Mower needs pontoons

[Ground Pounder]

I need a little help, guys. We have had rain for the past 5 days. I was able to sneek in a couple of properties on Sunday (against my rules) when it quit raining for about 6 hours. I was rained out today (Monday) and rain is forecasted for the rest of the week!

My question is, what do I tell my customers when I can finally get back out there? The grass will certainly be taller than it's been all season. How do you go about cutting grass that is heavy and wet?

I can just see it now. Even if I raise the deck to 4" it will still be a clumped-up mess. Man, I am getting stressed out.

[joshua]

mow it at 4" and bag it, and tell them you'll see them in 4 or 5 days to get it shorter, then another 4 or5 days to get it back down to where it should be at 3".

[HOMER]

Tell them you'll send a couple of goats over in the interim, they'll eat in the rain and keep it under control for ya.

Customers understand that it rains sometimes, what are they gonna do?

[script]

I agree with joshua, cut it high and recut it in a few days to get it back to normal. Customers should understand that you can't control the rain, and if they did complain, tell them that there is a lot people dowm here in south Louisiana that would trade all that water for these dust clouds. Can't remember what rain looks like.

[Toroguy]

Stress...
Just think GP if you had a crew, and the rain stopped at 5PM. Do you think they would be waiting for your call? That would be alot of stress.

I am in the beginning of a wash-out. Rain coming down, radar indicates at least four hours of rain, forecast for the next two days is for rain (70% chance). Plus the Holiday weekend coming up...I will mow at night if needed:)

Like the folks in the South replied, the rain at least means there will be grass to cut. I do feel the stress building however.

Good luck all

[John from OH]

Sharpen your blades, spray your deck and blades with Mow Deck, put on a rain suit, hop on the mower and mow everyday, unless there is lighting. Use a backpack or larger blower to blow out the clumps. I'm about 80 miles north of you and we haven't missed a day of mowing yet. We did pull the crews in yesterday due to tornado sightings 5 miles from us. You have to explain to your customers that you can't control the weather, you can work in it. We put all of our mowing clients on a flat rate for the season. Fertilized lawns get mowed on a M-TH or T-F schedule thru spring. Mowing them twice a week is quicker than catching the grass. Those lawns will mow wet without clumping because they don't get that long between cuts.

[Ground Pounder]

Thanks for your input, John. I respect everyone's comments, but I think mowing in the rain is absurd. Most of us have some form of ZTR machine, be it a rider or walk-behind. I have found that the inside tire during a turn really twists the snot out of the turf. If it's wet, all the worse.

I operate on a weekly schedule. That is my customers wants and needs. I do have one that gets cut twice a week. They will inevitably clump-up but I think I will raise the deck to 4" and double cut.

[John from OH]

Ground Pounder,

I didn't realize you were a solo operator. Add employees to the mix, and an overhead that continues whether your producing income or not, and your opinion might change. LOL

We've had rain 10 out of the last 17 days (4 dry days were on the weekends) and rain is forecast every day thru next Monday. There is no way we could ever wait that long to mow, and then catching up would be next to impossible. We'll probably be praying for rain come August.

[Got Grass?]

Rained quite a bit yesterday and rain in forcast all week. Luckly I managed to get 2 days of work done today before it started raining. I didnt do any trimming and didnt bag anything. Had to avoid quite a few areas because or standing water. But I got it done. Customers have been understanding as to why. So what if nothing gets trimmed at least I could get the cutting done so its not 3ft tall next week. I'll just have twice high grass to trim next week. Easy.

[kris]

still no darn rain here

[joshua]

ok i didn't read the last few posts but about not cutting in the rain, did it yesturday for over a hour got 5 houses done. not once did i tear the lawn. i use what most guys use a triangle turn its when you get to the end of you stripe and don't make a full 180 turn but instead about a 90 degree turn then back up about a foot or 2 and as your backing up pull the outside of the machine back some then i start back the other way. doesn't tear the lawn and the stripes look just as good as if you did do a 180, also i use this all the time because if you do a 180 when its dry the grass tears easier.

[Avery]

I vote for the rain suit. We have been taking care of several of our larger commercial properties for years now. Mow them the same day regardless of the weather. I have yet to see any ill effects of mowing wet grass. ZTR's will not mark the turf if you are careful and know how to do a true zero turn.

[CSRA Landscaping]

My tiger cub has no problems with thick grass in a deluge. It's the lightning that chases me away.

[eggy]

Same problem here in Indiana...we mowed several in the rain...and at the end of the day scraped about 30 pounds of crap from the decks....just part of this buisness....

[SMB]

You can't do graveyards in the rain, talk about a green mess...
We have been running double regular lift blades and it does a GREAT job in the wet, and it doesn't plug the deck nearly as bad as the regular/gator blade combonation.