New Exmark Radius e series RAE708GEM52300 mulch help

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  • / New Exmark Radius e series RAE708GEM52300 mulch help
I just bought a Exmark radius model RAE708GEM52300 to replace a Cub Cadet ride on mower that just was not cutting it!!! LOL..

Here is my current issues. I am looking at a mulch kit from exmark but i read so many different it will and it will not work situations. I decided to ask a few elderly neighbors if i could mow their lawns when i did mine bc i hated seeing them try and push them. I did this for free for most of this summer. I started to think i can make a little extra money taking care of a few lawns here and there.

So i now have 10 lawns and i am happy to do. A few are weekly and a few are bi weekly.

My delima is that a few of the yards even done weekly grow like crazy and i have a ton of grass clippings.

I have looked at running a full mulch kit on my mower but then this completely eliminates the mower from being able to cut taller grass if need be. Local kit is $350
I have thought about running a adjustable chute plate to be able to open or close when ever i wanted to and then also use the mulch blades. ( This was told to me by a friend )

I am not sure what would be the best bet. I am about to pick up a few yards that are in a neighborhood attached to a gold course and those yards all look very nice with no clippings at all and i do not want them to look bad. I take pride in my yards i do even if it takes me a little longer. This is my first ever zero turn so i am at a loss on what to do. I do not want to limit myself to a specific type lawn either.

Thanks for all the help and i hope the model number helps as well.

Oh if it helps i am in north east arkansa
 

BlazNT

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  • / New Exmark Radius e series RAE708GEM52300 mulch help
Carry 2 or 3 different blade sets with you. High lift for throwing grass and mulchin for well mulching. Baffles will not hurt the cut when not mulching.

Welcome to mowing other peoples yards. I personally use Gator G6 bladed and remove blocking plate when side discharge is needed. You will have to test your machine till you find the correct blade combo. It takes a while of trial and error to find what makes your mower cut grass the best.
 
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  • / New Exmark Radius e series RAE708GEM52300 mulch help
Carry 2 or 3 different blade sets with you. High lift for throwing grass and mulchin for well mulching. Baffles will not hurt the cut when not mulching.

Welcome to mowing other peoples yards. I personally use Gator G6 bladed and remove blocking plate when side discharge is needed. You will have to test your machine till you find the correct blade combo. It takes a while of trial and error to find what makes your mower cut grass the best.

Oem blades
Oragon g5 blades
The blades that come the the exmark mulch deck just without the mulch baffles..

All but oem leave stranglers all over the place, Clog the deck if grass even damp even driving extremely slow.
 

Darryl G

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I suggest just raising the deck 1/4 to 1/2 inch and doing a quick 2nd cut if there are excess clippings. Either that or get a grass catcher and just pick up any heavy windrows. I tried using a mulch kit on my Lazer Z HP and it just wasn't practical and slowed me down way too much at times.
 
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So I still have issues. I went ahead and did a mulch deck and seemed to work pretty good last year. This year not so much. Leaving dandy lines as well as onion grass and anything thick at all with a ton of stragglers. I’m thinking of going back to side discharge but loved the fact the yard was SO clean after done mowing with the mulch deck. Heck a little 42” cut toro zero then ran circles around me today bc I was having to cut twice. Someone was mowing the yard next door to a house I was at.

Only thing different I can think is I sharpened blades before the first cutting this year. It’s been extremely wet and very very soggy.
 

Darryl G

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So you installed the full Exmark mulch kit with the wavy mulcher blades?

Are you keeping the underside of the deck clean? It needs to be cleaned regularly, especially if you're mulching, and super especially if you're mowing in wet conditions or lush grass while mulching. If you let it plug up you will get a crappy cut. When I was mulching with my Exmarks I often had to clean the deck after each lawn and sometimes during a lawn.

You didn't round the tips of the blades back when you sharpened them, did you?

How about tire pressure. Did you check that this season? It can change your deck pitch.
 
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I actually thought about the deck being packed so I cleaned it out with a water hose right before the last lawn yesterday.

I use an angle grinder then used a straight file on the blades so I don’t think I rounded them out.

As far as I recall the air pressure is the same as last year on the tires.

I am sure I am just missing something but man is it so aggravating.
 

Darryl G

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You need to have a way to get under the deck and scrape it quickly and easily. A hose can create issues. Also you may want to make sure your throttle cable is adjusted properly and you're going to full rpms.

But I know the challenges of mulching. I've got 2 mulch kits on a shelf in my garage, one for each of my Exmarks. I don't remember having cut quality problems. My machines cut beautifully with them on. But having to slow down to a snail's pace at times and only mowing dry grass was too much of an impediment for me.

Edit: The main reason I removed my mulch kits was due to taking on new overgrown lawns and having to mow lawns that grow like crazy between cuts as well as the difficulty of cutting tall crabgrass and clover with them - makes a mess.
 
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After I first got the mower it never seemed as it would discharge clipping out the shoot lie other exmark mowers I would watch or even ones on YouTube so I bought an rpm meter but it was fine then but cannot remember now what the rpm is supposed to be.

I’m going to order one of the jacks that attach for the deck. I’m on the edge of going back to an open deck if I can remember what I did with the shoot lol.

I am using the blades the come with the mulch deck and all pieces are installed correctly with the blades down.

Maybe the pics will help. The last image I was at a crawl at one pass.
 

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Darryl G

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Yeah, cut quality sucks for sure. Cutting height looks a bit high for what I'd call a scruffy lawn. You don't get as much suction on a lawn like that as you would on a full/lush lawn. The grass on a full lawn seals around the deck giving better suction. I find myself cutting crappy lawns in the 2.5 to 3 inch range whereas I'm at 3 to 4 inches on my nicer lawns.

You're sure the blades aren't upside down? Can you sneak a picture under your deck? Not trying to insult your intelligence but something definitely isn't right.
 
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