Mower Man said:
The 'Flat Top" deck has a great cut, as long as it is set up right, and operated within conditions for the grass-weather conditions.
The deck, and lift system you have is similar, but different than Envy's.
In fairness to Envy, he did have a damaged deck apparently from new, and according to him (one side of the story) didn't get the after the sale service from the dealer he should have gotten. No matter what product that's bad.
Personally wouldn't have used the that baffle you were given. It's not the correct solution for that issue as you describe it
If you want correct answers and the whole truth, suggest you feel free to post here (nothing to hide) or email me thru this site, or contact the selling dealer, or the factory Head of Customer Service Richard Borland, or Ken Vincent Technical Support @ 877-368-TURF.
They will steer you straight.
Yeah, the guys at the factory, they will steer you straight alright.... straight around and round and round.... in one big never ending circle that never gets anything resolved.... and when they figure out you are sick of that circle, they will steer you to a new one. But I'm sure you have already figured out as much.
Yes, in all fairness to me, I DID have a bad deck from the factory. But of course they wanted to push the blame off on me as having damaged it. However, the thing they were not counting on was the absolute impecable shape the deck was in. Looked brand new with hardly even a scratch on the trim side. I'd be glad to lay out a supporting pictorial here as well to prove such.
Yes, I didn't get the after the sale service from the dealer that I should have.
I also didn't get it from the distributor either when I was directed there.
Nor did I get it from the factory or factory tech support EITHER.
Yes that IS BAD, no matter the brand.
As I have said before, there was just NO EXCUSE then...
And there is NO EXCUSE
NOW!
But again, I am far-far from the only one with this issue with this deck.... no make that the only two, yeah you read that right TWO! TWO warped decks. Excuses-Excuses. Sorry, but there is an issue, either with materials, workmanship, process, and/or equipment... one or all. I may be wrong, but my guess is cheap steel. Plus since they are getting out the door, obviously there is a quality control and inspection issue. That's a given.
They know about it too. Matter of fact, if I had to make a large wager on it, I would have to bet that this is WHY the "Tunnel Ram" design was born. It might not be a 'better' deck but maybe it turns out straighter? I dunno either way, but good luck getting one, matter of fact good luck getting anything out of them....
Jeff, I also respectfully beg to differ with you on the baffle issue, as he has said they installed the mulch kit. If you will recall.... I told you all about that issue. The correct set of blades along with the mulch kit goes a long way to hide the problem if you will recall. But nothing else does except that exact combo....
The reason being is that blade and kit combo does a whole lot to isolate the blades from each other in many ways.
This issue with these decks is not so much in being wicked warped....
But in the fact it takes very very little to totally louse them up in their abilities.
They don't really create much vacuum as you say, not even with highlifts. They actually produce more front blowout than anything else, just to be truthful about it. They don't have a lot of blade overlap to work with either. But anyways, the point is, it doesn't take much to louse them up. Therefore, if you have one blade that is 'tail cutting' this attributes more to the frontal blowout, which does not help matters because it only helps to blow the grass down forward....
In addition, the blades are not all spinning on the same plane. So they interfere with each other due to violent conflicting air flows. This magnifies the issue in the end result cut quality. Big cups, gaps, dips, streaks, random stringers, and mowhawk lines.
