Is my reel mower causing this problem?
brianlee44
14 years ago
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brianlee44
14 years agodchall_san_antonio
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Mclane Reel Mower Cutting Uneven - and dont know why,
Comments (6)syano, i would have to agree with txwd in regards to the alignment problem. sounds to me like the bedknife may need to be adjusted. or maybe it wasn't adjusted properly from the factory and since they sharpened it and adjusted it now you can see the ridges so to speak in the yard. i spent the extra $$$ for a Tru-Cut after exhausing research on these mowers and I'm extremely happy with my purchase. Just to let you know that my Tru-Cut also leave ridges in my yard but I honestly believe it's because I have so many bumps and humps in my yard and not because of the mower itself. I'm seriously considering buying a front roller for my Tru-Cut because it's supposed to give it a more level looking cut and reduce scalping that comes from an unlevel yard. Hope that helps!...See MoreHelp with reel mower mowing
Comments (26)Ok, I'm gonna touch on a couple of things here. I'm still troubleshooting so bear with me. Your last paragraph clued me in to a possibility. One of the things I see my new employees do from time to time even with powered walking greens mowers is that they will have areas where they miss cutting the grass due to pushing down on the handle of the mower. The way I get them to correct this is for them to slightly lift up on the handle as they are making each pass across the green. This keeps the cutting unit down on the grass surface. Is it possible that you are doing the same thing with your reel mower? As light as it is, it would be easy for you to be inadvertantly pressing down on the handle slightly which would lift up the reel off the ground and when it goes back down it would create the washboard or gouging effect as you move across an area. This would be even easier to do on a downhill slope. Next time you mow, try lifting up slightly on the handle with both hands to keep the cutting unit on the grass surface. The other issue I'll comment on is leveling. You could do your own leveling, just as some others on this forum have done. The link below is a thread from this forum from earlier this year. There are also other threads on leveling from people who did the work themselves and they saw great results. Check it out and see if this is something you think you could do. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg061042369630.html?45...See MoreAdding weight to manual reel mower
Comments (0)I posted this in the lawnmower section but thought I would post it here too. I bought a reel mower off of CL this winter and have been using it all year on my bermuda. One of the things I have noticed is the cutter bar jumps some when cutting. It will give the lawn a choppy or rippled look. From looking online, that seems fairly normal but I have also seen comments from people with heavier reel mowers who don't seem to have as big of a problem with that. So I set out to find a way to add weight to cutter bar and came up with a decent solution. I hope this helps somebody. So here is what I did to add weight. I have an American Reel mower 7 blade model. I bought 3" PVC pipe and the pipe ends. My goal was to attach it to the brackets for the grass catcher. I cut the PVC pipe to the desired length, filled it with gravel, drilled holes in the cap ends, and put a bolt in each one. I then bought washers and nuts to use to secure it to the brackets. I played around with the positions but found it works best if the bag catcher brackets are straight up and down. I am guessing this added about 10 - 15 pounds of weight to the cutting bar. It does still skip some but I believe that is due more to bumpy spots then anything. Because the cutter bar won't come up as easily, it cuts the grass lower at any given setting then it would have without the added weight. That posed a bit of a problem when I first tried to cut with it because the grass was "too tall" aka the cutter bar was so much lower I had to raise it a setting. The added weight makes it back heavy so it wants to flip over when I back up. If I lower the handle bars as I pull back, I don't have much of a problem. I am having a bit of a problem cutting my back yard. I believe that is more so because the grass grew tall over a period of a week when I couldn't cut it due to rain and I just can't get it back low. It's too thick which is causing the wheels to slide. Plus it's a bit of a hill. Added weight won't help with this. I am thinking of putting nails in the tires to see if it will help it grip better. Anyway, just thought I would share for those interested. Overall, I think it was a success and does help some with the cutter bar jumping. My goal next year is to get my first cut of the year as low as possible and raise it one setting for the rest of the year or as long as I can. We shall see....See MoreA couple of reel mower questions (bermuda grass)
Comments (4)I didn't think you could use a dremel or anything like that on a reel mower. I thought that would leave the reels with high and low spots. I have seen mclanes and/or John deeres for 200-400on craigslist. That caught my interest but if I am going to have to pay 100 or so a season to put the reel on a relief grinder which is what I thought had to be done, I am not interested. I'll have to look into a growth regulator. @reeljake, the rotary is cool but I definitely scalp the yard in places. I don't want to raise it up too high after having it so low with the reel mower if that makes sense. Where I messed up is I did raise the cutting deck on the rotary when I couldn't cut it with the reel. What I should have done was left the rotary at a low height and just cut it and if the grass browned, oh well. I could have put down some iron to green it back up and resumed cutting it with the reel....See Morebrianlee44
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