General lawn mowing with 54” deck

[jpilk99]

Get ready to laugh, but in the last 20 years of owning a few nice riding mowers with 54” 3-blade decks, I hadn’t ever noticed the distinct “line” left between blades (see pics). Why am I just seeing this now?

Obviously the blades can’t overlap, they’d hit each other. Is the deck height so low that I’m only noticing the slight height difference between blade rows? I’m right where I usually have it at 2”.

Only way (it seems) to get a nice even uniform cut is to go up n back over the same cut areas but try and line up so I mow down the raised up stripes…. Again, never had to do that before.

Thanks for any suggestions/answers.

Jay

 

[Mtsoxfan]

Deck not level, low side, high side, and when high side matches up against low side on next pass it shows more...
Just guessing here.

 

[Gem99ultra]

My guess is that you don't have your blades mounted correctly. They should be mounted like this: -/- Thus, they'll never clash and 'no line. Perhaps you even have the incorrect length blades?
Just a note however, I have two such mowers and never had them leave lines as you've shown. And, of course, I've gone through a lot of sets of blades on those two mowers.

 

[dodge man]

I’d check the deck for level also. The blades do overlap in the way they cut, that’s why one blade in the middle is in front of the others.

 

[KennyG]

Are the blades so worn the tips aren't cutting? Doesn't really look like a deck level issue.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

Deck angle and height.

It's too steeply angled front to back and off level

 

[RjCorazza]

Also, Low and dense grass like crabgrass will look like that after a cut, particularly when the sun is low in the AM or PM.

 

[Squirrel's242]

Kind of appears like the blades are not level side to side when cutting. Could be the deck but also check your tire pressures. Your mowing is listing.

 

[Carl_NH]

Agree with all of the above - had the same issue with my Cub Cadet, and it was out of level, and blade tips were worn down. I havent used that mower since 2010, and use a ZT instead.

The other factor is height of cut, 2" is really short for New England now with drought we have in coastal NH, you should be cutting at least 3.5" or 4". I cut at 5" the last month to keep it from browning out,

 

[leonz]

Tire pressure has always been the issue with mowers I have owned and used.
Having tubeless tires on lawn mowers has always been a problem for mowing
and holding snow and ice chains.