Stripes

[rvsuper]

Hey, check out the pic of the stripes on my lawn. www.geocities.com/peterose275/Mowing.html scroll to the bottom, photo quality isn't the best.

[FrankenScagMachines]

Cool. what did you use? a 21" mower w/roller? how tall is the deck set to? It looks pretty high. Looks like you also doubled up on the stripes coming towards you. Looks good.
Eric

[rvsuper]

I just took a picture of it this morning before I cut it, so that is why it looks so high. First, I mow it with my 30" rear engine rider, then I have a reel mower with a big heavy roller in the back of it. I have the handle bars backwards so the roller is in the front, that way, it doesn't cut the grass, and the bed knife (knife on the bottom of the reel) lays the grass down even more than the roller.

[rvsuper]

the reel mower

[FrankenScagMachines]

are you serious? Tell me you only do this on your lawn? Why do you use a rear engine rider if you have a 36" commercial mower? Got a pic of the rear engine rider?
I use a rear engine rider but probably wouldn't if I had a better mower. I don't think I would need to go over it with a reel mower either cause I have a deck roller on it. :D It stripes sweet.
Eric

[SIG]

I am a little confused, I run 60" Exmark Lazers with no modifications and my lawns stripe great. Why so much time and effort into this. Seems like you all should purchase pro equipment and you could save a lot of time and effort. I am not trying to be an idiot, but it seems like a lot of wasted effort?

[rvsuper]

I only use this stuff for my own yard, because all my bus. equip is 15 miles away at a shed from me. Plus, my rear engine rider does not stripe worth S**T!!! I'm going to take it to a welding shop nearby to have them make me a roller. I have no welding expirence, don't want to use chains, either. And hey SIG, this is only for MY lawn. I will get a pic of the mower some time today.

[rvsuper]

Bush Hog, do you have a pic of your deck roller?

[SIG]

RVLI,
I said I was not trying to be an idiot, was just curious as to so much effort. Now I understand. And by the way it does look very nice! Sig

[FrankenScagMachines]

Sure I got a pic of it. First I'll send a pic of the mower, it's a 1989 (maybe as old as '87) Toro 8-32 "Professional" (thats on the decal ok) it has a 8hp B&S I/C engine, electric start (alternator is broke and so is the starter relay solenoid but it cranks first rope pull) and the deck is 32" single blade. I inherited this mower and can't afford anything else. I have replaced the belts and blade and the piston rings in the engine and done some other work to it including relocating the steering rods on the spindle arms and cutting off the stop on the left hand side so it turns tighter to the left and alittle tighter to the right. Heres the mower and next i'll put the roller.
Eric

[FrankenScagMachines]

well accidentally didn't get the pic on there.

[FrankenScagMachines]

An' here's the roller. It's simple. Just two 6" long (or tall actually) peices of 1/8" 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" angle iron, with a peice of 1/2" rod welded between them with a peice of 1 1/2" or 2" or so metal pipe over that 1/2" rod (before the rod is welded to the angle iron!). The angle irons then bolt onto some square brackets that were already on the deck, for the original antiscalp wheels. I have a few different sets of holes drilled into the angle iron so I can change the height if i want, but at this same setting it works great at 2.5", 3" and even 3.5" althought I only use it at 2.5" and 3". At 2.5" the whole deck rests on that roller and it stripes really good and at 3" it touches the ground but doesn't support the weight until you go over a bump or something. This roller really improves the cut quality and antiscalp stuff, as does the famous Toro anti scalp cups on the blades. Those work great too! I have never ever been able to get this mower to scalp even at 1" tall (testing to see how good it would cut at that height, back corner of my 2 acres.). Its a super little mower. The roller was very cheap (around $5?) and very easy to make and use. It works great and I would recommend a roller over any other striping device to anyone. W/o a kit, you get tracks not stripes. With chains you can get decent stripes on good grass, but on the common yards around here you need a roller to get it going good. Also like I said it improves the cut quality as well. Good luck,
Eric

[TLS]

RVLI,

This is a joke,.....right? :(

Just what is a "1 John Deere 54" 275 Front Deck Mower"

I'm guessing its a F-725, right?

And the stripes are big and little.

Come on, dont waste bandwith on pics like this, take some of a good lawn.

:eek:

[rvsuper]

Anyone else besides TLS heard of the diamond pattern? You just can't see the other side on the pic. The diamond site:
http://www.simplicitymfg.com/stripe/diamond.htm

Plain old stripes are sometimes boring. BTW TLS: Thanks for pointing out my typo.

[rvsuper]

I made this today, since I thought that I could spend less time doing it once instead of going over it twice. I took 3/4" PVC from the handle brackets to the tees, with hold the 1" PVC filled with QuickCrete for added weight. Works better than the reel mower, and they stand out more. I'm going to start working in my checkerboard pattern tomorrow.