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18 Posts
Greetings! I recently created an account to post in this thread and one of the members suggested I make a new post, so here we are. Before I dive into the issue, I want to give a few details:
1. I'm not a commercial lawn care provider. I own and take care of my own 5 acres; however, from time to time, I do mow large properties (3+) acres for folks.
2. I have lived in my current residence for 10 years. My property hasn't changed, it's all flat with no hills, 4 trees, no low/muddy areas. I live in East Texas with native grasses.
3. I originally used a Cub Cadet SLTX 1054 (27 HP Kohler and 54" deck) to mow my 5 acres. It would take me 7-8 hours to mow everything.
4. In 2019 I purchased a Ferris F320z, 37HP VG BB engine, 72" deck. I never made any changes to the deck, the engine, chute guard, etc. All stock. This mower would mow my 5 acres in 1hr, 20 minutes. I could fly over my property at full stick, 2.75"-3" cut height and it cut perfectly.
5. The F320z would discharge grass clippings easily 15' out of the side of the chute. The grass would be thrown so forcefully it would hurt your legs if you stood in the way.
6. I normally try to mow once a week, or twice in the spring if necessary due to rains, to keep the grass under or around 6-9" at the most.
7. Normal cutting height is 2.75-3". Anything higher and snakes can hide in it. I'm surround by woods on three sides, so I don't want them to have a place to hide.
8. The F320z required scraping the deck 2-3 times per season.
With the above being stated, here's my current situation. In 2022, I lost the F320z in a shop fire and bought an ISX 3300, 40HP VG BB, 61" to replace it. I wanted the 72" but the dealer and Ferris both said it was very difficult to get that deck size at time.
What immediately stood out to me with this ISX 3300 was how poor the cut quality was. Even after leveling the deck (as per the manual) with a 1/4" pitch, the cut improved somewhat but the mower still does not produce a clean cut.
I have tried three different sets of blades (high-left (oem), after-market, standard lift (oem)) and the cut quality was still the same. However, cut quality is inversely proportional to speed, but not in way that I expected or experience with my F320z.
If I mow at 1/4 stick, I can maintain a fairly decent cut, but there are still quite few sprigs and strips of grass that are either missed altogether or "torn", not cut. Anything at half-stick or more produce a cut that isn't worth the time of trying to going fast. It's ugly, torn, or just missed altogether and results in having to cut it again. As stated above, my land is flat, so going fast is why I bought the F320z originally.
I originally went back to the dealer twice to address the cutting problem but they said it was cutting fine. I thien spent 6 months going back and forth with both Ferris before Ferris finally set a rep out to my place with another mower, a technician from the dealer, and two other field reps. I was able to demonstrate my cut quality issues in dry grass that was 6-9 inches in height. Nothing wet, no mud, perfectly clean. Quarter to half-stick would produce a great cut with some tendrils and springs missed. Above half-stick looked like crap and full-stick would result in bogging on the engine and the cut looking like a brush hog.
After making sure the deck was properly leveled (it wasn't and the tech took an hour to get it right), the issue was improved, but as soon as I started to go more than 1/4 stick, the quality begins to drop rapidly to point of wasting my time as I would have to cut twice to make it clean.
I pointed out the the grass discharge would be 2 - 3 feet out of the side of the deck, which was considerably less than my 72" F320z. The rep claimed it was impossible my F320z discharged grass like that. I found a YouTube video of a guy mowing ~1' of grass with an ISX2200 and you can see the grass clippings being thrown 2 or 3 times the deck width. Even with the chute guard up, my ISX 3300 won't discharge grass like that.
During the 2022 mowing season, I had to scrape the ISX 3300 every other mow because the grass was clumped and stuck too the bottom. This resulted in clogging, bogging down the engine, and even worse cut quality.
Fast forward now to spring '23. I'm cutting soft, spring grass and flowers. Same issues as last year, but the grass isn't even 9" tall. Cutting grass 6" tall at full stick is again a waste of time. I'm running quarter stick and still missing grass and flowers. Grass clippings are getting tossed a foot or two out of the discharge. There is so much grass stuck to the deck after my second mowing I have to scrape it.
Based on the input from the other members in my original post, I believe the issue is the deck doesn't produce sufficient suction to lift, cut, and then discharge the grass. As a result, grass isn't cut cleanly and what grass is cut isn't discharged fast enough to keep up with the speed of the mower.
In short, even though this mower will go 11-12mph, it's useless because it won't cut grass that's reasonable height and produce a clean cut.
Here are my questions for the community:
1. Have you experienced cutting quality / discharge issues like the above? If so, what size deck? What manufacturer? What HP engine?
2. Did you ever fix the issue? How did you do it?
3. Did you were work with a dealer / manufacturer? What was that process? How did you get them to help you?
1. I'm not a commercial lawn care provider. I own and take care of my own 5 acres; however, from time to time, I do mow large properties (3+) acres for folks.
2. I have lived in my current residence for 10 years. My property hasn't changed, it's all flat with no hills, 4 trees, no low/muddy areas. I live in East Texas with native grasses.
3. I originally used a Cub Cadet SLTX 1054 (27 HP Kohler and 54" deck) to mow my 5 acres. It would take me 7-8 hours to mow everything.
4. In 2019 I purchased a Ferris F320z, 37HP VG BB engine, 72" deck. I never made any changes to the deck, the engine, chute guard, etc. All stock. This mower would mow my 5 acres in 1hr, 20 minutes. I could fly over my property at full stick, 2.75"-3" cut height and it cut perfectly.
5. The F320z would discharge grass clippings easily 15' out of the side of the chute. The grass would be thrown so forcefully it would hurt your legs if you stood in the way.
6. I normally try to mow once a week, or twice in the spring if necessary due to rains, to keep the grass under or around 6-9" at the most.
7. Normal cutting height is 2.75-3". Anything higher and snakes can hide in it. I'm surround by woods on three sides, so I don't want them to have a place to hide.
8. The F320z required scraping the deck 2-3 times per season.
With the above being stated, here's my current situation. In 2022, I lost the F320z in a shop fire and bought an ISX 3300, 40HP VG BB, 61" to replace it. I wanted the 72" but the dealer and Ferris both said it was very difficult to get that deck size at time.
What immediately stood out to me with this ISX 3300 was how poor the cut quality was. Even after leveling the deck (as per the manual) with a 1/4" pitch, the cut improved somewhat but the mower still does not produce a clean cut.
I have tried three different sets of blades (high-left (oem), after-market, standard lift (oem)) and the cut quality was still the same. However, cut quality is inversely proportional to speed, but not in way that I expected or experience with my F320z.
If I mow at 1/4 stick, I can maintain a fairly decent cut, but there are still quite few sprigs and strips of grass that are either missed altogether or "torn", not cut. Anything at half-stick or more produce a cut that isn't worth the time of trying to going fast. It's ugly, torn, or just missed altogether and results in having to cut it again. As stated above, my land is flat, so going fast is why I bought the F320z originally.
I originally went back to the dealer twice to address the cutting problem but they said it was cutting fine. I thien spent 6 months going back and forth with both Ferris before Ferris finally set a rep out to my place with another mower, a technician from the dealer, and two other field reps. I was able to demonstrate my cut quality issues in dry grass that was 6-9 inches in height. Nothing wet, no mud, perfectly clean. Quarter to half-stick would produce a great cut with some tendrils and springs missed. Above half-stick looked like crap and full-stick would result in bogging on the engine and the cut looking like a brush hog.
After making sure the deck was properly leveled (it wasn't and the tech took an hour to get it right), the issue was improved, but as soon as I started to go more than 1/4 stick, the quality begins to drop rapidly to point of wasting my time as I would have to cut twice to make it clean.
I pointed out the the grass discharge would be 2 - 3 feet out of the side of the deck, which was considerably less than my 72" F320z. The rep claimed it was impossible my F320z discharged grass like that. I found a YouTube video of a guy mowing ~1' of grass with an ISX2200 and you can see the grass clippings being thrown 2 or 3 times the deck width. Even with the chute guard up, my ISX 3300 won't discharge grass like that.
During the 2022 mowing season, I had to scrape the ISX 3300 every other mow because the grass was clumped and stuck too the bottom. This resulted in clogging, bogging down the engine, and even worse cut quality.
Fast forward now to spring '23. I'm cutting soft, spring grass and flowers. Same issues as last year, but the grass isn't even 9" tall. Cutting grass 6" tall at full stick is again a waste of time. I'm running quarter stick and still missing grass and flowers. Grass clippings are getting tossed a foot or two out of the discharge. There is so much grass stuck to the deck after my second mowing I have to scrape it.
Based on the input from the other members in my original post, I believe the issue is the deck doesn't produce sufficient suction to lift, cut, and then discharge the grass. As a result, grass isn't cut cleanly and what grass is cut isn't discharged fast enough to keep up with the speed of the mower.
In short, even though this mower will go 11-12mph, it's useless because it won't cut grass that's reasonable height and produce a clean cut.
Here are my questions for the community:
1. Have you experienced cutting quality / discharge issues like the above? If so, what size deck? What manufacturer? What HP engine?
2. Did you ever fix the issue? How did you do it?
3. Did you were work with a dealer / manufacturer? What was that process? How did you get them to help you?
