wow what a helpful video for me Rick,
thank you. I screwed up not releasing the hydraulic cylinder, that sure took some unnecessary energy to work against,
plus I must have gotten lucky with the universal joint because it didn't bind. Lot of little steps, great engineering, and it's all very HD.
Even if mine is smaller, much less expensive, and less complicated than the model shown. But the deck is almost identical, big difference underneath
throwing the grass to the rear instead of moving mowed grass six feet from one direction to the other. Which I really wish I could in this wet weather.
No problems at all with JD 60 throwing wet grass all to one direction, lawn looks great when done. But the Kubota really clumps. So I mow what I can with the Kubota, all the
areas where the grass isn't thick, but in the thickest areas, learned the RD deck does not disperse wet clippings effectively. A little bit of info the salesman neglected
to mention...
I get some front outer edge scalping from this deck once in a while, like a boat bashing into a tall wave, it digs in a little too deep, and my grass is very unforgiving.
Mow bermuda grass too low and you wind up with brown, not green. Your mowing sins are all out there easy to see.
This big heavy mower and deck are really better suited to perfectly graded lawns. Hit one of my subsiding tree potholes and one of those edges will be lighter colored
than the rest. This happened a lot with the prior service who ran their JD ZT's at high speed, and they got deck float/bounce where the cutting height changed, usually going lower
than desired, and there's no hiding it on this kind of grass. Other parts of my lawn (it's all a big mutt which is fine with me, green is green) where I have more fescue the high speed deck bounce doesn't seen to show.
All through my lawns are subtle drainage pathways, so while the land is flat, less than one degree, lots of small to large ditches moving water off the
property. Hit one of those at high speed and this isn't the suspension on a Ferrari...it's action reaction time all with a heavy dose of gravity.
Asking the mow crew to slow down was not well received. Now I mow the lawn again and I simply slow down and minimize the markings.
It all looks much better a day later, but I think we all look back when done mowing one last time to see how it looks. And what we forgot...
great pic of an RNG wannabe...
nothing will be in the league of his Vanagon when he's through. I think it will be NASA certified to land on the moon...
after collecting tables of trophies at car meets. ding ding ding oops, wake up, wake up RNG, maybe it wasn't a dream...
RNG has the art of "hanging in there" to an Olympic science. What do they call it, the Patience of Job?
When you enjoy this sort of thing, which many of us do, the trip is a big part of the fun, not just the destination.
And what a trip RNG has been on. Probably worthy of a book or a great article in Automobile magazine.
Kubota puts Subaru engines in their small gas models, and RNG is putting a Subaru in his Vanagon. Good minds think alike.
though I think a small block Chevy would have worked well too.
y'all have a nice day
