Mulch kit or Gator blades for 42 inch deck

I have a big dog alpha 42 inch, with fall approaching I have a large amount of leaves to deal with and was wondering which was the best approach to much a large amount of leaves, the mulch kit from Excel or Gator blades?

I think it "depends". If you can keep after them often and in thin layers I think maybe the mulch kit is the winner. If they tend to get away from you I think it's better off to hit them with the Gator blades and push them around until they pretty much disappear..... or you have them in an area easy to pick up. Either way is probably going to entail multiple passes.

Have had similar problems on a one acre block with leaves up to one foot deep. I have a dedicated mulching deck (34 inch) on a Toro Z300. Put an extra set of blades on at a 90 degree angle to the first set to get better lift and twice the cutting action. Mower handled the task well but it still took many passes to convert all the leaves to dust; starting at a high setting (so the leaves went under the deck) and then lowering the setting on each pass. The end result was that you could not tell that there were once leaves on the lawn. The only reason I still don’t use double blades is the extra stress it puts on the clutch when engaging the blades. I haven’t found Gator blades (Atomic on Toro) work any better on my machine as they don’t have enough lift, but genuine Gator blades with a high lift probably would (not available for my machine). I have used a commercial side discharge mower (48 inch with no mulching plug available) previously for many years on very large areas with grass and only a few leaves. A clean finish was required as it was a large Hospital with extensive lawns, so you needed to discharge to the centre of a particular area by working in a circular motion (not up and down). You were then left with a large amount of grass clippings in the centre which were dispersed by raising the deck about 1/2 inch and then running back over the clippings a number of times. I think side discharge is better for large acreage and long grass, but only when a clean finish is not required. All my clients (and myself) want a clean finish, hence buying a dedicated mulching deck. A catcher is also a good idea if you can dispose of clippings easily, but to me it is too much hassle. Hope this helps.