How are you dumping your walker mower?

[tglasslawncare]

TM Lawncare. Do you have picture of your ramp? I know. Its an old thread. Thank you.

[weeze]

we used walkers when i worked for another company. we always dumped on site either in the woods or by the side of the road where the city would pick it up. i guess it varies depending on where you live. we never dumped them in the truck or on the trailer.

[tyler_mott85]

I've mostly worked for other companies around here that dump them in the front of their trailers. Build up 4 foot sides at least 8 feet back and dump in the front of the trailer. Used a grain scoop or if available a skidloader with a grapple bucket to unload. Left the bed of the truck empty, which while some people would say is a waste of space, I've always looked at it as being able to unhook the trailer and drive the truck away without any worries.

[KS_Grasscutter]

Originally Posted by tyler_mott85

I've mostly worked for other companies around here that dump them in the front of their trailers. Build up 4 foot sides at least 8 feet back and dump in the front of the trailer. Used a grain scoop or if available a skidloader with a grapple bucket to unload. Left the bed of the truck empty, which while some people would say is a waste of space, I've always looked at it as being able to unhook the trailer and drive the truck away without any worries.

I don't get it. Most rigs I see in Wichita are that way, dumping grass on the trailer. Over here in Hutch, NO ONE does that. Everyone dumps in the truck, and most people have 1 ton dump trucks. I think it would suck tremendously to shovel off a trailer every single afternoon.

[edensgate7]

question for you guys who seem to be collecting clippings on a daily basis with these walker mowers....do you collect because the customers require you to or for some other reason?

[tyler_mott85]

Originally Posted by KS_Grasscutter

I don't get it. Most rigs I see in Wichita are that way, dumping grass on the trailer. Over here in Hutch, NO ONE does that. Everyone dumps in the truck, and most people have 1 ton dump trucks. I think it would suck tremendously to shovel off a trailer every single afternoon.

It does suck. I think why you see so many in Wichita is because so many are part-timers and installing a flat bed on a truck would, for many, take away their "daily driver". I wouldn't care driving the flat bed, but I guess some do. But even though you see so many like that around here the largest companies do not do it that way. Superior, Suburban, Complete all dump into their dump beds and Tree-Top probably the biggest LCO when including their nursery sales actually bag their clippings into plastic bags and load those into the beds of their trucks.

question for you guys who seem to be collecting clippings on a daily basis with these walker mowers....do you collect because the customers require you to or for some other reason?

Guys running walker mowers collect on a daily basis because thats what walker mowers do. To see a walker mower with the back lid up mowing all day makes me wonder why they spent the extra $5,000 on a mower that is designed to collect if they're not even collecting. But most of the ops you see doing that do collect leaves during the fall.

[edensgate7]

I don't know why any company would collect all clippings all day. It takes away nutrients form the lawns and limits the organic matter that could be added naturally to the soil to improve the health of the lawn. University research has shown that taking clippings off a lawn all season basically takes away the equivelant of 1 fert. application a year of nitrogen from the turf. If I were you guys, I would show your customers this information (especially the ones that are really a pain for you to collect at) and see if you can get them to understand that collecting clippings doesn't do anything for the lawn (unless the clippings are are so thick that they don't decompose fast enough between mowings or there is a disease issue). GThen you might not have so much grass that you have to get rid of. Just a suggestion for you all that have customers convinced that clippings must be collected

here are a couple of pubs. (Mich. State is a good one)
http://www.turf.msu.edu/managing-yar...-water-quality
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/pubs/ay-2.pdf
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/pubs/ay-32.pdf
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/ukturf/Publica...owingFacts.PDF

[joemower]

This is how we do it. I had this truck built back in 2002 by a man Kansas for you Wichita guys. It's a pretty slick operation but for the past two years we have been getting away from collecting all the time. I've even considered selling this truck for if the right offer came around... I have seen an improvement in turf quality since we switch to mulching. Even though we had a great system to handle the clipping the cost of disposing of them got way too high. You fellow Walker guys should look into some of Walkers mulching decks. I have been using them for a few years now and have been impressed. We save a lot of money by mulching, the lawns have been healthier, and the quality of cut is still there. Sure its great to use a GHS for leaves but for the rest of the year were sticking with the mulching.

[Ticolawnllc]

Originally Posted by joemower

This is how we do it. I had this truck built back in 2002 by a man Kansas for you Wichita guys. It's a pretty slick operation but for the past two years we have been getting away from collecting all the time. I've even considered selling this truck for if the right offer came around... I have seen an improvement in turf quality since we switch to mulching. Even though we had a great system to handle the clipping the cost of disposing of them got way too high. You fellow Walker guys should look into some of Walkers mulching decks. I have been using them for a few years now and have been impressed. We save a lot of money by mulching, the lawns have been healthier, and the quality of cut is still there. Sure its great to use a GHS for leaves but for the rest of the year were sticking with the mulching.

Finaly I see some one got it right.

[jetta]

joe mower, how tall can the grass be when you mulch with the walker mulch deck? can you mulch grass that is 6 or 7 in. tall leaving the base at 2.5? do you have to go slow to do this?