Mowing ENGINE RPM WHEN MOWING

[4310]

What I would like to see is an honest to God scientific like comparison on this.

I have always heard that sharp blades are better and that faster blade tip speeds are better but I have only seen opinions on this.

Does it hurt the grass blade if it is ripped rather than cut? Wouldn't a dull blade still "cut" the grass if it is going fast enough? How sharp is sharp? Does a high suction blade versus a low suction blade really make any difference? These are the questions that keep me awake at night

Me, I have a six-foot rear discharge Woods rear finish mower that I use between 2000-2200 rpm's (PTO is rated for 2500). I can't tell the difference in the cut at those RPMs versus 2500. At 2500 RPMs the mower starts to sound angry though.

 

[chim]

Different times of the growing season produce grass that doesn't always behave the same when being mowed. Add to that the height of the uncut grass is always different and I find myself discovering ideal mowing RPM's being different by a few hundred. Best to be observant and flexible to adapt to the conditions.

I only recently discovered a way to deal with a small windrow problem I'd been experiencing in some taller grass. The first 23 years we lived here I only used 5' decks with a right side discharge. Even when we got the 6' RFM with a rear discharge, I more or less continued a counter-clockwise direction out of habit. On the taller and thicker grass the deck was leaving small windrows of cut grass at the right side of the cut.

Then I started mowing in a clockwise direction and the windrow problem was eliminated. With each pass, the little line of grass disappeared and a new one was laid on the right. It didn't accumulate and grow in volume, it was more as though it just moved over a notch as I went. Last pass directly over the line at low RPM's erased it.