3140 Changing blades on the Scag this week [Archive] - LawnSite.com™ - Lawn Care & Landscaping Business Forum
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tacoma200
09-01-2009, 06:08 PM
The grass has been thick and wet all year and the Scag has been cutting great with the standard 482-881 blades. I'm just now seeing some dust and thinning of the grass growth with some weed stalks sticking up above the grass. I'm loosing a little lift because of the grass being thin so I switched to the 3" high lifts (from J-Thomas) and the cut improved immediately. Last year we had a drought and I ran the 3" high lifts from J-thomas most of the year but this year the standard blades did and excellent job until this week when they missed a little grass.

This is just a note to those using the Velocity Plus deck that if you are mowing thin, dry grass with with sporadic weed stalks the super high lifts are the way to go during late Summer. Cheers.. :)

P.S. the Velocity deck has done better with crabgrass than any deck I've tried. Some of my competitors are leaving some messes.
Keith
09-01-2009, 06:40 PM
How much does J-Thomas get for those blades?
tacoma200
09-01-2009, 07:09 PM
How much does J-Thomas get for those blades?

They are about $11 per blade or almost half the price for a Scag blade. The metal on the Scag blades is better but I don't think any of them have the lift the J-Thomas 3" blades do. That extra with give them a lot more metal to bend for the sail. Both my helper and I could see the difference immediately over the standard blades that come on Scags (482-879, 482-881, 481-712). Anytime the grass is thin and you loose that seal around the deck a higher lift blade has always been better on the Velocity. J-Thomas blades do chip easier.
Keith
09-01-2009, 07:30 PM
Have you tried the Oregon version of them in the past? The 91-628. They call them Super Hi Lift.
skeet
09-01-2009, 07:44 PM
Tacoma, I scraped under the deck today of my velocity and the lift it created was all of the difference u can imagine (I had more of a build-up of grass under the deck then normal). Crabgrass that stays wet until 3:00 in the afternoon soon creates a build-up of clingons. Thanks for the info on the 3" high lifts from J-thomas.
I treated my yard twice this year for crabgrass, 2 weeks apart, and I still have crabgrass...neighbor did the same and the crabgrass is unbelievable this year. I guess bad timing.
tacoma200
09-01-2009, 08:19 PM
Have you tried the Oregon version of them in the past? The 91-628. They call them Super Hi Lift.

No, are they 3" wide? I will have to give them a look. J-Thomas is not always consistent with the metal quality, but they are cheap. I'm not trying to promote the J-Thomas brand, just saying switching to the highest lift blade you can will keep the cut crisp when it starts to thin out.
tacoma200
09-01-2009, 08:25 PM
Tacoma, I scraped under the deck today of my velocity and the lift it created was all of the difference u can imagine (I had more of a build-up of grass under the deck then normal). Crabgrass that stays wet until 3:00 in the afternoon soon creates a build-up of clingons. Thanks for the info on the 3" high lifts from J-thomas.
I treated my yard twice this year for crabgrass, 2 weeks apart, and I still have crabgrass...neighbor did the same and the crabgrass is unbelievable this year. I guess bad timing.

Yes the crabgrass has been terrible this year. I seem to have had less trouble than the other guys trying to cut it. They lefts some of the nastiest clipping I've seen. I have had to raise the deck about 1/2" a few times and went back over them at high speed to spread them out but some LCO's are leaving a mess. I wish they would spray more here but I get very few calls and even the people from up North don't want to spend any extra on weed control (lots of vacation homes here). We had a bad outbreak the year I ran Hustler and it had a really hard time with the crabgrass growing out at an angle. The Scag is much better.
Keith
09-01-2009, 08:42 PM
No, are they 3" wide? I will have to give them a look. J-Thomas is not always consistent with the metal quality, but they are cheap. I'm not trying to promote the J-Thomas brand, just saying switching to the highest lift blade you can will keep the cut crisp when it starts to thin out.



Yeah, they are 3" wide.

I bought 4 sets of them a couple years back. 27hp, a Super Z and Florida sand left a lot to be desired. I bought them to cut Bahia stalks, but most of the bahia I had at the time was sparse. I would look like Pigpen from Charlie Brown when I finished. On the Bahia that was dense, the blades just sucked too much power.

I've got three brand new sets. Send me a PM if you are interested. You can see them at page 96 of the pdf, or the page labeled 331. They are at the very bottom of that page.

http://www.oregonchain.com/OEP/pdfs/2009_OregonBlades.pdf
puppypaws
09-01-2009, 09:37 PM
Yes the crabgrass has been terrible this year. I seem to have had less trouble than the other guys trying to cut it. They lefts some of the nastiest clipping I've seen. I have had to raise the deck about 1/2" a few times and went back over them at high speed to spread them out but some LCO's are leaving a mess. I wish they would spray more here but I get very few calls and even the people from up North don't want to spend any extra on weed control (lots of vacation homes here). We had a bad outbreak the year I ran Hustler and it had a really hard time with the crabgrass growing out at an angle. The Scag is much better.

Yeah, they are 3" wide.

I bought 4 sets of them a couple years back. 27hp, a Super Z and Florida sand left a lot to be desired. I bought them to cut Bahia stalks, but most of the bahia I had at the time was sparse. I would look like Pigpen from Charlie Brown when I finished. On the Bahia that was dense, the blades just sucked too much power.

I've got three brand new sets. Send me a PM if you are interested. You can see them at page 96 of the pdf, or the page labeled 331. They are at the very bottom of that page.

http://www.oregonchain.com/OEP/pdfs/2009_OregonBlades.pdf

People could learn from reading posts such as these. What these post say, is no mower or blade works the same in different parts of the country. The only way to know if a mower suits the conditions you personally have is to demo, and I mean demo more than 15 minutes.
Neil M
09-01-2009, 09:49 PM
Thanks for the tip. I was just going to post about this. My scag velocity was leaving straglers of grass, hopefully this will help. Otherwise I have to really slow down. Medium speed has been sub par.
OrangeToys
09-01-2009, 09:54 PM
I think im using the 3" lift and they work on everything. and then with the Velocity deck, lets just say if you don't have one you're missing out big time!
tacoma200
09-02-2009, 07:31 PM
Thanks for the tip. I was just going to post about this. My scag velocity was leaving straglers of grass, hopefully this will help. Otherwise I have to really slow down. Medium speed has been sub par.

I cut wet crabgrass today and it didn't miss a blade at 3.25" but the deck is a mess on top. Make sure your deck is clean, blades are sharp, and the front baffle is all the way down for maximum lift. If the grass gets thin yes the super high lifts will catch the straglers. I have found no need for them in this area in the lush, thick growth. Every area is different. My lawns were putting green crisp today but the clippings are pretty nasty in some area's of crabgrass.
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