When you say G5 blades, who made them? Are they the Oregon blades? I've ordered them for my new Raptor, as I have them on my Craftsman tractor, and love how they cut and how clean they keep the deck. Just wondering if they cut differently on the Raptor SD.
The blades (Oregon gator G5) themselves do what they are suppose to do. But the prob I have is that I live in an area where high humidity very seldom lets the grass dry out. Even at 2pm it's still wet enough that when you walk thru the yard your shoes still get wet. It also clogs the deck up where I have to clean it 3-4 times per cut. I'm mowing right at 1 acre. I've tried different methods such as speed, height and anything else you can think of, doesn't matter. Also I have a very high water table, you can dig 24-30 feet an hit water....needless to say grass grows unbelievable fast! I will say that the factory blades were less troublesome for me so this is what's got me to thinking the higher lift blades may work for my conditions. Had this conversation with the hustler rep the other day and he seems to think that this may be my better route. So for $30.00 shipped....worth a try on the hi lift blades. Who knows, may be the fix for my area, I know I've spent more in days past and have gotten less!!
Im looking forward to seeing how the RSD 54 with these wide tires does in real wet standing water areas..we just have not had enough moisture this Summer at all.It's Different Strokes for different folks all across the USA. Some people think hi lift blades totally home run Gator blades and vice versa. Gator blades work perfectly for me on my lawn last year even when it was wet. But when my neighbor's machine broke down and I did his lawn for him 2 times I got a ton of build up with the Gator blades. He had a lot of leafy weeds in his lawn... all I can think of is the Gator blades were chewing up those leaves and spraying the juice all over the underside of the deck and it became glue. Every pass I made I could tell from the sound of the deck I was building up a little bit by little bit. I don't know if hi lift would have worked better over there or not.
This year I bought a fastrack and figured I would have to switch out the standard blades but they're working fantastically well for me even in wet grass. We had two and a half inches of rain the other night I have standing water in one part of the lawn I was able to go right up to it and discharge it and it looked great. My lack of tire tracks for a 850 pound machine tends to Boggle my mind ton!