doubles on toro

[Shawn Burns]

o.k.,
i'm givin it a try. i have fabricated double blade mounts for my 44 toro w/b. the "anti scalp cups" kept me from running them proir to this. after buying new cups in case of engineering failure, and a few naturals, we configured the old cups with the help of a plasma cutter and a grinder to accept doubles. to our suprise, it worked !!! no vibrations, no awful clatter, no nuthin!!!! i will be using them on thurs., i have to be at the fire station tomorrow. i will keep yall posted on how they work!

[Shawn Burns]

well,
the jury has ruled. runnin' the doubles works for me! i was really suprised how well actually. i used factory toro blades on bottom and toro "atomic" mulching blades on top.(same as gators) it rained last night so the grass was pretty wet and i was cutting 1 1/2 to 2 inches off the top. at first i didn't think i was cutting any grass until i looked back to make sure i wasn't cutting too high, but realized that i was shredding the clippings so small that i coulden't even see where they were landing. cool!! what other blade configurations have yall tried that work ? thanks for all the info. learnin' somthing new all the time!

[Eric ELM]

When the grass is real wet, a high lift with a mulcher type blade or a high lift and a regular lift blade works nice.

[SLS]

Different combos for different situations.

Just dont use Gators in the rain though. whew!

[Shawn Burns]

thanks for the tips! now it's like i have a new toy all over again! cut several lush fescue lawns today. i'm cuttin' them at 4 inches and taking 2-3 inches off. still working great! the only thing i'm still not sure about is some grass blowing out the front of the deck. i don't think it's affecting performance, but i'm not sure. i hope to work on that problem over the weekend. i also am going to turn the r.p.m.'s up a little more. it's turning about 3580 no load r.p.m.'s now. i think i can sqeeze another 100 or so out of it and still be safe. what do yall think?

[SLS]

'Front Blowout' seems to be a common problem when using double blades. When I double up on my Laser Z I always get a lap full of debris. Lots of dust stirred up too. :eek:

I wondered what was causing this too and I looked under the deck with and without doubles mounted for comparison.

It appears that with doubles mounted that the 1/4 drop in blade heigth is just enough to make the bottom blade a little lower than the baffle across the front of the deck on my machine by about 1/4 inch as well....thus allowing the debris to be blown out the front instead of being channeled towards the discharge side of the deck. With the 'singles' set-up the blades appear to be flush with the bottom edge of the baffle.

I think that this is what causes the 'Blowout'....and the only reason I don't use them all the time. Otherwise they do an EXCELLENT job and can really save a fellow some valuable time...provided you have the power onboard to push them there helicopter rotor blades around. :D

Any other 'Blowout' theories out there?

Oh yea....3580 sounds good but if you can squeeze 'em another 1000 I think that would be optimal...I've seen 3700 to 3800 RPM recommended by some rather knowledgable fellows on this site on several different occasions.

Dem are sum purty smart peepole round heer at loncite.com! :D

[Redmowers]

I removed my 5/8 or 3/4(one or the other) inch spacer and replaced it with a 1/4" one ,seems to have solved my blow out problem when using doubles.

[EJK2352]

Shawn,
Crank that baby up to 3750 no load RPMs :) :) :) ED

[Shawn Burns]

now that's what i like about yall!!!

good advice that the mechanics at the dealer either don't know , or are too scared to tell. i'll be turnin' up the r.p.m.'s this week, when i can get my hands on a tach. running the doubles on my toro lowered my cutting height 1/2 inch, so my blow out problem is probably a little worse than yours SLS. but i think your theory is correct. i'm going to temporarly fasten some stiff rubber to the front of the deck to hang down maybe an inch or so to see if that will resolve my" blow out" problem. maybe???

[crazygator]

You will most likely fix your blow out problems, and probably make a great striping tool as well. Let us know how it works and good luck!!!

[Shawn Burns]

turned the r.p.m.'s up to 3720 no load , which gives me 3600 with the blades enguaged. i went ahead and ordered a stripe kit for it today, maybe i can secure it to the front of the deck to fix the "blowout" problem. i was going to make somthing myself, but with it being visible on the front of the deck i want it to look decent too.(if it works at all) by the way, that 15 kohler really hums at 3600 r.p.m.'s with the blades on! i like it!!!!!