50" LT1050 Deck Clogging, What Blades?

[NickTF]

I'm having excessive clogging with my LT1050's 50" deck equiped with the "3 in 1" blades. Is there a blade out there that deals with weedy grass a bit better and at taller heights? I refuse to cut a yard at the cruise control speed I'd fall asleep doing it lol. At the same time i'm not cutting that fast either. This mower only has 14 hours on it so the blades are sharp as could be. Just looking for a better blade option as I think it will make a huge difference in this problem. They don't have to be mulching blades. Thanks.

 

[dqdave1]

I do not understand "cruise control speed, I will fall a sleep". Cruise can be set at about any speed. You should be mowing at WOT. and set your speed to what you want.

 

[NickTF]

Everytime I try to engage cruise control it will only engage so high when cutting. The highest it will go is "turtle speed". I always mow at WOT.

 

[JTKub]

No such thing as WOT on a mower. The engine will only max out at a nice easy max governed RPM, which is where you should always be mowing at, especially with a hydrostatic drive system. Anyhoo, you've pretty much already answered your own question. One of 3 things is probably happening; 1) You are mowing at too fast a ground speed, 2) You are mowing with the deck too low, 3) The grass is too wet. My guess is you are letting the grass get too high, or the deck is set too low. The 42"-50" decks will clog easily. Probably easier than you are used to. Heavy-duty, commercial decks have HUGE outlet shoots, the 42"-50's do not.

Joel

 

[dqdave1]

When I had my 1050, it would let me set cruise wherever I wanted.

 

[micman32]

I agree with JTKub. I have a 44 in deck on my 2518 and if the grass is wet or too long it tends to plug up. I don't think the type of grass you are cutting makes any difference in regards to the blades.
My guess is you are cutting too high grass at too low a setting.

I also think the cruise control is a joke. I used it a couple of times and wasn't impressed with it!

Michael

 

[NickTF]

No such thing as WOT on a mower. The engine will only max out at a nice easy max governed RPM, which is where you should always be mowing at, especially with a hydrostatic drive system. Anyhoo, you've pretty much already answered your own question. One of 3 things is probably happening; 1) You are mowing at too fast a ground speed, 2) You are mowing with the deck too low, 3) The grass is too wet. My guess is you are letting the grass get too high, or the deck is set too low. The 42"-50" decks will clog easily. Probably easier than you are used to. Heavy-duty, commercial decks have HUGE outlet shoots, the 42"-50's do not.

Joel

Ofcourse they're governed, WOT in the sense of the maxiumum governed speed.

The 50" deck's outlet is about 90% of the front to back length of the deck which is why I was further shocked to realize this deck clogs so easily. I even removed the discharge gaurd to help a wee bit more as it seems to catch grass toward the back of the discharge.

I cut my neighbors yard and mine and because he's decided to save money I'm only cutting his every two weeks. I cut mine weekly. Yes I know my neighbor's is too **** tall but don't want to not do it for him either. I just figured a machine like this could get through it. Guess I was wrong. Was hoping there would be a blade better suited for this type of cutting and figured maybe a low lift blade would work better. The gras seems to want to clog up in the upper portions of the deck which suggests to me the lift has a large part of the clogging in this machine. I tried cutting his yard at the highest setting and no dice, it still clogs.

 

[JTKub]

Nick, another thing you could try is adjust your cutting deck so it hangs slightly nose down. The blades make a cleaner cut that way, instead of trying to plow through the blades of grass. I've seldom had a clogging issue with my 44" on my ~1.5acres of closely-cropped weeds, but I cut with the deck fairly high. My gauge wheels rarely touch the ground. Oh.. yeah, that cruise-control is a joke. I tried it for about 50ft once and never used it again. It's so easy to regulate ground speed it's a useless appendage IMO.

Joel

 

[NickTF]

Nick, another thing you could try is adjust your cutting deck so it hangs slightly nose down. The blades make a cleaner cut that way, instead of trying to plow through the blades of grass. I've seldom had a clogging issue with my 44" on my ~1.5acres of closely-cropped weeds, but I cut with the deck fairly high. My gauge wheels rarely touch the ground. Oh.. yeah, that cruise-control is a joke. I tried it for about 50ft once and never used it again. It's so easy to regulate ground speed it's a useless appendage IMO.

Joel

Ok, maybe i'll give that a whirl!

Yeah, I only tried the cruise control to see what speed Cub Cadet "recommends" I cut on lol. The **** with that, it's rediculous. Have to consider that's for mulching too though so ofcourse it will be very slow. I agree, the speed is very easy to regulate, these hydrostatic trannys are the best thing since bottled beer!

 

[dqdave1]

What blades are on it now? I used high lift blades from CC that came with the bagger and also used standard CC blade that was original equipment. Each type produced different results. Maybe "gator" blades?

 

[NickTF]

The blades are the standard 3 in 1 blades that came with the mower from the factory. I believe they are a high lift blade as they are designed to mulch, bag, or cut with the discharge shoot open.

 

[dqdave1]

I never had a discharge problem with the high lift blades that came with the bagger system.
God luck and I hope you resolve your problem with discharge.
Sounds like you are doing everything the way you should.

 

[NickTF]

Just got home from the office and looked at the blades a bit closer. I'm not totally sure but I think they are definitely the culptrit, the **** discharge is almost the whole side of the deck so that can't be the restriction lol. Think I may try to order some low lift blades and see how they do. Does anyone have a part number for the low lift blades for this deck?

 

[NickTF]

Well I looked at the deck a bit closer and noticed in the discharge area there is a large restriction. Not really sure what it is there for. Maybe to prevent excessive rock or solid object shooting or for "supposedly" better suction in that area for a better mulching effect, who knows. I cut it off with a saw zall and cut my neighbors yard again. The deck still does accumulate grass underneat but it never completely clogged the chute. The airplaine propeller sound was there but never any clogging or hunks falling down and dragging the mower down. Hopefully with the addition of the gator blades things will only get better.

 

[aczlan]

Well I looked at the deck a bit closer and noticed in the discharge area there is a large restriction. Not really sure what it is there for. Maybe to prevent excessive rock or solid object shooting or for "supposedly" better suction in that area for a better mulching effect, who knows. I cut it off with a saw zall and cut my neighbors yard again.

I had a similar problem, bending it down 1/2" fixed it in my case...

Aaron Z

 

[smcfall]

I had a similar problem, bending it down 1/2" fixed it in my case...

Aaron Z

Cutting out that bar seems drastic, did it help? I was wondering if there was a cross-blade designed, something that ran perpendicular to the blades to increase air flow? My mower repair company bent up the edges of my blades a bit to increase flow...it helps a little but not enough.

 

[smcfall]

Well I looked at the deck a bit closer and noticed in the discharge area there is a large restriction. Not really sure what it is there for. Maybe to prevent excessive rock or solid object shooting or for "supposedly" better suction in that area for a better mulching effect, who knows. I cut it off with a saw zall and cut my neighbors yard again. The deck still does accumulate grass underneat but it never completely clogged the chute. The airplaine propeller sound was there but never any clogging or hunks falling down and dragging the mower down. Hopefully with the addition of the gator blades things will only get better.

Did cutting out that bar really help? Seems drastic, I don't want to damage a perfectly good mower deck (well good except it clogs all the time)

 

[aczlan]

Cutting out that bar seems drastic, did it help? I was wondering if there was a cross-blade designed, something that ran perpendicular to the blades to increase air flow? My mower repair company bent up the edges of my blades a bit to increase flow...it helps a little but not enough.

I bent the bar and switched to Gator blades. No issues after that (although, we sold it not long after and switched to a 3000 series Cub Cadet with a 60" deck).

Aaron Z

 

[MoArk Willy]

I've had an LT1050 for about 11 years now and never clogged the deck. I cut about 2.5 acres of bumpy Missouri rock filled ground and it's been fine. I have cut an unused portion of the yard when the grass is longer than 12" and it cuts through that effortlessly. I use a heavy duty blade with a high lift and other than the usual deck maintenance there have been no issues.
'

 

[jim44]

I've been using a 1050 for about 8 years and never had a clog. When I bought my last one, the dealer gifted me a set of Gator blades,saying that they were "much better" than the CC blades. They work pretty good. I use the cruise control occasionally on level areas. It works ok except that if you get to a downhill run, it takes off like a dragster. I don't think it's supposed to free wheel like that, but it does.