Mowin' wet turf/ nonstop rain solutions

[Vibe Ray]

What do you guys do when it just keeps rainin' and you gotta mow?! It's been raining nonstop here! I managed to get in 1 mow today. I was wonderin' how you guys handle such a situation. How do your mowers do in the rain?

[Barkleymut]

Triple and Quadruple cut. Just keep going till it looks good. Get out there and work in the rain (just not when there is lightning), it will make a man out of ya. Not like its cold down there.

[SLS]

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16268

Just got caught up from a wet spell myself so I feel your pain.

From what I've seen on the WeatherChannel lately you guys in "cajun country" need pontoons attached to your equipment! Good Luck and PEACE. :)

[Grapevine]

We mow on a 4 day schedule Tues-fri. Schedule mulch and other jobs for Monday and Saturday. If I know it's gonna rain I try and juggle the schedule, sometimes it's impossible to do. We generally don't mow in the rain, but if we do we put the decks up 1/4 inch and deal with it the next week. It's either raining too much or not enough, you gotta wonder sometimes why we're in this.

[Atlantic Lawn]

I cut in the rain, but when there is a Hurricane....... I give up. It seems by lookin' at the weather ch that 's the type of rain you are having. We try to cut as soon as the rains stop, cut a bit higher, but keep rollin.

[Vibe Ray]

Well you see my lazer mulches tall, wet grass just fine, I'm worried about making ruts and tearing up the turf because the ground gets soft from rain. Thanx for the post SLS, will read it now.....

[powerreel]

This mows in Seattle's non-stop rain and will mulch too.....Only get's sharpened 2x a year.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1472735&a=12746407&p=47830869

[Mike (MLC)]

Well I am sure you might have gotten as much rain as we had. From Thursday through Saturday, there was no possible way that we could mow. Unless we wanted to mow water!!!!!!! If my exmark could float, I think I could have managed. We are slightly behind schedule. We received 13 inches of rain in 2 days. Cars were floating down the road. This time we just had to wait for some of the water to go down. I finally was able to start back up yesterday. Still going strong today too. :rolleyes:

[jones]

Powerreel,
What make is that how is it on clumping?
This is my mower for wet grass.

[curlawngreen]

Jones: How many lies do you have? Tell all of them so we don't have to read your posts any more. Thanks, Tim.

[jones]

curlawngreen,
lies?
This is what I am using when the grass is wet. Imported from the UK. If you want confirm one was shipped to Canada please e-mail Graham Backhouse at hondajb.demon.co.uk/. Works great to.

[powerreel]

Jones, I've never seen a mower like that. What is it and how does it work?A reel cuts like how scissors do. In the rain it takes more passes than norm but it still cuts way better than anything else. It just changes how you do your turf, they are or I should say, CAN BE, expensive to maintain...but if you don't hit things or jump curbs your cool. You do have to keep really nice turf, you can't mow up gravel and sticks and rocks with a reel. For true UPSCALE residential or SMALL commercial sites with PLENTY of TIME you can deliver a product that might be a bit different than the competition. Plus people out here play alot of golf year round.

[Barkleymut]

Vibe, I just saw Slidell on the national news. Man I thought we had it bad when we got 2 inches in half an hour! You just need to let those lawns dry out for about 6 months, LOL. Anyways hope none of your stuff got washed away, stay dry.

[jones]

Powerreel,
Do you use that to plow through the heavy wet stuff on your props? , if so does it work better ie. faster than your regular mower?
We get lots of rain & heavy growth here as well.
The Honda has one full side open for discharge & high deck with blade. After making some modifications to it, putting on two swivels and bumping up top speed, it does great at cutting the thick wet stuff without clumping. Leaves less clumps than my 36 but I don't have doubles on the 36 yet. Comes in a 26 hydro also.

[powerreel]

THAT IS MY FRONTLINE MOWER...

[David Gretzmier]

jones- those plastic wheels on that mower? freaKY and powereel- I heard those reel mowers need WAY more sharpening than twice yearly. we had an intern that had worked at 3 golf courses and mowed greens. they sharpened bi-monthly. Dave g

[OBRYANMAINT]

kick the height up a notch and double cut

mowers never skip a beat...i mow the schedule rain or shine!

[jones]

Powerreel,
That is your frontline mower? What size lawns do you cut? What do you charge? Why do you use that as your primary mower?
OBRYAINMAIN,
If you raise the height what do you do next cutting if the grass is wet again??

[powerreel]

Right now my lawns are 5000 & under,and are cut around 1". Some less some more, a reel mows short and neat and gives a real nice look. I don't have a res. under $250 mth.

[jones]

Powerreel
5000& under $250 a month for cutting alone??

[powerreel]

Not for mowing alone! I wish! No I prune and offer a plant health program.

[MATTHEW]

Hate to do it , but when ya gotta-ya gotta!
I just stick the catcher on and go slow. It
makes for a mess in the truck, but the lawn
looks neat and clean.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

Same here, put on the lazer-vac and go! Also raise the height (if needed)

[Kansas Turf Man]

On our sod farm we have had a rainy period for about 2 weeks every year. This year we planned ahead and built a large vacume during the winter. It has an 8 ft head on it and a wagon with a hydrolic lift that can hold alot of grass. I guess it holds enough clippings to do 5 acres worth of clippings or so. We built it out of an old silage blower. If you guys like I can post a few pics if you want to see it. It is in the process of being painted right now but it should look sharp in a few days. It has enough suction to pick up the wettest grass. If the clippings are fairly dry we can go about as fast as we like with our John Deere 4400 or our 5510.