Double Cutting ?

[Mowman]

Anyone having to double cut their lawns to get a nice finish look? The last few times I have had to double cut everything. If so do you charge extra? Mowman

[Bobby]

We double cut just about everything.It's a must do for quality work in my area. Lawns are priced knowing this in advance.<p>----------<br>Bobby <br>Ft Lauderdale

[smoker]

a lot of people do it but not all. the advantages are simple. If you have the time and want to keep your customers happy double cut when possible.<br>1. it will make your clippings much, much smaller and you won't have to bag.<br>2. you will stripe the lawn (see eric elm's web site, just click on his name at the top of this page)<br>in order to do an even better job go to the double blade system posted on this forum. go to search and key in double blades, this site will explain it to you. some will tell you time is money,true, but doing a second pass will take no more time then if you had to bag the clippings and chances are if your competition is not doing it your lawns might just look better and you will get referrals. good luck

[Keith]

Oh yeah! We end up double cutting parts of 70% of the lawns when they grow like mad in the summer. It is something you do to set your work above the rest. Usually we don't have to double cut the entire lawn, just some spots. We just lift the deck a notch or two for the second cut. Know this going in when you bid the lawn.

[Gus]

We double cut nearly everything this time year because it saves bagging anmd looks good when your done. I always factor this in the cost of my bids.

[lawrence stone]

The reason you guys have to double cut is because you have made poor equipment choices<br>and or cannot control the type and amount of fertilizer applied.<p>My old toros mow althletic fields (bluegrass)to 1 1/2 inches at a six day cycle.<p>REsideintial lawns are mowed to 2 1/2 inches<br>on a seven-eight day cycle in one pass without any visible clippings. And my machines run in high gear at all times.

[curlawngreen]

What is this charge that you get for cutting someones yard twice? $27.00 stop fee, $2.00 per 1m 2X or what? Priced beforhand? If I told any of my clients I would have to cut their lawn twice they would ask me WHY? Can you answer the question?

[steveair]

hello,<p>I usually never double cut, but today was a first for me.<p>I had to mow our airfield for over a week, so got behind (almost 2 weeks..oops) on are public areas. Looked like hell. The grass had began seed heading and was real tall, but I had to get the 'priority job' done and its just me until we get our summer help in a couple of weeks. I hate spring. anyways.....<p>On the first cut, it was pretty ugly. Where the front wheels went, the mower left a lot of 'streaks' in that tall grass. Plus, with this HEAT WAVE, the grass seemed more like straw than grass. Did not want to cut. After the first one, had a lot of clippings and 'hairs', so did it again.<p>Much better. Thinking of doing it more often now. I'm lucky, because I don't have to worry about the time it takes (all company time) but I could see losing some bucks if I were in the mowing business and didn't figure it into the price. Interesting in how you guys charge.<p>I have a quick question. Keith said they mow the second pass higher than the first. I was thinking of mowing the first pass higher than normal and then dropping the deck to my normal height for the second. Would this work too? Thought that might lead to better striping this way. <p>Also, I would agree with stone somewhat. If you mow on a 'regular' schedule, you really shouldn't have grass so tall that it needs two cuttings. But, who here has a &quot;Regular&quot; schedule. Does it rain by you stone? I thought you were form NJ too. You must be in that 'dry section' If you are keeping secrets, you should right a book like Nilson has and you could make a fortune. <p>steveair

[osc]

In Ohio, grass can grow 6-8&quot; in one week in the spring and it's pretty hard to get by on one pass no matter what kind of equipment we use.

[lawrence stone]

Steve wrote:<br>&gt;Does it rain by you stone? I thought you were form NJ too. You must be in that 'dry section' <p>I live near Scranton, PA. BTW we had a good downpour from a t-storm last evening.<p>It has been in the upper 80's for the last <br>four days now. <p>Some contractors just don't have the right equipment (poorly designed mowing decks) to<br>handle a lot of clippings. You also need to<br>have the biggest engines that your machines<br>can accept.<p>Maybe Lazer will add some insight on how well<br>52&quot; and 62&quot; toro decks flow.<p>Any machine can mow sparce warm season turf.<br>The real test for a machine is the ability to mow bluegrass up north in the month of May.

[lawrence stone]

steve wrote:<p>&gt;I had to mow our airfield for over a week, so got behind (almost 2 weeks..oops) on are public areas. Looked like hell. <p>That is because those 72&quot; mulching decks<br>are not the right piece of equipment for your<br>needs. If you had machines with 72&quot; side<br>discharge decks you would not have to double cut.<p>You are going to have a hard time dumping your 72&quot; mulching deck groundsmasters for<br>that reason.<p>I know from expierence with a 1991 Toro<br>48&quot; recycler deck (it is now a boat anchor<br>in my garage) that those deticated muclching<br>decks are a poor choice for a front line<br>mower.<br>

[Eric ELM]

Anyone that's been to my website and looked at my clippings page and read my article, knows that we double mow in the spring if needed. So far we haven't needed to, but this week the lawns have grown big time. Looks like some double mowing coming up. Check out the picture and you can see the difference in our lawn in the background that was double cut in the spring and the one in the foreground that is cut by our competitors. The clippings will build up so bad by only cutting once, that it looks like a hay field and it didn't get baled. <p>OSC, it sounds like we have the same conditions in the spring. Even the lawns that people refuse to fertilize grow like crazy here in the spring.<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://pages.prodigy.net/eric.erickson/&quot;&gt;Eric@ELM&lt;/a&gt;<br>

[steveair]

In response to our decks, yes, they are a terrible choice for us. We have a lot of 'terrible' choices, and lucky me, I have to deal with them now. The people who made decisions before I got to the company had no rhyme or reason for anything they purchased.<p>One issue, however, is we can NOT have side discharge. For the simple reason of launching a rock into a plane thats cruising at 160mph during takeoff. I would love to have rear discharge decks. The 455 I demoed did and actually had far less overspray than the mulching. It was a dream. <p>Being in a 'corporate' work place is very difficult though. Its very hard to convince people that a diff't piece of equip is needed. To them, they see that are current mowers &quot;cut grass&quot;, so what else do I want. A very mind tiring affair. <br> <br>And, oh ya, I cut the public grounds with a 36 bobcat, SIDE discharge. Again, a terrible choice, but I'm stuck with it....for now. The ground is very uneven, and a lot of drainage swails, so the groundmasters scalp, slide, and do all other sorts of damage. I had to double cut using the bobcat, which has a 14 hp kohler. That motor is strong, so I would have to say that having a big motor will not save you from double cutting. I found that out today. And yes, My feet are sore as hell from walking that little deck back and forth across open spans that a 52 would of done in half the time. <p>steveair<p><p><font size="1">Edited by: steveair

[Cletus]

Its bad inought cuttin once!ah wd nevah lop twice!<p>

[yardsmith]

yes Stone, we bow down to your greatness.....<br>Anyways, I've had to double cut the past week or so 'cause I didn't get my blades sharpened. Even with sharp blades sometimes the dandelions don't pop back up after the front of the deck drags them down.<br>It's easier to cut at a decent pace then to go real slow once to make sure the dandelions are all cut. Not all customers care about a pristine, weed-free lawn. And yes, we have lots of thick ryegrass, fescue & bluegrass lawns next door over here in Ohio.<br>I can still get more done by double mowing with my bobcat Z than a walk behind in high gear-been there, done that.<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>

[lawrence stone]

smitty wrote:<p>&gt;Anyways, I've had to double cut the past week or so 'cause I didn't get my blades sharpened. <p>It is not my fault that you are too lazy to sharpen your blades on a daily basis.<p>&gt;Not all customers care about a pristine, weed-free lawn<p>Why does one do business with low quality customers? Only scrubs take any work the can get.<p>&gt;I can still get more done by double mowing with my bobcat Z than a walk behind in high gear-been there, done that.<p>No wonder why you have to double cut.<br>10 1/2 mph is too fast to be mowing this time of year.<p>

[Toroguy]

At 3.5 mph with 48&quot; deck at 3&quot; cutting height...had to double cut lawns yesterday. Blades were sharpened in am. Grass is growing faster than a teen in puberty.

[Evan528]

stone, it dosnt matter what kind of mower you use... this time of the year here in PA the grass is growing a inch a day... there no way you can cut it once after a week and have it look decent. i treat most of my lawns wich only makes them grow faster... i use my toro z master 62 on almost all of them. the one disadvantage ive found with my superflow deck is that it dosnt chop the grass up as small as other mowers cause the blades only hit the grass once, not pass the cut grass from blade to blade. i have a 25hp engine on it so i can got full speed and still cut all the grass. ive even noticedwith this machine that it cuts just as nice going full speed as it does going slow.....and yes, i sharpen my blades daily but havent used gaotors with it because of the lack of lift...

[yardsmith]

Talk to the hand Stone;<br>My bobcat won't do 10.5 mph (I wish it did)-I mow at 5-6 mph<br>Other mowers had been sharpened night before & dandelions still bent over from front wheels laying them down, & needed it twice.<br>I have a family of 4 to feed; therefore I don't have the luxury of choosing only top notch crap- if I did, mowers would sit & family would go hungry. I'm not too proud to cut a lawn that doesn't take all day by way of nitpicky owners- the easier the better, & more $$ for a job well done in less time is the bottom line. Diff. strokes.....<p><br>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<p><p>&lt;font size=&quot;1&quot;&gt;Edited by: yardsmith<br><p><font size="1">Edited by: yardsmith

[lawrence stone]

You should plan on getting you pesticide lic.<br>over the winter months to give you more income and to control those weeds.<p>Plant the seed in your customer head that you will be contoling the weeds and grubs<br>next season.<p>This way you can put more food on the table w/o doing a lot more work and with a minimual<br>investment in equipment (lesco push spreader and a couple of can sprayers).

[cutntrim]

We've been double-cutting with our WB's on almost every lawn this week. This may be the fastest growing grass I've seen in ten years for around here. Giving the double-blade system a shot. So far quite impressed. Gator on bottom with high-lift on top seems to work best for our Ransomes. Still have to double cut though. That goes for lawns that we fertilize, lawns that other companies fertilize, and lawns that get no fertilizer at all. <p>My partner and I clocked in 80 hrs last week and will be doing the same this week. Maybe some year I'll be able to actually watch the hockey playoffs, instead of listening to them on the radio in the truck.<p>----------<br>Dave in S.Ontario<br>www.cutntrim.com