Using blade spacers on Lazer HP

Hello,

I'm curious if it would be safe to use a 1/4" blade spacer above the blade on a lazer z hp to get a little more effective deck depth. Seems like if torqued down properly it would be ok.

Also, would it cause blowout problems? My unit is in the shop and I can't check the blade clearance vs. the edge of the deck.

My fixed deck mower uses these spacers and adding more spacers above the blade and below the spindle improved the performance noticeably. My goal is better performance on taller grass.

 

Hey brucec32:

Thanks for the post. It would be unsafe to add a 1/4" blade spacer on your LHP. It could contribute to additional blowout, but what would concern us most is that, by adding the spacer, you would lower the blade height. This would make it easier to either project something out from under the deck, or it would be easier to injure someone if they accidentally stuck their foot under the deck. Adding the spacer will also affect your height of cut.

Adding or taking away spacers will make more of a difference on your shallow, fixed deck units. With your rider, you are basically at the lowest position that you could be in with all the spacers below the spindle on your walk-behind.

I think I know what you're thinking. You've read some posts regarding the performance of the UltraCut deck in taller grass, and the UltraCut deck is a 1/2" deeper than the standard, Tri-Vantage deck that you have on your LHP. If you add one 1/4" spacer, you're getting closer and closer to the depth of the UltraCut deck. Will a 1/4" spacer make much of a difference? I don't know, but I can tell you that we don't feel it is safe, and we don't want anyone to get injured. Let me know if you have any questions.

Here to help,

Dustin
Exmark Customer Support

 

Thanks Dustin,

Your points make a lot of sense. The blowout would be related to the too-low blade position, and that would affect safety. My suggestion would be to put the engineers to work finding another 1/2" of frame clearance on the HP mowers so you could go to the ultracut deck. I assume it would simplify production only having one deck design for all the mowers. Other than the deck, I really prefer the smaller footprint, lower operator position, and lower center of gravity of the HP model.

Then again, the deeper deck's added weight out front might cause traction problems, though I'm sure they could overcome this.

I will leave my unit as is and learn to live with the slightly worse performance in tall grass.

 

brucec32:

Adding the extra 1/2" to the deck on the LHP's wouldn't be impossible, but we would still have to keep the TriVantage deck for the CT's and design a new UltraCut deck for the 44" and 48" LHP's. With the added weight and the deeper deck, we may have to redesign the frame, add taller tires, or both. This would increase the cost, and there's no guarantee that this would solve the problem. Even so, it would be worth considering.

Maybe there are some other things we can do to improve the quality of cut without adding an extra 1/2" of depth? I'll make sure that the people who need to see this post take a look at it.

Talk to you later,

Dustin

 

I have been using a 52"/27hp lazer as a loaner the past two weeks and definitely think I noticed superior performance in tall grass, with fewer "left behinds". A mower that combined the best of both current designs would be hard to beat in my book.

Thanks