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Turn regular deck into mulching deck?


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I mowed for the first time last night with my AC917. Worked great. I too will have to see what I can do to raise the deck height. Also, I'm used to mulching mowers (push), so I'm disappointed with the cutting results. I expected this, as I new there would be a large amount of clippings. Will using mulching blades such as Gators help any, or do I need a mulching deck? The 48" deck on the 917 is fairly deep, is it possible to fabricate a plug and make it a mulcher?
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Mulching blades for the most part aren't worth a tinker's darn in tall grass. You have all this grass and no where to go with it, so you end up with "cow pies" comming out under your mower deck. If you keep your grass length below two inches between cuttings you stand a chance. Never had them. But I have seen mowers in tall grass with mulcher decks and confused looks on the people mowing, like "how come"?
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To avoid windrows I always mow with the deck discharging onto the uncut grass. You then also re-cut the clippings on the next pass and this results in a very clean mowing job.
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I have a couple extra decks for my 717&728 and I thought about making one into a multching deck by welding a plate over the shute.I might try this by just tack welding something on the one deck that is basiclly junk just to try it and see what happens.
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Yes TEJ is Right keep your grass cut to a few inches and throw the clippings inside and you will not see hardly any clippings at all. No need for mulchers. Doc
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on a simplicity i dont know but a plate or plug on a sears did not work. since the deck is designed to rid itself of the clippings, putting a plate over the discharge chute resulted in a windrow of clippings against the plug. I would guess a simplicity deck would do the same thing.
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Well on my manual it shows a mulcher kit avalible for the Broadmoor 717.Although it is no longer avalible as far as I know and I have posted messages about what the kit contains or if anyone had one and I never got any information about it. I believe there is a kit for the larger 42in decks for the older Landlords too,but I dont know if it is avalible or not. I think I have read that the Gator blades worked well on the Landlords with the shute plugged off. I have seen some tractors that the mulch kit required different blades.Probably high lift blades.The kit for my Simplicity 4211 just contains a plug for the deck(no special blades) so I made up a peice of sheet metal to work.The kit cost about $30 which I thought was high for just a plug.
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Mowing and throwing the clippings into the unmowed grass means mowing in a circle. That means no nice striping. I'll have to figure something else out before thinking about that. Yes, my grass was tall this last time, and it usually won't be that tall. Maybe I'll have to mow a couple of more times before I decide to try something. I'm very familiar with mulching, and with the good vs. poor results from grass being too tall. My troybuilt push mower does a great job, and that's what I'm used too. I'm just not used to having clippings. But, I'm mowing again tonight and the grass is not nearly as tall as it was last time. We'll see what happens.
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Yes I too thought of the plug or plate on the Discharge, But wasn't sure how it would work.. I also checked into Gator blades but never came up with a good response on them, I was told by dealers They didn't sell a lot but the guys that bought em that's all they wanted....
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I've got Gator blades on my 6216 and I mow with an open chute. I tend to let the grass get to at least twice it's finished height between cuts. When I switched to gator blades the "clippings" that were thrown out from under the deck were reduced in volume by at least 50%, and were fine enough that the first rain would wash them into the lawn. I have a neighbor for whome I ocasionally mow the back lawn (when they can't see the dog anymore they ask me to mow. The gator blades were a big improvment in that type of mowing also, as they tended to keep the long strands from winding around the arbor shafts.
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I think I am going to get some of those gator blades for my Landlord.I wish I could find them for my Broadmoor 728&717 though...
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Country, I put a plug in my landlord deck. It works great for leaves but sucks for grass. You get lots of clumps......
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