Scalping

[southernlawn1]

I use 61 inch bunton textron mowers. They are very fast and cuts the grass find. This is my 2nd year in the lawn care service and I still have alot to learn. My mowers seem to scalp the grass pretty bad. Anyone have advise on how to learn not to scalp? It sure would be useful.

[rodfather]

1. Raise the deck up a little.
2. Go a bit slower on areas that are not flat or smooth.
3. Make sure you have the proper tire inflation.
4. Change the direction in which you're mowing.
5. Pay better attention to those areas that scalp easily.

just my 2 cents...

[HOMER]

Does your deck have anti-scap wheels? If so then lower them a hole or 2......whatever you need so that the wheels hit before it scalps. If it does not then increase your tire pressure and follow the advice above.

How low are you cutting the grass?

[LAWNS AND MOWER]

Lace your accounts with fertilizer and then raise the decks.

LAWNS AND MOWER

[southernlawn1]

:cool: thank you for the advise I will sure use it I have tried going slower but never thought about changing the tire pressure. The mowers have scalp wheels but they are not low enough and there is no way to drop them more. I normaly cut about 2-2 1/2 inches.

[2 man crew]

I'm not that familiar with Bunton mowers. You say it has anti-scalp wheels but you can't adjust them down any farther. Maybe you could modify the bracket (re-weld) or buy larger diameter anti-scalp wheels. Just a thought. The mower may be scalping because you have too many spacers between the deck spindals and cutting blade. You could try removing a few spacers and adjust the cutting height with the spacers on the front caster spindals instead. If this is a floating deck then never mind the caster ajustment. You would adjust the cutting height as before.

[SLS]

If you haven't already, get out a tape measure, ruler, or whatever and check that the deck is really cutting at what you are setting it at.

When I took delivery of my new Laser they deck was set 1 full inch lower that what it was supposed to be...

...if I set the quadrant on 3 inches it was really cutting at 2 inches.

When I got it home I was checking it out on my own lawn and thought it was cutting rather low...and it was. :eek:

A simple deck adjustment (and scalping wheel adjustment) fixed it right up....and no more scalping.

If the deck needs to be adjusted don't forget to add the proper 'rake'...the back a little higher (about 1/4 inch) than the front.

Good luck with solving the problem...scalping sucks.

[Dave]

Are you sure you cannot adjust the scalp wheels down,the bobcat made the same as bunton has three holes in the brackets,up here nobody has had to adjust from the top hole,and there has been no problem with scalping.recheck the hole postion&chk the air in the tires,as it should cut and not scalp as good as anyother mower out there

[LAWNGODFATHER]

On that mower only the back wheels are adjustable.

Start with the tape measure and work from there to tire pressure.

Get the manual out for the specs they need to be set at.

Also you may want to drill some hole on the deck height stop so you can have 1/4 " increments.


Check for deck lever also.

[65hoss]

I agree with the above. Make the anti scalp wheels adjustable.

[Dave]

if its made by textron all the wheels are adjustable,and the deck height is already set for 1/4 inch increments

[LAWNGODFATHER]

I was thinking ZTR sorry

[ealbertson]

I have an old Yazoo 60" mower that I used to tear my yard up with. I added a row of anti scalp wheels across the back and two in the front and haven't had any trouble since. I used it commercially last summer with very good results as far as scalping goes. I like a lot of the ideas in the previous replies that seem a lot easier than this though.

[southernlawn1]

Thanks for all the advise.