Zero Turn with "Bag on Demand"? Is there such a mower??

[Prolawn3]

Ive been looking for a new zero turn mower. I do a lot of commercial properties that have certain areas that need to be bagged because of cigarette butts and tiny pieces of trash and other areas that need to be discharged. Almost all of the 30+ properties are like this. Is there a mower that has a bagging system where you can maybe flip a lever and go from bagging to discharge without having to stop and take some part of the discharge system off. On the fly. On the go. On demand. Whatever you want to call it. Please tell me theres one out there. Ive done many Google searches and cant find anything. The closest mower I know of is a Walker but these properties are not "highly" manicured. The terrain varies widely as does the condition of mowing area, so i would rather not put a Walker on them. I do use a Walker for all my high end residentials.

[MOHUSTLER]

Not any that I am aware of, BUT you might be sitting on a million dollar idea!!! Call Humbolt and see if they can rig something up for you.

[Jason Rose]

Closest thing you will find is going to be a John Deere MOD (mulch on demand) deck. Attach a blower and catcher and just open the baffles on the top of the deck (just a lever) when you want to bag. Close it again and mulch.

There's really no way to be able to both discharge and bag with the same deck without having to remove something, be it the blower off the discharge chute, or cover plates on the back side of the deck or something. Then they are engineered to only discharge out of one area, so that wouldn't work well.

[mowerbrad]

Originally Posted by Jason Rose

Closest thing you will find is going to be a John Deere MOD (mulch on demand) deck. Attach a blower and catcher and just open the baffles on the top of the deck (just a lever) when you want to bag. Close it again and mulch.

There's really no way to be able to both discharge and bag with the same deck without having to remove something, be it the blower off the discharge chute, or cover plates on the back side of the deck or something. Then they are engineered to only discharge out of one area, so that wouldn't work well.

Just to add on to the mulch-on-demand idea....

I do run the MOD deck with a bagging system and it isn't quite as simple as just flipping a lever to go from bagging to mulching. Because the plate that closes off the discharge port has two grease zerks on it, it doesn't allow the plate to move with the bagging system in place. With a slight bit of modification to the bagging system impeller housing, you could easily go from bagging to half bag/half mulch, to complete mulching by just moving the lever.

[Oakleaf landscape]

You could just get an accelerator catcher or a similar brand and only put it on in those small spots? Beats having the full bagging system on the machine the whole time and it's a lot cheaper...

[XLS]

your looking for a scag,cougar i think they came in 48''cut only. its the walker copy by scag......... they are discontinued so it will be an old unit 1998-2000 you will have to buy but it does exactly what your looking forand invest a little money it will be as good as new . the blower its self has an adjustable baffle that allows grass to either discharge out the right side just behind the drive wheel or closed it goes into the box or split the differance and you bag a little and discharge alittle.

[Agape]

I would get one of those "chute blockers" that operates with your hand control and cut 1/4 inch off each end of the plate, or enough that it will flip up into the bag opening when you open it and just hang a bag at all times. (assuming that you're mulching and not side casting all other times)

[metro36]

Originally Posted by XLS

your looking for a scag,cougar i think they came in 48''cut only. its the walker copy by scag......... they are discontinued so it will be an old unit 1998-2000 you will have to buy but it does exactly what your looking forand invest a little money it will be as good as new . the blower its self has an adjustable baffle that allows grass to either discharge out the right side just behind the drive wheel or closed it goes into the box or split the differance and you bag a little and discharge alittle.

Yes the cougar is close but not exactly what he wants. It is not as simple as flipping a lever to go from mulching or discharge to bagging. The operator had to stop, flip up the deck and bolt in baffles to switch modes.

I am pretty sure they were produced for 1998-2003. I know that they came in 42, 48, or 52 inch deck sizes. They were a nice machine just alot heavier and larger overall than a walker.

[XLS]

metro36 i never seen but the 48 with the larger i would have thought more would be around. he only wanted to bag or discharge so it wouldnt need the baffle ,am i right? the guy i know that has one only bags and discharges so i didnt know about the mulching side of it

[metro36]

Originally Posted by XLS

metro36 i never seen but the 48 with the larger i would have thought more would be around. he only wanted to bag or discharge so it wouldnt need the baffle ,am i right? the guy i know that has one only bags and discharges so i didnt know about the mulching side of it

Yeah at one point the made all there deck sizes with a few engine options. The 48" model with the 27hp LC Kawi was the most popular model around me.

On the ones that I have used it required baffles to switch between modes. To switch from bagging to discharge you would have to remove the baffle on the side of the deck, install one in the blower shoot, and turn off the blower. To switch back to bagging you have to remove the back baffle, install the side one and turn the blower back on.

Dont hold me 100% to the info. It has been a while since I have seen or used one. You can look up the manual on scags site to check my info.