Instead of Double Cutting!

[River Hill]

I know sometime we have to double cut even though that cuts into our profit. As I am sitting here watching the rain thinking how far behind I am getting on my cuts and losing money, I came up with a Idea. Let me know what you guys think. For example I have 10 homes that needed to be cut today and 10 from yesterday. Most of these will probably need to be double cut since they are starting to get long. I always charge per cut because, that is whats common around here. I was thinking of cutting everyones lawn a little longer than normal and telling them I had to do the because of all the rain we have been having. I would also let the know that I would be back early next week to cut it again so we can get it back to normal cutting height which is 3 Inches. This way it makes it easier on me when I get to cut again and I don't lose any money by losing a week to rain. I have a floating deck so changing the height is no problem.

[southside]

Sounds like it may work. If you are cutting<br>at 3&quot; though,how high are you planning to<br>cut it now? How high way it before you mowed?<br>Sounds more like a bush hog job.:)<p>Karl<br>

[River Hill]

Karl,<p>They will probably be around 5 Inches. I just don't like to cut alot of grass off at once because they you have a mess on your hands. Especially when it's damp.

[Charles]

I don't involve customers in details like that. Most would probably not notice unless you bring it up. If they do then you can explain why you did it. I am always doing that raising and lowering the height so as not to make a mess as conditions warrant. Part of the job

[River Hill]

Charles,<p>You are right the customers probably would never no notice a 1/2&quot; to 1&quot; difference, but what they will notice is that I bill them again 5 days later................Why should we work harder when it rains for a few days? We should finally start making the customer pay for it.

[lawrence stone]

Raise the deck and make sure you are cutting with the front of the deck and not cutting the grass twice.<p>Scrape the decks and sharpen the blades daily.<p>During periods of high growth I use a 52&quot; or 62&quot; toro side discharge with gator (old style)blades. I mow at 2 1/2&quot; residential/industrial and 1 1/2&quot; at the<br>athletic fields (in play 1 1/2&quot; dormant fields at 3&quot;).

[turfquip]

<p>It helps to have a powerful backpack blower on hand. Doing a quick walk through of say - a high profile front lawn with excessive clippings - you can sometimes eliminate a second or 'cross cut'.<p>It depends a lot on how powerful your mower is too. Cutting a tall lawn using a 48&quot; with a 14 may have to be cut twice because many blades of grass will be uncut....poor little engine can't sort it all out. <p>But, if it's a matter of having too many clippings around after the first time over, and the grass itself seems to be evenly cut - then try the backpack blower. It's amazing just how many messes you can clean up by breaking up and spreading the lumps and clumps over a wider area.

[lawrence stone]

turfquip wrote:<p>&gt;It depends a lot on how powerful your mower is too. Cutting a tall lawn using a 48&quot; with a 14 may have to be cut twice because many blades of grass will be uncut....poor little engine can't sort it all out. <p>The reason my first line mowers a 62&quot; w/18hp<br>V-twin kohler and two 52&quot; 16hp magnums perform so well is the 28+ft lbs of torque<br>produced by those engines.<p>The same exact mower with a single cylinder engine is a whole different machine.<p>If you are going to buy a new or used mower<br>get a machine that has the biggest and best<br>engine available at time of production.

[bridges]

If i have any clippings left, Which is all the time. I just bag the clipings left on the lawn.

[turfquip]

Lawrence....get this. I used to have a Bunton 52 with a 12.5 KAW on it. You may remember the deck style - straight across in the front.<p>It's sole purpose in life was to be used as a 'precutter'. I had it set at the maximum frame height setting - which I believe was right around 6 inches. When I knew I would have to cross cut due to excessive Spring rain and fertilizer, I took the 'precutter' and wacked the grass down from 7&quot;, 8&quot; typical[fescue lawns]down to 6&quot;, then finished at around 4 inches with another machine.<p>Taking a tall lawn down in stages worked right in those instances - left no visible clippings after taking 50% of the length of the grass blade.<br>

[osc]

Brians:<br>I realize this is little help for you but I am in the same situation. However, I use a Great Dane ZTR 61&quot; w/25 horse. What I do is go over the lawn with the deck on 5&quot; and make a second run on 3.5&quot;. The changeover is a snap and you don't even get off the mower or stop the engine. The result is a lawn that looks bagged even in soking wet conditions. Now this is a whole lot better than bagging and the second run does not take that long. <br>On big jobs the rest of the crew uses walk behinds with velkes. I do the sensitive areas with the Dane.<br>It's going to be hard not to double cut and 5&quot; is not going to do the trick. 5&quot; = unhappy customers in a day or so and you will hear about it regardless of the rain. You'd be better off to double cut and let the schedule fall where it may.<br>Best advice is to get a strike force of mowers and people for the spring and cut daylight untill dark to make up. What you spend in extra expenses is worth knowing that you are not really behind even though it is raining every day.

[gene gls]

Change your mowing rates to hourly then you will be covered for MOTHER NATURE wheather you double mow, collect, or mow + blow.Same goes for the fall season when the leaves start falling,more time spent because of MOTHER NATURE.