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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

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.

BlazNT said:

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Darryl G said:

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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How is that an insult? I change my blades all the time and still put them on upside down every once in awhile.

100% sure but I’ll grab a pic shortly. Storming now. A back area of the house out behind a little building I did some testing all the way down to 1.5 inches with all same results.

This was same issue on 6 lawns yesterday tho?

With a clean deck and sharp blades you should be getting a quality cut with that machine.

Might be time to check your deck level and pitch, after making sure tire pressures are to spec. The dealer for my Lazer left them at Max pressure which is what they're shipped at and I had to level my deck myself after adusting the pressures. It may have changed but the procedure for mine requires dropping it on precision cut blocks. I had a carpenter friend cut mine for me.

Botton line is you are correct in expecting more out of your machine. Something isn't right.

What’s recommended. Can’t seem to find specs.

13 psi front and rear. Page 20 of the manual I pulled up online for the Radius.

Here's an old Exmark mulching blade. The side shown should face the grass. Just making sure that's correct on your machine.

So have you resolved your issues?

I have not. I put the other set of blades on that I sharpened at the same time and get the same results. I have always had some sort of issue since I put the mulching deck or mulching kit on the deck for this mower. If the grass is even the slightest bit damp or has the slightest amount of do on it I have issues clogging the deck up. Granted with a brand new set of blades it’s not as bad and more than likely I’m just not sharpening the blades correctly. It’s I have not. I put the other set of blades on that I sharpened at the same time and get the same results. I have always had some sort of issue since I put the mulching deck or mulching kit on the deck for this mower. If the grass is even the slightest bit damp or has the slightest amount of do on it I have issues logging the deck up. Granted with a brand new set of blades it’s not as bad and more than likely I’m just not sharpening the blades correctly. It’s sad Sad because I really like the way the mulching kit works on the lawns that I’m old but I normally do all my lawns early in the morning’s on the weekends there for almost everyone has some sort of do on the yard. So I am not really sure what to do in my situation. I am in North Arkansas so we get rain and it may rain for a week so when it does that it puts me behind a week on the lawns and in a weeks time here the grass may grow 4 inches. So yes I am kind of at a loss on what to do.

Is anyone else running the mulch kit on the mower like mine? I know I hear everyone tell me that I should have bought the next series up if I wanted to run a mole skin but I’m not here for someone to tell me what I should have bought. I have what I have because that’s what I could afford at the time and it is making me money and paying for self.
Wow that sounded kind a rude but I guess it still gets the point of rocks LOL.

But yes any information that I can get from anyone in my situation or using when I’m using I would greatly appreciate it.

If you look back to the beginning of this thread I gave you some advice and said that I had tried mulch kits and they just weren't practical and slowed me down too much.

Here are your options.

1) You can try raising up the back of the deck and increasing the rake. This let's some grass get tossed out the back. You can try it temporarily by increasing your tire pressure to Max, usually around 20 psi. If that helps then put them back to normal usually around 12psi and adjust your deck. I don't think it will make enough difference.

2 and 3 are what I originally recommended. Cut discharging with high lifts or Gator G5 blades. If you have some heavy growth areas with winrows after the first cut, finish cutting the whole lawn. Then come back and mow it again quickly with the deck 1/4 to 1/2 inch or even higher if there's a real lot. Just letting it sit and dry for a few minutes can make a big difference. And the last option is having a bagger or catcher to use to pick up heavy windrows, keep grass from going places you don't want it and for cleanups.

There is a real art to trying to mulch commercially. Some have it figured out and run their business around it. For most it just isn't practical during heavy growth periods. Spring is a bad time to attempt it unless you're a master mulcher. I gave up on it entirely and run Gator 5G high lift mulching blades most of the time. After cleanups and first mows I'll run regular high lifts through the heavy growth. Then back to the Gators for summer and fall.

not trying to thread jack but Im using the mulch kit on a radius x series as well. Havent had any issues the OP has had, but I only have had to cut in dry conditions luckily. Just looking for best cut overall and figured Id ask for advice before I started experimenting. I currently run the full mulch kit with the wavy blades. Has any one run other blades WITH the mulch kit and gotten great quality of cut? I have the Exmark extreme blades (gator style) and the regular notched high lifts.


My plan was to sharpen them all and then run them doing sections on my back yard and compare. But ill skip all that if anyone already has the inside scoop for me! thanks guys

Jm3250 said:

not trying to thread jack but Im using the mulch kit on a radius x series as well. Havent had any issues the OP has had, but I only have had to cut in dry conditions luckily. Just looking for best cut overall and figured Id ask for advice before I started experimenting. I currently run the full mulch kit with the wavy blades. Has any one run other blades WITH the mulch kit and gotten great quality of cut? I have the Exmark extreme blades (gator style) and the regular notched high lifts.


My plan was to sharpen them all and then run them doing sections on my back yard and compare. But ill skip all that if anyone already has the inside scoop for me! thanks guys

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Don't bother. The wavy mulchers are the way to go with the mulch kit. You'll have grass blowing out the front of the deck all over the place with Gators or high lifts.

Darryl G said:

Don't bother. The wavy mulchers are the way to go with the mulch kit. You'll have grass blowing out the front of the deck all over the place with Gators or high lifts.

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thanks Darryl. How about best overall cut, even if that means no mulch kit? Guessing the stock high lift blades? Ultracut 4 deck if I didn't mention that before.

Both my Exmarks cut best with high lift blades but once we get past the ridiculous spring growth my preferred blades are the Gator G5 blades (discharging) on both Exmarks and my Bob-Cat.

Been a while but have an update. Adjusting the baffles and going back to the standard high lift blades seem to be the best solutions. That and lowering the deck height down some in non plush lawns.

My issue now is I now a majority of my lawns starting at about 6:30 and even if it just a tad bit damp it clogs the deck to where I am always having to raid and hold the deck up letting it clear out. I really think I may go back to a side discharge with a close off chute for mowing toward things. I really like the mulch but it just doesn’t work that well on my mower apparently. Not sure what to do.

altereddezignz said:

Been a while but have an update. Adjusting the baffles and going back to the standard high lift blades seem to be the best solutions. That and lowering the deck height down some in non plush lawns.

My issue now is I now a majority of my lawns starting at about 6:30 and even if it just a tad bit damp it clogs the deck to where I am always having to raid and hold the deck up letting it clear out. I really think I may go back to a side discharge with a close off chute for mowing toward things. I really like the mulch but it just doesn’t work that well on my mower apparently. Not sure what to do.

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Are you using the high lift blades with the mulch kit? I emailed Exmark service just for the heck of it to see there take on it. They said with the mulch kit to use there wavy mulch blades for the best overall quality etc and to keep them sharp at 28*-30*. They also stated that everyone has different styles and to experiment to find my favorite style of cut.

Not sure if that if info helped but it’s direct
From Exmark so I figured I’d post it

Yes using the blade that came with the mulch kit. If it’s later and 100% completely dry of any and all dew then it cuts great unless it’s tall.

gotchya. So sounds like you took the mulch baffles off and went back to the stock notched high lifts to solve the issue?

Currently mulch kit and blades that came with that kit are still installed. Having a hard time making myself take it off even with the issues.

You need to clean the deck after every lawn, and sometimes during the cut on a lawn if you're trying to mulch wet grass.

I don't understand people who come here looking for advice and ignore it. I have over 5,000 hours of experience mowing with Exmark mowers, with and without mulch kits in all conditions you can imagine...mulch kits are not suitable for cutting wet grass!

Darryl G said:

You need to clean the deck after every lawn, and sometimes during the cut on a lawn if you're trying to mulch wet grass.

I don't understand people who come here looking for advice and ignore it. I have over 5,000 hours of experience mowing with Exmark mowers, with and without mulch kits in all conditions you can imagine...mulch kits are not suitable for cutting wet grass!

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I’m taking your advice buddy! Mulch kit with wavy blades, and then I’ll probably swap out to use the notched high lift blades with no mulch kit to see if it gives me the best cut like
Your getting. The only issue I remember having when not using a mulch kit is sometimes with the massive spring growth it would leave a lot of clippings, meaning it looks bad or I need to double cut.

And you can continue to tell me that I am ignoring people when yet I am not. I’m not talking about saturated grass to where it has just rained that day or the day before. I am talking about very very very light damn grass. Not enough to even make feet marks when you walk. Like take a water hose and shoot it out. Unless the grass is extremely dry and dusty it has issues.

Not sure what more you want me to say here. I have listened and tried every ones opinions in here.

Post 4 of this thread I told you how to deal with the issues you were having and recommend you not get a mulch kit