I'm sitting down trying to figure out my mower mix for this season so that I can handle wide areas, slopes, and also gated areas. It have a Lazer Z HP 48" and it's great, but I will unfortunately need to keep smaller deck mowers around for the rare occasions when it won't fit into a gated area. I recall seeing another brand's ad a few years back which showed a removeable trim side edge for their deck, so that the mower could be fit through a gate for which it was otherwise too large to fit through. It made a deck effectively several inches more narrow when it needed to get through a gate. I think that's a great feature for a mower.
Add these to my wish list. You can free up engineering time for them since Exmark seems to have cup holders, safety features for nimrods who can't stay on all 4 wheels, and gas tank styling down pat now. : ) 1. Deck height adjusters close at hand on walk behinds (see Yazoo Kees and Husqvarna as examples) 2. OPTIONAL "push to go" type steering on walk behinds (see Hustler, Snapper, Toro, Gravely, Great Dane, Wright for examples) This alone would allow the operator to steer with one hand while raising the deck over obstacles, ala a ZTR. 3. 42" to 44" deck choices on wb's so we can fit through many standard gates yet still mow those wide areas with some efficiency (see Toro, Gravely, Wright Stander) A 36" deck is a baby bear, a 48" is a poppa bear. We need a "just right" size. I would rather see 32/42/52 deck choices than 32/36/48/52. 4. 3 blade small deck designs and other features to make wb's shorter and more compact (see BillyGoat 33", great dane scamper, yazoo kees floating deck mower, standers, etc) A long mower is a cumbersome mower in tight spots. 5. Look for ways to make hydro wb mowers lighter while still being strong. My belt drive can go places in conditions that my hydro couldn't w/o bogging down or losing traction. Heavy is good when you bang it into something. But not when you're driving it over someone's prized but wet turf. 6. A reasonable method of accurately changing deck height on fixed deck mowers (see Gravely for example). That's their biggest drawback. 7. Hour meters/tachometers, at least as an option, on all but entry level units. I hear they're not that expensive. More important as more users switch to double blades. 8. Foam filled front caster wheels (see Gravely) standard. 9. Speaking of doubles, an ansi approved double blade kit (again, Gravely...these guys are coming on strong) option.
I think I read here that dixie chopper had or have a deck that you can remove one sied up to the blade spindle to get through gates. Also some one posted that they had done this to a couple wlakbehinds themselves. I tyhnk it was in a thread about mowers for gates. seems like it would be simple to do. just cut in the right place and make brakets to put it back together.
PaulJ, I wouldn't recommend taking the torch or saw to the mower deck just yet. I know we talk about this a great dealer but we feel it's important. Safety must be your first consideration. You won't be any more productive with a wider deck in the back yard if you get injured and can't run the machine for a period of time. Thanks for the suggestion and I will forward it to our engineering staff. Terry
I wasn't suggesting to any one to go do it. It just seemed like it would be a fairly simple design for YOUR engineers to do. It has been done before. This is NOT a new idea. With proper fore thought to strength and saftey of the design, I don't see any reason why not.
