Mowing Tall Grass - CCC 782 & 44C Deck

[SGragg]

Mowed my yard last evening (1 acre) and looked good when finished.

Noticed that my neighbor had not mowed his yard for a couple weeks. He lives at another location and his single mother lives next to me. He takes care of all the yard work, but I thought he might be getting behind, so I mowed the front half of their yard (about 1/3 acre).

I raised the deck up and noticed that my 44C deck didn't appear to bog down, but the middle and right blades seems to leave a ridge of taller grass than when compared to the left blade. I was going really slow. As uneven as it looked, I went back over it a second time with the deck a little lower and that seemed to even it up (didn't want to help someone and make the yard look worse than it was before).

Didn't hear any slipping or whinning belts to indicate the blades were not turning or slowing down.

Any of you have similar symptoms when mowing tall grass?

Was planning to do an oil change this week and when I have the deck off, I'll take the cover off to see if anything is noticable.

Let me know your thoughts...thanks.

[clint]

Check the baffles in the deck, make sure the blades are sharp.... Best thing to do is throw away the 44c deck, and get a a GT deck, I have 44GT deck of a later model cub cadet. Look around for a 1541, 1440 cub cadets, the 46GT deck does a much better job cutting grass than the older decks.

[SGragg]

Thanks, Clint.

Sorry I put this in the wrong section. Habit...

[Berwil]

Sounds normal to me. Your blades create lift and stand the grass up before it gets cut. In order to do that, the deck needs to be sealed to the ground. When you lift the deck up, it loses suction and the grass stays bent over or gets knocked over when you cut it. Since your blade tips dull first, I'll bet the ridges you saw were where the blades overlap. A problem with the baffles could create this; but if it mows fine with the deck down, I wouldn't worry about it. Just sharpen the blades when you do your oil change.
Bill

[SGragg]

Originally Posted by Berwil

Sounds normal to me. Your blades create lift and stand the grass up before it gets cut. In order to do that, the deck needs to be sealed to the ground. When you lift the deck up, it loses suction and the grass stays bent over or gets knocked over when you cut it. Since your blade tips dull first, I'll bet the ridges you saw were where the blades overlap. A problem with the baffles could create this; but if it mows fine with the deck down, I wouldn't worry about it. Just sharpen the blades when you do your oil change.
Bill

Blades were sharpened a couple weeks ago.

Bet you're right. That makes sense. Also why when I lowered the deck, the cut was better. I had raised it 'cause I didn't want it to look like it was bailed (so tall). But in the end, keeping the deck down would probably been better. I'll take the advice, thanks!

[zippy1]

Originally Posted by clint

Check the baffles in the deck, make sure the blades are sharp.... Best thing to do is throw away the 44c deck, and get a a GT deck, I have 44GT deck of a later model cub cadet. Look around for a 1541, 1440 cub cadets, the 46GT deck does a much better job cutting grass than the older decks.

I would disagree with that statement every day of the week. The older decks make for a much nicer looking lawn. The high vac decks do nothing but gather grass and spit it out in gobs when there is enough gathered to disgard it.
The small discharge chute is another good place to gather more grass. Where the C style decks have a much larger opening that does not clog, and they don't have that annoying humming noise the high vac decks do. So Stanton, the last thing you should do is "throw away the 44c deck"
Check for belt slip or dull blades, and don't let the grass get so long

[inspectorudy]

I have the same problem if I let my grass grow too tall and then try to cut it the same height as normal. I will get an intermittent ridge of higher than normal grass but not every where only where it is really thick. I think its normal and I just go over any area that has the ridges. Keep the blades sharp and maybe go with the kind that have the "V" notch at the very tip to snag the tall grass and keep them from being pushed aside at the very tip. Remember that when you are mowing in very thick high grass that the shorter grass being cut acts like a lubricant on the blade so when the taller grass gets hit by the blade it is pushed down and out at the tip instead of being cut. That is where the notch can help by not allowing the tall grass to slip outward. As for the 44C deck keep it! It is a fine heavy duty deck that is not being made any longer due to the cost to make it. The cheap junk built today are the equivalent thickness to the belt cover on the 44C .

[clint]

Maybe I have had a bad run of decks. I probably have 8 older decks or more, none of them cut a better looking lawn than the GT decks. You can do a search on this subject, and I'm not the only one who has noticed this.

Maybe throwing the 44c deck away was not the correct term, but as far as the better deck the GT decks don't leave the strips, and long clippings like the older decks do. I don't see how the high vac decks gather enough grass to spit it out in globs ? I assume the taller deck (GT) allows more air space to create lift, and the grass clippings may cycle more than the older decks, but I have never had problems with the gt decks unless the grass is to wet, then I guess the older decks may not give as much trouble with the grass bunching up.

I will have to disagree with you on the GT deck verses the 44c deck

[ajcombs]

I'm kinda interested in the results of my newest acquired deck that came with the super really but I have mowed with the 42 cast center leaves a nice cut but on side inclines leaves a sharp deeper cut on one side or the other on the down hill side. My 44c's do not do this and I do have one with the speed up pulley and really just makes the discharge finer doesn't really get rid of the missing streaks being discussed. Going slower seems to help. The 60 hayban cuts as nice as any but is so big I can't cut everything but it does get the job done so fast i am not arguing with it. I have noticed that it leaves the same kind of weird missing streaks on it too. I have gotten my 46 deck almost ready to use now and will report how it does in comparison.

[drglinski]

I had not noticed good results in tall grass using dad's 782 in the past; could be any combination of things.