Mowing decks laying grass over before cutting

[sandman2234]

I have noticed that multi-bladed decks when cutting Bahia grass tend to lay the stalks down, and pass over them, thereby missing cutting them. Has anyone ever cut out the front edge of a deck and maybe installed lightweight chains, or anything?
David from jax

 

[Reverend Blair]

I run into this with the grass/weeds out back sometimes, although I've never had to deal with bahia grass. Clean the bottom of your mower deck, then spray it with a light lubricant (canola oil works well, and is environmentally sound).

Make sure your blades are sharp and spray them with lubricant too.

 

[lizardman]

My new JD 810a(like I am sure all the new JD commercial ZTRs also) has the front of the deck cut out higher than the rear. In fact, the blades are actually slightly lower than the front of the deck. I havent even tried cutting yet to know if it helps.

Rod

 

[sandman2234]

On most of the old mowers around here, the blades are well hidden by the deck front. Probably to maintain the certain liability guidelines that lawyers surely came up with. It just doesn't make sense to have a deck without hidding the blade behind it. Having an mower with an exposed spinning blade doesn't seem like something manufacturers would allow to exist.
Having acknowledged that decks with blades either exposed or even level with the bottom of the deck do exist makes me think I can solve this problem. Just how much deck to cut without destroying the strength of the deck, and how low I can move the blades before the extensions become a problem will also be something to decide. Adding additional blades, or high lift vaccumn type blades might also be an option, although I am not sold on vaccumn type blades, despite having owned a Snapper hi vac in the past. That mower was probably the biggest offender in this problem, but mainly because the deck was built to increase vaccumn, and tight tolerances between the ground and the deck, and the ends of the blades and the sides of the deck. Plus the deck actually has a lip on it that added to the problem.
David from jax