Rear Discharge Mower Deck

[wpbarne]

Howdy Folks:

What are the advantages and disadvantages to a rear discharge mower deck rather then the side discharge style? We currently have a Kubota BX2200 with a 60 inch cut and I am considering adding a Kubota zero turn. We currently mow about 4 acres of open field at home and about 10 acres at a museum as volunteers.

Thanks and God Bless,

Ward.

 

[PHPaul]

I just went from a side discharge to a rear discharge on a 3PH finish mower.

The advantages as I see it are:

1. With rear discharge it doesn't matter which direction you mow in. With a side discharge you generally want to blow the clippings onto the mowed side.

2. The rear discharge spreads the clippings more evenly with less windrowing.

I haven't noticed any disadvantages.

 

[chim]

I was hesitant to try a RD deck but glad I did. If the grass gets too out of control between mowing, I still get a little windrowing. If I mow in a counter clockwise direction it takes car of that. As Paul said, it's nice to be able to mow in either direction. The only downside is not being able to use the deck to rake leaves in the Fall. That was overcome by cobbling a blower together from an old 10 ton A/C blower as in the video clip below. It works better than the side discharge RFM ever did.

For that kind of acreage I'd want something a foot or more wider. When I switched from a 21HP tractor and a 60" deck to a 32HP tractor and a 72" deck, the mowing time went from 33 minutes an acre to 22 minutes an acre.

http://vid1295.photobucket.com/albums/b628/jim_miller7/IMG_0767_zpsrkkzg7vr.mp4

 

[wpbarne]

For that kind of acreage I'd want something a foot or more wider. When I switched from a 21HP tractor and a 60" deck to a 32HP tractor and a 72" deck, the mowing time went from 33 minutes an acre to 22 minutes an acre.

Chim: I agree in wanting a wider deck mower, however, around the museum there are places where a 60 inch deck is pushing the limit as there are lots of plantings. The wider deck would be wonderful in the fields that are used for parking for major events. The museum does have two zero turns with the 60 inch deck so if I were to "bite the bullet" and purchase a zero turn for the larger fields it would be a 72 in version and continue to use the 60 inch mowers where necessary. Our volunteers who mow are sometimes not as careful where the clippings wind up which causes some conflict with the volunteers who take care of the flower beds, etc. We do like to keep all of our volunteers happy . Thanks for your post. God Bless, Ward and Mary.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I just want to add that when I changed my side discharge Farm King mower to a rear discharge I could mow a lot faster.

 

[Apsterbobed]

I just want to add that when I changed my side discharge Farm King mower to a rear discharge I could mow a lot faster.

I agree, when we replaced our 72" side discharge with a 72" rear discharge I was also able to mow faster. Both mowers were 3pt on a JD 790. The rear discharge let me mow faster or I could go longer between mowing with out overloading the tractor. I would skip every other mowing with the rear discharge because it could eject the clippings so much easier (we mostly used it in horse pastures).