Buying Advice SCUTs + mulch kits?

mile9c1 · May 5, 2017

SCUTs w/ mulch kits?

Hi, I'm a new member looking for my first "tractor". I'll be mowing approximately 1.5 acres, bagging leaves, and removing snow from my driveway. My current tools for this are a JD 425 AWS with a 54" deck (mulch kit), a 48" front blade, and 2 hand rakes. This setup works well but my wife has lost interest in raking leaves. I don't want to invest in a bagging system for a 20 year old garden tractor, so I figured this is a good time to upgrade. I hope to find a SCUT with a front loader, 60" MMM, mulch kit, and grass catcher.

First question - does anyone besides Deere and Kubota offer a mulch kit for their 60" deck? I see Massey Ferguson has a 54" mulching deck but this wouldn't allow me to bag leaves (and 54" is too small). If these are my only two choices I will look at the 1025R and the BX2380.

2nd question - if a different brand offers a mulching kit - do they offer a grass catcher too?

TIA guys

boggen · May 5, 2017

mulch kit = atleast to me. go down to local store (what ever it may be), stay away from the straight flat blades (less power single cut blades), and get the blades that are "twisted" or some special little teeth on top edge of them. and you got yourself a mulching blade setup for what ever mower you want to use them on.

if you really want to go crazy, remove the plastic/metal chute on the side, and place a piece of card board and some tape over were the chute was.

mow area a 2nd time for more mulching.

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other words...
the really twisted blades = act more like a "fan" and suck grass up into the blades, creating a tornado like air current around each blade. causing the grass to to be sucked up and rotate through the blades a couple or more times to be cut up more.

a straight flat blade = it has some air current, but pretty much single cut maybe cut it a couple times and it is done.

mile9c1 · May 5, 2017

I tried "Gator Blades" on my 425 and they did not work nearly as well at hiding clippings as the factory Deere mulch kit (which consists of a few blade baffles and chute cover).

dodge man · May 7, 2017

Years ago I added a mulch kit to my BX2350. Its more than just blades and a chute plug, it comes with a lot of baffles that bolt to the deck. How does it work? Fair, but for various reason, I wouldn't be with out it.

Ron of Va · May 7, 2017

Mile9c1
I have been down a similar road. I have a JD with a 48 deck equipped with a mulching kit. I also have separate bagging attachment for the back that uses a belt driven blower to fill the bags.

During late fall, using the bagging attachment, I can't drive 50 feet without the bags being full of leaves. I removed the bagger years ago in favor of a sweeper (the kind you pull a rope and dump the entire load). I pull the sweeper behind the JD and mulch and sweep in one pass. Once the leaves are mulched, the sweeper holds three or four or times more leaves then bagger. The sweeper doesn't do as good a job as the bagging attachment, but hey, the leaves are still coming down.

I used to be allowed to dump the sweeper on the street and the city would pick them up.
They stopped picking them up early, so now I either have to bag the leaves from the sweeper or haul them away. I dump them on a tarp and sling them into my dump trailer. Of course you could still bag them from a pile from the sweeper, but I never have to rake.

I recently bought a Massey GC1720 with a 54 dedicated mulching deck, but I am still using the John Deere with the mulching attachment. This fall I will still use the sweeper on the JD, even though the MMM on the GC1720 works great.

mile9c1 · May 17, 2017

Ron, which kind of sweeper do you have? I've read mixed reviews of sweepers but have never tried one myself.

Ron of Va · May 17, 2017

I use a 42 inch Sears sweeper that has a chain drive in the wheel assembly. When choosing a sweeper, you want one with as large a netting over the back as you can get to prevent the mulched leaves from blowing out of the top.

My next-door neighbor bought one from Northern Tools. He saved about (not exactly sure) $75-$100. There was a space in the netting at the back where the leaves just blew out everywhere as he drove around the yard, especially when the basket started getting full. Also, it did not seem as well made as the one from Sears.

When I had a smaller tractor (42" deck, I had a 38" Sears sweeper which had some kind of loose steel balls inside the wheels, which floated and meshed with a plastic cam. This allowed the sweeper to be backed up and not engage the brushes. The plastic cams in the wheels finally wore out and had to be rebuilt at a cost of $90. (The 42 chain drive can be backed up, but it uses a superior system in the wheel assembly)

For maneuverability, I believe that a 6-inch difference between the width of the deck and the sweeper is ideal. But if it is too large it requires a lot of strength to dump. I just reach back while on the tractor and pull the rope to dump the leaves. Sometimes it is all this 66-year-old can handle to pull the rope on a full load with the 42 sweeper. It depends on how dry the leaves are.

A couple of tips: When dumping on a tarp, you will need to lay a 1X4 inch board across the front edge as you enter the tarp. This prevents the brushes from grabbing the edge of the tarp.

If you leave a row of crumbs, just disengage the blades so as not to further scatter the crumbs and sweep. It will pick them all up.

Sometimes driving parallel on hills, the smooth tires will not bite and turn the brushes. I made some more aggressive tires from an old VW beetles snow tires. I cut strips off the edge and used sheetrock screws to hold the strips on the existing tires. (Now that worked great, and they never came loose in over 20 years.)

Ron of Va · May 17, 2017

Up date from the above post.
Here is a photo of the tire with the more aggressive tread. Until I took this photo I did not realize how worn they were. I remove them from my first sweeper and installed them on the newer one. I still have what is left of the tire above my garage, and another VW snow tire I have not yet cut, (from my 1963 Beetle I bought in 1972

)

AxleHub · May 18, 2017

Greetings Mile9c1,

You mentioned you wanted to mulch your 1.5 acre yard but want to bag leaves. You also mentioned you didn't want a Massey Scut with a dedicated Mulcher deck - because it wouldn't allow you to bag leaves and because its only 54 inches. But as an owner of such a unit - let me mention some things you may not be aware of.

I have a 1.3 acre yard. The MF2315 Mulching deck is not like a mmm deck with mulching baffle and plug. Its 6 blades instead of 3 and specifically designed to multi-cut the grass blades by have more blades and a high lift chamber. The deck itself is an integrated mulching baffle - there is no outlet and the mulching lift and chopping is considerable - a baffle kit in a normal deck does "mulching" - but it also has lots of places where grass can catch and build up - while a true mulching deck is a far smoother contoured flow pattern. If you have leaves - it mulches them to feed your grass - it doesn't plug up like baggers do with leaves. I've had baggers - and I've never found one that didn't have issues with leaves unless it was a 3pt PTO driven unit like the Yanmar scuts had.

If you are highly disciplined and cut your grass regularly when dry every 3 or 4 days - a normal mulching baffled deck may do fine. But if you aren't highly disciplined on frequency and dryness - that means you may be cutting 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 inch grasses at times. And a mulching deck with 6 blades does it - but a standard deck with baffle adapter will struggle. You'll have the hp to do it - but you won't have enough chopping action - which will either bog the engine progress - or deposit globs - and leaves will bulk up. And if you have a denser lawn - like bluegrass - that's an even higher level of hp chopping demand. I do it on steep hills with dense bluegrass - and it works well with blades sharpened and a 25 hp Iseki/Massey engine.

Another thing to consider is handling in your lawn. My 54 inch mmm mulcher is actually 55 1/2 inches wide and cuts 54 inches. A 60 inch deck with baffles is typically 73 inches wide (because of the outlet shroud) - so a wider cut regular deck has more objects to go around because of the shroud.

I'm certainly not saying an MF2315 deck is a perfect choice - but if nice lawn and mulching on a regular basis is your desire - its a way to achieve it.

And yes - Massey has 2 traditional 60 inch decks too.

Ron of Va · May 20, 2017

Axle,
In my yard from October 15 to December 1, every 4-5 days, this is the amount of leaves that cover my yard. No mulching deck will make these disappear. Mostly tulip poplar leaves as big as your hand. Sometimes it is worse after some wind and rain.

I have to "Mulch and sweep" twice a week during this time to stay ahead of the game, or I will have to break out the rake, because soon it will block out the sun and kill my grass. I don't rake if I can help it. I do have the mulching deck on my new massey, but I got it in January, and I have not tried it on these. The OP doesn't have to spend 15K to take care of his leaves if he already has a JD; of course unless he wants the Massey like I did.