Discharge runner?

[HOWARD JONES]

On any commercial mower I have seen, if you drop the deck down on something like a curb, the discharge side blade will hit first because there is no deck skirt to act as an anti-scalper. I hate to use it as an example, but I once had a Murray that had a little rod or runner under the discharge, which really helped to prevent scalping. Is there any reason why commercial mowers do not use something like this? I am seriously considering adding a runner to my deck.

[EJK2352]

A discharge runner would cause problems with grass discharge area clogging up in high and/or wet grass. ED

[eXmark]

Howard Jones,

Ed's on the right track. The bar will do exactly what you described but the down side is that it can allow the discharge opening to plug due to the higher velocity of the grass exiting the mower deck. For the commercial cutter time is money but on a consumer product that is generally not a big issue and thus the design of the mower can differ significantly.

Good question! Let us know if there is anything else we can help with.

Terry

[SLS]

Another problem with the bar thingy:

Commercial mowers have such greater blade speed (18,500 fps in the case of a Lazer) that when you 'scalp' an object such as a rock or a tool it could hit the "bar thingy'' and bounce back under the deck thus whacking the blades again...and again...and again...

Best not to interfere with discharging 'scalped' objects...let 'em fly.