutting higher won't lift grass up as well and might require more overlap sometimes. What height of cut? Did you recently raise you H.O.C.? Have your blades been sharpened beyond their useful life. Remove too much off of the blade and the lift is reduced significantly.

I'm with Boiled, I, too, thought it was the center.

Either way, the basic idea I get now (right side of deck) is that between blades, and deck baffling, and HOC, and ground speed, combined, the results are what they are.

If you will, understand the front edge of the deck "lays over" the tall grass, traveling ground forward speed and the deck edge and baffle plates may be keeping the grass layed over, and not too many get to stand up (or really, get SUCKED upright) and be cut.

There's two "signs".

Another contributing factor could be the blades and mulching. Mulching blades that have teeth instead of a solid curved lift can't create that suction needed to get the grass standing up. The DENSITY of your yard was reported to be less dense than others, earlier. This contirbutes to less 'Vacuum" as well. Density in terms of grass blades per square foot, eh?

The right side blade of ANY mower is ALWAYS going to be the first one to dull. Due to rotation of the blades, and the natural flow of the cut grass circulating under your deck, the far right cuts grass that has been lopped oof by the far left, whacked by the center and passed to the right one for another spin before going out the discharge. But you're mulching. So it goes around the carousel again. Not to the left, but back around and aournd the right side baffling.

The best part about all of this is, there really isn't anything wrong with your mower, if you've checked that spindle like I said to. Waste of time to go to the dealer.

If you grab that sheave on that spindle, ensure no belt is touching it and up and down or side to side, there should be no play at all. It should not make noise. Likewise, when you spin it by hand, it should not really freewheeel like a skate wheel, it should slow down and stop with the weight you have under it.

Not that you're interested, but high lift blades would take care of this, and you may still be able to keep the discharge blocking chute closed off. The lift looks like a spoiler, right? That little lift creates a vacuum that stands blades up for cutting, not as commonly thought, to propel the cut grass around the deck and out.

I always a had a mower set up with high lifts and a homeade discharge block plate that was simply expanded metal mesh. It didn't completely eliminate the discharged grass, but it kept if from going real far when we cut the dealership, and didn't BOG down the mower with re-cuting grass fifty times before it dropped out of the baffle to the ground.

There is NOTHING wrong with the mower. Its just a combination of circumstances you need to adjust for.

(Get rid of the striping kit, unnecessary to say the least)

i must have made the mistake of typing that it was the center. it has been the right side all along, sorry my fault. it is a strip at the edge of the right hand side of the deck (when your standing behind the mower).

i am mulching with the mulch kit provided by exmark with the mulching blades provided by exmark.

on the first uneven cut i was mulching and cutting at 3" (normal height for me), this last time i was side discharging with gator blades cutting at 3.5" (we had some rain that made the grass grow a little longer). the reason for side discharging this last time was because in the beginning of the week i pulled off the mulch kits because the rain had made everyone's yard longer and i needed to bag some yards.

yes the yard is less dense than others. i alternate cutting patterns weekly on the angle cuts. for the back yard the angled cuts are the same everyweek if you know what i mean. i'm sure depending on which angle i'm going every other week the grass gets cut the same way same direction if you get what i mean. i have an angled pathway across my yard i use as a guide every other week for the angled cut so those weeks the yard is getting cut same row same direction. i'll try what you said.

[lawncuttinfoo]

I am having the same trouble with my 05 tthp and borrowed dealer 06 tthp this year. I'm thinking its the turf but didn't exmark reduce thier blade tip speed in 05? could this be causing the bad results?

[ppcflyer]

[QUOTE=spotremix;173003]ok heres the situation. last night i put freshly sharpend blades on my 52" tthp, cleaned out the deck and checked the tire pressure. both were a little low so i added 2 psi per tire. today i cut 7 yards, to my knowledge the 6th yard is the only one that cut uneven and it was only the backyard. in the front yard you have your little "hairs" that are standing up but the back yard has half of where the middle blade is uncut row after row after row.
i assumed it was because the blades where dull because thats what i've learned to be the problem with uneven cuts until now. i just did a search and learned it could be an unlevel deck, diff. tire pressures, unbalanced blades, or a clogged deck.


He started out saying it was the middle

[Sammy]

I wonder if he is still having trouble with that mower ?

If not, what was the solution ?

[spotremix]

I wonder if he is still having trouble with that mower ?

If not, what was the solution ?

nope no problems yet sammy. not sure what the solution would be. when i was having the problem i checked just about everything it could possibly be. we'll see if my yard does that again this year. if you remember it never did it on anyone elses. just mine. which has always let me to believe it has to be the yard. but so far the cuts are looking great.