Those may cut alright, but they are NOT Gator blades. There is no lift tab at the end of those in the link. Those look like Black Mamba's. Gator blades can cause clumping or wads in real wet conditions, but as a rule they do pretty darn well for all around cutting. They do make the clippings smaller and you can see it if you stop and look at the clippings after using one blade and then the other (Gators), but it isn't earth shattering.

As far as the dimension thing- no, it isn't quite that simple.

1- you want to use the same thickness as your oem blades as Gator G blades come in both .250" and .205" thicknesses (G6 and G5 respective;y).

2- Is there a center hump or no hump in your oem blades? If not, you want to stick with the same style blades

3- Are your oem blades 2", 2.5" or 3" wide? Putting a 3: wide blade on a deck that is designed for use with 2" or 2.5" blades may cause them to make contact when they pass each other, though it shouldn't as blades are measured diagonally, corner to opposite corner.

Just some things to consider.

I use G5's quite a bit and they cut as clean as my oem blades normally, but they don't stripe quite as well and they can pack a deck a little quicker when the grass is wet.

 

Just some things to consider.

I use G5's quite a bit and they cut as clean as my oem blades normally, but they don't stripe quite as well and they can pack a deck a little quicker when the grass is wet.

Thank you. So I know high lift blades are simple, in that they look to separate the blades of grass and use the lift to discharge the clippings as soon as possible. Putting the least amount of wear on your mower. Then mulching blades are the opposite, usually having no lift to keep the clippings under the deck as long as possible and 'wavy' pattern to help mulch up the clippings. Obviously puts a considerable more amount of wear and tear on your equipment and requires a lot of machines to go slower.

So I thought the only requirement to consider blades "Gator Blades" is the notches in the wings? I also just noticed that there was only eight in that listing. I thought for sure I saw nine, I will need to go back and search again. I may just stick with high lift blades or just buy one set of gators and put them on when I could use them and see how they do.

So I see Oregon selling the G3, G5 and G7 blades. So are those true gator blades? I noticed most of them look flat with at least some lift on the wing of the blade??

 

What do you think of these?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143958542245

I may have to compare because like you were saying these may cut lower than my stock flat blades.

 

Those are the humped style blades I mentioned and if your oem blades are not, then you want to run the same style Gator blades as your oem.

Gators are designed to chop the clippings up more than regular blades, but not as much as wavy mulchers an an OCDC or full mulch kit. They are (according to Oregon themselves) not designed for use with a mulch kit, though many guys use them that way just the same.

This is a new G6 for my JD. It has the hump in the center as do my oem blades. Take a look at the blades you posted a link to earlier that I commented on and then take a look at mine. Look at the outer lift tab on mine compared to what those other blades look like. There are other blades out there that also have a bit of a lift tab like the true Gators, but those have the teeth flat at the tops instead of pointed like true Gators, and they also have their teeth twisted the opposite way from Gators which is not what you want.

 

Oregon Gators are what you want. Not a gator style blade.

 

Go with the oregon gator blades. They stay sharp longer than the blades you are showing.

As far as packing the deck in wet grass, try lowering your engine speed in the tall wet stuff. It will reduce the packing and clumping.

 

Ive run gator G3's and now G5's. Oregon claims the G3's are high lift but look at the pictures below and you will see they aren't. The G5's are high lift though, have a longer cutting edge and have a hard coating on the bottom of the cutting edge that really does help them stay sharp longer. I use the G3's in the fall when I close my OCDC more to mulch leaves and G5's the rest of the season for side discharge or the occasional bagging. They bag, discharge and stripe as well as the stock Exmark blades (also pictured) but they do cut the clipping into smaller pieces so they get distributed more evenly and disappear into the turf almost immediately

.

 

Ive run gator G3's and now G5's. Oregon claims the G3's are high lift but look at the pictures below and you will see they aren't. The G5's are high lift though, have a longer cutting edge and have a hard coating on the bottom of the cutting edge that really does help them stay sharp longer. I use the G3's in the fall when I close my OCDC more to mulch leaves and G5's the rest of the season for side discharge or the occasional bagging. They bag, discharge and stripe as well as the stock Exmark blades (also pictured) but they do cut the clipping into smaller pieces so they get distributed more evenly and disappear into the turf almost immediately View attachment 441678 View attachment 441679 .

Not all G3's are like yours though. I have a set for one of my mowers that is the same exact lift/height on the teeth and tab as the G5/6 blades. The only difference with them is they don't have the extended cutting edge nor the fusion treatment.

 

G3 are a better choice for a closed deck when truly mulching due to their lower amount of lift...therefore less blowout.
G5/6 create more lift and are for shredding the discharge more when side-discharging = open deck. These may very well create too much blowout on a closed deck. YMMV
High-lifts do the least amount of processing of clippings as they get the discharge out from under the deck by moving the most air.

Single-notch high lifts haven't been mentioned specifically as they fall just below solid sail high-lifts in the amount of lift they produce and they will shred/process the clippings/discharge a bit more as well.

 

I’d suggest to not get the G6s. They are noticeably heavier. If you mow thicker grass, you’ll notice that they’ll require more power.

 

I'd suggest to not get the G6s. They are noticeably heavier. If you mow thicker grass, you'll notice that they'll require more power.

Yep, I found compatible G5 or G6 blades for an MTD piece of equipment and the machine could just not handle it. You could tell it was just bad for the machine because of all the extra noise the machine made. It was struggling to keep them moving. I was definitely going to be happy with G3 or G5 blades. I will probably buy a set of G3's that Ridin' Green was talking about. They sound like a good starting point.

 

Are the G3s not as wide as G5/6...? I was thinking they're 2.5" vs 3" respectively?

 

My G3's are not as wide as my G5's but are thicker

 

Where would you guys recommend I buy my mower blades? I am interested in trying a set of G3's or G5's. I have been looking over eBay and other places but cannot seem to find them or not many anyway.

 

Never mind, I just bought Oregon G3's 96-344 from Red Dog Supplies.

 

You will have a hard time beating Forest Depot on variety and especially prices.

 

I just put the same blades into my cart there. Red Dog Supplies actually beat them by 44 cents. I found the dealer on eBay and decided to see if they had an actual website. I saved a few dollars going to their website over eBay as well.

 

Might not hurt to try your local dealer, mine gets my blades for me for cheaper than I can find them for online. YMMV though

 

I do not think I have ever asked mine if he sells aftermarket blades. He just might, I notice he has a lot of Oregon stuff. I want to support him I really do but the stuff there is just too expensive. A set of factory blades for my Ferris I believe are now over $100 and just to sharpen them it costs $35 and they do not balance.

That is why I made the post over a year ago asking for recommendations on blade sharpeners. I went with the Bradley in case anyone wants to know. I do not have a lot of experience with it yet. I do wish it took off material a little faster though. At the end of last year I bought nine Oregon high lift blades for cheaper than it would have costed me to just get my sharpened from my dealer.

 

Well, Red Dog Supplies just unexpectedly cancelled my order for no reason. I guess I am going over to Forest Depot now.

 

No explanation?

 

Nope, I sent them a message asking, so we will see what they say. Maybe what I wanted to remember was not to use them? lol

 

Sounds that way right now at least.

 

Forest Depot has G3 and G5 for literally pennies more, what did you recommend G5? I will weigh my factory high lift mower blades and see what they weigh for comparison. However, I do not see a weight listed for these blades on Forest Depot.

 

First off, I know this scale is not 100% accurate but it does do a pretty good job. So my conclusion is my factory high lift blades seem to weigh just slightly less than the Oregon G5's and the Oregon high lift blades I bought seem to be a good deal lighter than both. Also this estimate could be inaccurate because this factory blade is used. I also scraped all the crap off of it as well. I think if I would have left it on there it would have probably weighed more than the Oregon G5 blades. You might also say this previous statement is accurate because when the factory blade was new it had more material (metal, coating, etc) than it does now.

Ferris Factory High Lift Blade = 42.6 ounces

Oregon Gator G5 596-344 = 43.9 ounces

Oregon High Lift 91-622 = 37.2 ounces

If anyone is reading this for whatever reason keep in mind this is for a 52" deck and the blades are 18" long with a 5/8" center hole.

 

There's not enough difference in weight there (even if the scale is dead on) to even begin to think about, let alone worry about. My guess is the Oregon HL blades are lighter because they are made of a different material than your oem HL's, or possibly your oem's are .205" thick and the Oregon's are .203" thick.

I have posted pics on here of my oem blades, and G6's sitting on a very accurate postal scale that goes up to 50 lbs. There's several ounces difference between the oem's and the G's. The oem's are heavier. I have never worried about the weight, but posted it for a guy that kept insisting that the G6's were heavier than the JD oem blades.

 

To confirm though, the G6 blades are considerably heavier than the G5 blades though right? I just measured these blades and my calipers are not perfect either but it is immediately noticeable that both of the Oregon blades are the same thickness while my factory blades are thicker.

 

If you go back to that post though, you'll also see where I mentioned that blades are measured diagonally, so they should not touch ever if they are the correct part number for your machine. The thing about a wider blade touching is more in regards to using a different blade than what is recommended for your machine, as in, when I run Scag blades under a JD etc.

You're overthinking things here LOL Just enjoy your new lades and let us know what you think of them once you use them.

 

I only use gator blades on all my mowers year-round, I run JD (6) 997rear discharge, and a (1) JD 9000 (golf all terrain cut), we change blades out weekly, sometimes sooner. Cut 300 acres each week. Indispensable in leaf season, where we change blades out daily. Grass and leaves mulch up finely enough not to collect.

 

Is the JD 9000 a forage harvestor?

 

No he is probably talking about the John Deere 9009A All Terrain Cut. I have always wanted to look into a rear discharge mower as well (The first one he is talking about). It would make mowing some of my properties much easier. Most of the properties I cut are 3/4 of an acre. I have ones that are more but most of them are that size.

I went with a 52" deck on my Ferris rather than the generic 61". It is bittersweet but definitely glad I did it. There are a lot of places that I can get the 52" in that I could never hope to get a 61". However, when I am mowing wide open space I do wish that I had something larger. We cut a couple properties that are mostly wide open. A 61" would save me a little time but I am happy with what I have.

 

This is probably best suited for another topic but I have always worried about cut quality on a rear discharge as well. Running the side discharge with high lift blades has always gotten me complimented relentlessly.

We are also constantly hitting stuff over here regardless of how much we pick up, it is just inevitable. I guess the plus side of that is that a rock or something is much less likely to go flying off with a rear discharge. Then again it could keep the rock under the deck lower and wreck havoc too.

Ferris is now offering the rear discharge decks but the engine stays the same. I would like to see some more horsepower on something that is going to keep grass clippings under the deck a little longer, especially if I decide to run gator blades permanently.

 

The rear discharge mowers we use leave awesome cuts and great stripes JD 997 and the JD 9009A, literally no visible clippings/clumps.

 

How many hours do you have on your 997s?