doubles

[awm]

just a quick wd on doubles . if you are having problems with oinions or dandelions , go to doubles. didnt see but one dandelion left standing in 5 lawns today. beats the heck out of going back to get the little creeps.

[Roger]

We don't have dandelions out yet, but plenty of wild onions. However, I see many of them not cut off cleanly, especially if the front caster runs over them. Having said that, part of the problem here today, and yesterday, was dampness - the turf has been very damp and wet.

In a related question, any comments from anybody on the merits of running doubles when the grass is very damp, bordering on wet? With doubles, the underside of the deck is usually kept cleaner. However, with doubles the grass is chopped more finely, creating a bigger "mush" when wet. I continued to run doubles the past two days, even though the grass was very damp (got snowed out 2X today!). I considered taking the Gator off, but never did. The underside of the deck gathered heavy accumulation. It may have been worse with singles.

[Mr.Ziffel]

I spoke with Exmark about this very issue the other day as it is rare when I can cut dry grass. I agree with AWM that the doubles chop the dandelions up great, but I have been getting a pretty heavy buildup under the deck with the wet conditions.

I have been using a high lift Exmark or Dixie Chopper blade sharpened razor sharp on the bottom and a Gator or Exmark mulching blade on top and asked what I could do to reduce the amount of buildup under the deck. The factory guy recommended their 'low lift airfoil' and also their new 'bahia blade', both used as singles. He felt that the lower lift of these blades would reduce buildup although probably not side discharge as far as the hilifts. He kind of hemmed and hawed about using doubles--I think they're still making up their mind about them. Two other points we discussed;

They recommend sharpening the blade at 27 degrees.

They STRONGLY recommend balancing blades accurately. He told me that they have seen mower decks which were cracked completely around the spindle due to unbalanced blades! The spindles haven't worn out, the deck was ready to fail completely due to the wobble of unbalanced blades. Made me think that I might take up Dixie1's plan and get one of those Magnamatic balancers [I'm using Eric's ball bearing program now]. My new LazerZ is going strong! Will

[crs]

I was having a bad problem with grass building up under the deck of my Hustler Short Cut (48"sd) with single high lift blades. I went to doubles using two standard lift blades and now it really keeps the underside of the deck clean. It does ocassionally spit out a big wad of grass, but what can you expect when grass is growing 4-5 inches a week here now.

[Acute Cut]

Gosh i love to be the ever present antagonist. (j/k) I had a real problem with doubles cutting dandelions. It left most of them two inches at least above the lawn. Looked horrible. I am also experiencing some serious blow out. I am borrowing Grassroots Landscaping (another member on here as well) 27 HP liquid cooled Lazer on mondays and Tuesdays. Only because he isnt currently mowing on them days. Anyways, i get COVERED with grass while mowing at any speed greater than about 5mph. Currently we mulch with Exmark mulch blades and gators on there. I was thinking about ditching the mulchers and getting highlifts put on with the gators.

has anyone else had either of these problems? how did yall fix em if ya did?

[awm]

you got a lazer ,i got a lazer,sounds like our set ups must be different
mabe the deck design is different on the 60.
do you have the deck 1/4 lower in front.
id like to see it work for you as it allowed me to
mow at regular speed thru dandylions without overmowing.
luck to ya

[awm]

it occured to me that you may have blade set
up that creates too much draw,this could mabe cause
a blow back cause the volume of air got to go somewhere
i use standard on bottom an gator on top.
if you try this let us know results as i was thinking of trying gators w highlifts or something

[RyanCanMow]

I run a Lazer HP, and I was wondering if running double blades is good for the electromagnetic clutch. Seems like it would be a lot of strain on it. I have to run over yards twice to cut it most of the time. I'm tired of the single blades. Which do you recommend for a 48" Lazer HP? And does Exmark make a double blade attachment on the spindle? How do you get the blades on the spindle? Thanks for the help!

[Scraper]

What's with all of you with dandelions? A professionally cared for lawn doesn't have dandelions. ;)

kidding :)

[awm]

ryan ,the electric clutch is the one thing id change on mine. doubles requires a little more rpm to engage without stalling. but it hasnt seemed to effect it any. still id rather have manual engagement. remember the bottum blade is the only one needs to be real sharp.It amazes me that the bottom blade does almost all the cutting sinse the are only 1/4 inch different, but that is the case.also its proving important to keep deck clean of buildup to take advantage of the doubles advantage.

[Eric ELM]

Ryan, you can just put 2 blades on the bold in a + possition and tighten them down. If you want a bracket to hold them and if your bolt size is 5/8", you can get the brackets at a Dixie Chopper dealer. They are the only ones I know of that stock them. If your closest DC dealer doesn't stock them, they can order them from the factory. I have a picture of them on my website on the Double Blade page. Click my red house below to get to my site.

BTW, you don't need the brackets, I ran doubles for 12 years without a bracket and still do on my one Chopper.

[CSRA Landscaping]

How could I run doubles on my tiger cub? Right now it's the only one that I have that I would consider doing that with, maybe the JD too, but it's a garden tractor and my backup. Does Scag make a bracket for that? Or how could I do it without a bracket? What sort of blades would get the best results in the growing season?

[Eric ELM]

CSRA, I ran doubles on JD garden tractors for a few years. I ran them on a 332 and the 430 I now have. As I said in the above post, Dixie Chopper is the only MFG that I know of that makes these brackets, but you do NOT need them.

It is a very easy thing unless you have a cradle on your spindles, instead of putting on one blade, you put on 2 in a + formation, tighten the bolts and your all set.

I wrote an article and posted some pictures on my website so you can compare lawns cut with and without doubles.

If your JD has a chamffer that sticks down like my 430 does, it takes a blade with a 3/4" hole to fit the chamffer, which is your normal blade, but the bolt size is a 5/8" bolt, so the bottom blade will need to be a blade with a 5/8" hole in it the same length as your upper blade. On my JD, I put a Chopper blade on the bottom. If you want to read more about double blades, go to my Lawnsite Links page and click on the 2 double blade topics to find many threads on this subject.

[Roger]

As a follow to my previous post ...

Today I ran doubles, both hi-lift. On the first job I did, I wished I had singles. The turf has been badly overdosed with N, we've had much rain recently, turf is naturally very thick, last mow I did was eight days (snowed out yesterday). It was a disaster - nothing but green wads! I as ashamed of the result, but felt I had no choice. I didn't think I could even bag the clippings, and double cut was out of the question. Anyway, total buildup under the deck.

However, in more reasonable mowing conditions, the underside was kept clean, despite the grass still being a bit damp. I have an Exmark 36", with thru-bolt spindle. I moved all my spacer washers to the top so that the upper blade ran as close to the underside of the deck as possible. Previously, I ran one 1/4" washer below between the spindle and upper blade.

I exchanged my usual Gator on the upper blade to an old hi-lift, thinking that with the grass being so saturated, the less cutting of the clippings, the better.

It was a cold, bluster day today. When I left this morning, the temp was 33, wind chill of 11 degrees. We still had a few snow squalls, but later the sun came out. High temp for the day reached upper 30s, I think. Tomorrow is forecast as better - maybe things will dry out, finally!

[Likestomow]

I have a 60" DC and I have been using double blades since last fall. To mulch the leaves I put on double Gators and it did GREAT. And so I started the spring mowing off with the same double Gators, and found they are very good for heavy grass too. I don't seem to be having any problem with lift, although I thought I might.

I keep both blades sharp and feel thats the reason for the nice smooth, clean cut.

I have some Gator Magnums on order and plan to try using the Magumn on the bottom and a standard Gator on the top.

Using two Gators really chops the grass up. I am amazed because last year I was running over the same lawns trying to cut up the clipppings with single blades and all I got was wads. This year there are hardly no wads at all -- big difference.

[slabpile]

You guys have no idea how lucky you are to be mowing. I still have snow in my front yard. I am dieing to get out and try using doubles. almost time!! ELM, have you seen the blades on that lx277?

[Eric ELM]

Not yet, I need to go there and get some stuff, maybe this weekend. Hang in there, it will be summer up there some day. :)

[toddco]

Ziffel/Acurate

Any new thoughts since these last posts? I'm having a heck of a time with buildup under the deck because I rarely get to cut when the grass isn't damp.

I'm currently running the Exmark mulching kit with singles. I don't know if I've ever see the bottom of my deck clean (it's painted green underneath, right?).

I was thinking of keeping the chute block and removing the baffles, then running doubles with standard-lift on the bottom. Just too many combinations to try alone. Anyone else having better luck?

[Premo Services]

toddco
I tried doing the same thing you mentioned,blocking the chute,and all the grass from the three blades goes to the discharge area and would leave a pile of grass where the chute was. Bought the mulch kit and the exmark does fine.

[JLC]

Tried doubles today on my Turf Tiger 25 horse 61 cut. Seemed to do better. Standard lift with standard gator on top. Shredded the clippings nicely, but discharge velocity was not there. Didn't notice a big difference in power. I'm going to give high lifts/standard gators a whirl when I get the high lifts sharpened. Did cut some tall spring grass with nice results. One downfall, you wear the clippings...severe blowout in the front of the deck...wow. Love the sound of the airpla...whoops...mower with doubles.