guys, i'm not getting a smooth cut. any idea why? raptor sd 54

flightco said:

It is nice of you to make excuses for the Raptor SD, but those of us who own one know they are a faulty mower. Should have been able to mow and bale this beautiful lawn, but it did a poor job of it. No excuses.

Click to expand...

You don't use rotary mowers to bale hay. Clover is a forage crop, and it takes a lot more power to cut compared to grass. Especially when it gets that tall. If the op waits until the clover gets that tall before cutting it, and isn't doing so for the purpose of baling it, then he should be using a tractor and a bush hog. The raptor ad was designed to mow lawns not bush hog clover. I hope you were just being sarcastic with your post. : )

Shughes717 said:

You don't use rotary mowers to bale hay. Clover is a forage crop, and it takes a lot more power to cut compared to grass. Especially when it gets that tall. If the op waits until the clover gets that tall before cutting it, and isn't doing so for the purpose of baling it, then he should be using a tractor and a bush hog. The raptor ad was designed to mow lawns not bush hog clover. I hope you were just being sarcastic with your post. : )

Click to expand...

I hope you were just being sarcastic with your post. :

The theme of this entire thread is meant to be in good humor because there have so many posts about the Raptor SD not cutting well; yes I was joking too. I thought that would be obvious when I said it should have cut and baled.

flightco said:

It is nice of you to make excuses for the Raptor SD, but those of us who own one know they are a faulty mower. Should have been able to mow and bale this beautiful lawn, but it did a poor job of it. No excuses.

Click to expand...

Haha you win!

flightco said:

I hope you were just being sarcastic with your post. :

The theme of this entire thread is meant to be in good humor because there have so many posts about the Raptor SD not cutting well; yes I was joking too. I thought that would be obvious when I said it should have cut and baled.

Click to expand...

Just checking. Been a lot of raptor and raptor sd hate going around lately. :laughing:

so i went back to finish up today. this parcel of land is probably 3+ acres. i thought the hustler literature said you can mow over 3 acres an hour :confused2: it took me probably a total of 8 hours. i had to go slow somewhat and cut it twice to look decent.
my old lawn tractor broke and i waited a while for my dealer to get one of these raptors in stock, so that is why these weeds got so tall. i'll be cutting more frequently.

anyways a little about the blades. the stock blades are horrible in tall grass. there just isnt much lift and suction/blowing with them. the deck constantly plugged up and got packed with grass. i tried a set of the high lift blades (hustler# 797696) and they did ok. but then i tried the oregon 596-808 blades and they worked the best. they threw the grass the farthest out the shoot and kept the deck cleanest.

i did cut the deck outlet bigger, which helped a lot to prevent the outlet from getting plugged up. the opening is rather small compared to other decks. i'm not sure why the back edge of the opening is angled but it caught a lot of grass and the whole outlet would get plugged up solid with grass.

turboawd said:

anyways a little about the blades. the stock blades are horrible in tall grass. there just isnt much lift and suction/blowing with them. the deck constantly plugged up and got packed with grass. i tried a set of the high lift blades (hustler# 797696) and they did ok. but then i tried the oregon 596-808 blades and they worked the best. they threw the grass the farthest out the shoot and kept the deck cleanest.

Click to expand...

This exactly is my experience also, I quite like the Gators.

I mowed a similar area last night, half clover, and wet. But it had only gotten to about 10-12". Gator blades handled it great, the deck was a mess when I was done though, including the rear area of the discharge opening as you mention. Rain every day for the last couple weeks here in Kentucky has been a challenge.

turboawd said:

so i went back to finish up today. this parcel of land is probably 3+ acres. i thought the hustler literature said you can mow over 3 acres an hour :confused2: it took me probably a total of 8 hours. i had to go slow somewhat and cut it twice to look decent.
my old lawn tractor broke and i waited a while for my dealer to get one of these raptors in stock, so that is why these weeds got so tall. i'll be cutting more frequently.

anyways a little about the blades. the stock blades are horrible in tall grass. there just isnt much lift and suction/blowing with them. the deck constantly plugged up and got packed with grass. i tried a set of the high lift blades (hustler# 797696) and they did ok. but then i tried the oregon 596-808 blades and they worked the best. they threw the grass the farthest out the shoot and kept the deck cleanest.

i did cut the deck outlet bigger, which helped a lot to prevent the outlet from getting plugged up. the opening is rather small compared to other decks. i'm not sure why the back edge of the opening is angled but it caught a lot of grass and the whole outlet would get plugged up solid with grass.

Click to expand...

great job cleaning that property up. That clover had to put a heavy load on your engine.

Shughes717 said:

It looks like red clover from the photos. Clover is very hard to cut with a lawn mower. Red clover and white clover are cool season perrenial plants that grow very fast and have a high moisture content. Red clover does really make a good hay for horses, and cattle. It makes horses slobber quite a bit, but it is a high quality hay.

Click to expand...

Happy to read that...I have 25kg of seed on order for 3 weeks now.
Sowing it fir exactly that purpose

KK

KrashnKraka said:

Happy to read that...I have 25kg of seed on order for 3 weeks now.
Sowing it fir exactly that purpose

KK

Click to expand...

Ladino clover is another very good variety. I would have to say that alfalfa is the most widely used forage crop to bale for horses though. It's a little more high maintenance than clover. Not trying to take this thread over, so I may pm you about your crop.

Shughes717 said:

Ladino clover is another very good variety. I would have to say that alfalfa is the most widely used forage crop to bale for horses though. It's a little more high maintenance than clover. Not trying to take this thread over, so I may pm you about your crop.

Click to expand...

Yeup...understood. PM is on AFAIK.
Fir others I should add my planting is experimental. The environment is mediterrean type tropical, good drainage with high rainfalls and 18C-40C temp range. The varity (Campeda)
should do fine here but nobody has tried it largescale. I want to find out, feed is a much sought after commodity around here and iffn I can bale it with my ZTR and leave no "lines"...?... even better!

KK
[no layered striping created in this ZTR post] :laughing: