Turf Tiger Striping Problem

[mklawnman]

I posted a thread about my striping problem i had with my Turf Tiger about a month ago. The reply's i got helped some but didnt' solve my problem totally. My turf tiger, which has a 52inch adv. deck, strips like a three wheeled lawn mower, meaning it almost looks like there is a third strip down the middle of the stripe. I have sharpened the blades and that hasn't worked, ive adjusted the deck thinking it was the rollers, and thats not the problem either. Now this is my question i heard someone talk about balancing the blades on the mower? How do u do that?? Im guessing that might be my problem that one of the blades is not cutting level or something and making that strange stripe in my pattern. Any help is greatly apreciated.

Matt (Lawnman)
Still waiting for more rain to cut more grass:rolleyes:

[Bob_McNaughton]

Its been awhile since I was in the business, and plan on going back in next spring, so I will try to help.

Balancing as people talk about it is when you sharpen the blade you place in on a balancing spindle to ensure even sharpening.

I had a scag 48" that streaked no matter what I did, right out of the box! Factory reps came out, dealer checked it out, nothing could be found. Only later did I find out that it was a flaw in the airflow design of the deck on my model year. I got screwed basically.

At that time I learned a clean cut is more of an airflow management thing then anything else. Maybe some of the other guys on here can recommend new blades (High lift? High tip speed?" to fix your problem.

Good luck.

[awm]

hadnt thought about it but this one property i pass every day is mowed buy a new tiger.it does have 3 distinct lines in the stripe.
looks fairly good though.

[Eric ELM]

Having out of balance blades will cause vibration which leads to other problems. If it is cutting uneven, you may have a bent blade. That can cause some strange things. You can check that by measuring from the bottom of the deck to the bottom of the blade. Turn the blade around to the same spot and measure the other end and see if it is the same. Do this on all 2 or 3 blades that you have.

To balance them correctly, you need something like the Magna Matic balancer. This will balance them and you can check for bent blades all with one unit. They are one of our sponsors here at Lawnsite, so go check out their ad and see what they have to offer. http://www.magna-matic.com/ I should be getting my Mag 1000 balancer any day now and I will write a report on this when I get it. :) http://www.magna-matic.com/products/balancers/mag1000.html

To balance a blade, you have to find the heavy end and then grind more off of the heavy end until is balanced. A well balanced blade will make your spindle bearings and other components on a mower last longer. Consider that a tire on an automobile rotates at about 1000 RPM at 60 mph and you get your tires balanced. A mower blade is spinning around 3,600 RPM, which is around 214 mph, so they definately need to be balanced for many reasons. Does this clear up things for you? ;)

[Duncan IN]

Heres what I believe it is. You say it is leaving a stripe that looks looks like there is a third wheel pushing the grass down. The third stripe comes from the middle blade, and the stripe is the farthest from the discharge side on the middle blade.... When the blade spins it blows the grass forward on the left side making it look like a third wheel was pushing the grass down. the blade continues around pushing the grass backwards. This is why I believe chains or rollers are needed to push the grass back the direction of mowing getting rid of the lines in the stripes. Hope that made sense I am not good at explaining things

[Eric ELM]

Levi Duncan, it was perfectly clear to me. ;)

If all the members here get striping kits of some sort, we will change the way america looks. :D

[kroll]

My Tiger's were doing this till I started using high lifts. now it looks even I agree with the air flow theory.also check length of each blade not all blades are the same don't care what they say.

[Duncan IN]

I run High lifts along with gator magnums on my tiger and this seems to help give a better looking stripe. In good grass I notice the differance but in real weedy grass it stills leaves a third stripe, like a third wheel. I really need to get chains on my new mower it makes a differance I had them on my old tiger.

[mklawnman]

Hey Duncan
I think your right, high lift blades might help solve my problem. Ive heard of this chain thingy that u put on the back of the mower right?? It suppose to drag along the grass to make the perfect stripe look??? Sounds like anyone could jerry rig it up to a mower deck themselves with some chain and like say a small pipe that runs along the back of the mower deck to hang the chains. I dont know if ill go that far, but ill consider the high lift blades, i understand those blades lift the grass up faster??? Also Duncan said that rollers r needed to fix the problem too, well right now the back rollers barely touch if they do its only at when i go over a hill, so r those back rollers suppose to be touching all the time???
Well thanks, more help is always better
Matt (Lawnman)

[kroll]

I made my chain kit from a piece of angle iron
and some chain and put it on the two bolts at the very rear of mower frame behind the rear wheels it is easy access. sometimes i'll put a piece of old mud flap also between the mower & chains
when I trying to cover old stripes or heavy grass
works great.

[Duncan IN]

If your rollers are not touching the grass you can take 1/2 in. out on your spacers that are on the spindle. This raises the blades up into the deck more and then you lower your deck to allow the rollers to touch. If you are running Hi-lifts this will also take care of the blowout in the front of the deck. I found that the highlifts really throw alot of grass out the front.

[mklawnman]

Hey Duncan, if i would take that 1/2inch spacer out wouldnt that mean i would have to readjust the deck so the cut is correct?? Do u get what i mean? I may try that too to see if that works. Also where would i go to get High Lift blades?? At a Scag dealer u think or any lawn and garden garage?
Thanks
Matt (Lawnman)

[Eric ELM]

Originally posted by mklawnman
Hey Duncan, if i would take that 1/2inch spacer out wouldnt that mean i would have to readjust the deck so the cut is correct?? Do u get what i mean? I may try that too to see if that works. Also where would i go to get High Lift blades?? At a Scag dealer u think or any lawn and garden garage?
Thanks
Matt (Lawnman)

Basically what he is saying is, with the spacers removed the blades are 1/2" higher, so you have to lower the deck 1/2" to be cutting the same highth. This puts your rollers 1/2" lower.

You should be able to get High Lift blades at your Scag dealer. If not, try a Lesco or order them on line.

[mklawnman]

Hey Eric and Duncan
Went out to look under my deck it was a bit clogged but wasnt too bad. I took the blades off and sharpened them, then i measured the spacers on there, they r 1inch and a quarter long, not 1/2inch long. So i moved the blades around when i put them back on so the blades r cutting in a different spindle. Im hoping that will work but i left the spacer in there. Im mowing tommorow so then ill really get to see once.
Matt Lawnman

[Duncan IN]

Matt,
You are right the spacers are an inch and a quarter long. You have to go to a dealer and find some that are half inch shorter. I have a snapper walk behind that I took the spacers off of. It had 4-1/4 inch spacers per spindle. I just swaped them with the scags. You could get some from a snapper dealer probably.

High lift blades, don't get them from scag they are way to much, like 60 or more for a set, you can find some made by other companies that do just as good for alot cheaper price. The only differance is that the cheaper blades don't have as much bend in the high lift. I prefer to save alot of money.

Here is a good site, www.j-thomas.com Go here and order a catalog they have everything cheaper. Plus I love looking at all the stuff.

[mklawnman]

Well i mowed today and nothing has changed. still have that third stripe there. I didnt do anything to the blades really haven't gotten different spacers, but i did notice that when i went slower that third stripe disapeared somewhat, so my guess is that its the air flow or something and that im considering buying high lift blades or maybe making a stripe thingy under the machine, i looked at Eric's website about stripe kits but seems i would need to buy alot of chains to make my own, but ive also read that u could use a mud flap or even a PVC pipe i could drag in the back, but im really considering buying some high lift blades. Im guessin that might take care of that problem i hope. Also i can't move the blades up to much closer to the spindle cause of the turbo baffle by the shoot, how much r spacers anyhow?? Im guessing cheaper than a set of blades.
Matt (Lawnman)

[Duncan IN]

Matt, Don't use a PVC pipe it will catch on things, chains are the best way to go. My first stripe kit took 40' of chain but I didn't make them long enough so I am going to say somewhere between 50-60 feet will be enough to make one and a 33in long piece of angle Iron. Not for sure on the price of the spacers