Mulching leaves

tigercat

tigercat

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I'm looking towards the fall cleanup in the next few months. Does anyone run a 52" scag mulching leaves without the baffle kit?

The reason I ask is I have the collection system which works fine, but I want to try 100% mulching this year. I have way too many leaves and the piles are a pain after a while. Perhaps it will be less labor intensive to just mulch.

I've heard without the mulching baffles the blades really push out the dust from all sides of the deck. I read that the dust kicking out is really bad, on the new V decks.

My plan is to use the mulch cover and will try it with gator blades. Here is my idea and I have no way of knowing this will work as I haven't tried it yet. I cut the wing away from the 18" blades. The mulching top wing portion I left it alone, just the outer most lift is where I cut 2" or so from each side of the blade. My logic is to reduce some of the air pressure so I don't choke myself out.

They are all balanced and sharpened ready to go. The cover is test fitted last weekend as well.

So does anyone mulch without the baffles? Does anyone think this is worth a shot?

Plan B is another set of Gator blades in proper form, without the mulch cover. Just go back and forth making a few extra passes if I must.

Thanks for your replies
 
S

shiftsuper175607

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tigercat said:
I'm looking towards the fall cleanup in the next few months. Does anyone run a 52" scag mulching leaves without the baffle kit?

The reason I ask is I have the collection system which works fine, but I want to try 100% mulching this year. I have way too many leaves and the piles are a pain after a while. Perhaps it will be less labor intensive to just mulch.

I've heard without the mulching baffles the blades really push out the dust from all sides of the deck. I read that the dust kicking out is really bad, on the new V decks.

My plan is to use the mulch cover and will try it with gator blades. Here is my idea and I have no way of knowing this will work as I haven't tried it yet. I cut the wing away from the 18" blades. The mulching top wing portion I left it alone, just the outer most lift is where I cut 2" or so from each side of the blade. My logic is to reduce some of the air pressure so I don't choke myself out.

They are all balanced and sharpened ready to go. The cover is test fitted last weekend as well.

So does anyone mulch without the baffles? Does anyone think this is worth a shot?

Plan B is another set of Gator blades in proper form, without the mulch cover. Just go back and forth making a few extra passes if I must.

Thanks for your replies
Click to expand...

Why not just buy some regular blades instead of ruining your gators?
 
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Darryl G

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Mind you this is with 2 Exmarks and a Bob-Cat mower, not a Scag:

What I do is first mulch the leaves down to about dime sized with Gator blades and an open discharge, then pick them up with the vacuum bagger. I've tried full mulch kits, just a blocking plate without the baffles and just about everything else. With a blocking plate I find that wavy mulchers such as those that come with a mulch kit work best. The problem with blocking the discharge, besides the dust, is that leaves tend to "run away". You can't get them mulched if you can't get them under the deck.

Another option is to use a blocking plate but don't use a solid piece. You can use hardware "cloth" wire or expanded steel such as what is used on trailer gates. This allows the air to escape but retains the leaves until they're small enough to pass through. Yes, it will clog some. This is the method my uncle used on his heavily treed 4 acres. I've never tried it personally. Or I guess you could cut some slots in the blocking plate you have.
 
John R

John R

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I've had good luck using just the Gator blades on the V deck.
 
tigercat

tigercat

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shiftsuper175607 said:
Why not just buy some regular blades instead of ruining your gators?
Click to expand...

I run high lift blades for cutting grass year round (collection system in the fall).
I purchased 2 sets of Gators one to modify like in my original post and a second set of 3 if it doesn't work well. I thought the Gators might mulch better. If they don't then it was a waste of money experimenting and purchasing them.
 
tigercat

tigercat

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Darryl G said:
Mind you this is with 2 Exmarks and a Bob-Cat mower, not a Scag:

The problem with blocking the discharge, besides the dust, is that leaves tend to "run away". You can't get them mulched if you can't get them under the deck.
Click to expand...
Yes this is always a little nuisance if the grass is short.

Another option is to use a blocking plate but don't use a solid piece.
Click to expand...

I've seen some modified this way. One guy cut slots into the end plate to allow air flow but he said he wants to protect himself from throwing rocks and stuff, so this is why he runs the plate.

I decided to cut some of the wing off the blade, instead of modifying the end plate. (in order to reduce some of the air under the deck).

I'm looking forward to testing this out (but not to doing the leafs LOL)
 
jekjr

jekjr

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Leaves are the only thing we ever use Gator Blades for on a Scag. We put a mulching plate on and a set of mulching blades on and go at it. If you will raise the mower up and lower the front deck baffle to the lowest position it will help the blowout on the front of the deck considerably. You can mulch them down to a brown dust if you desire to.

High lifts are what we use to cut grass and Gator Blades are what we use for leaves. I have never had any success using Gator Blades to cut grass. We have 4 Tiger Cats.
 
tigercat

tigercat

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jekjr said:
Leaves are the only thing we ever use Gator Blades for on a Scag.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Many years ago I used a tarp to move the leaves. I dragged over 15 fully loaded 20' X 30' tarp fulls of leaves. Which is a lot. The trees are bigger now, others I cut down.
Then I used the Scag collection system which saved me a ton of work. This is by far the best tool I found as of now.

But as I get older I try to find easier ways. I think pure mulching mixed with blowing the leaves to less dense areas will be my strategy this year. Around here the first week of OCT the fun starts. I will put the Gators on then. It lasts until the yard is snowed on. They I finish up in the early spring. I shut down the Scag late November to service it and park it for the winter. I continue with smaller machines as the leaves are 95% down by the time is snows.
 
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