[Raindem]

Hi. I have a 6ft Worksaver brand finishing mower. It works good but the highest cutting height is about 4", which is a little too low for the long prarie grass I have on my land.

I've determined that if I remove the wheel "legs", flip them upside down, and re-drill the mounting holes I can add 6" inches to the cutting height. Would this plan work? Or is there something about a 10" cutting height that I'm not taking into consideration?

Has anyone else modified their finishing mower to cut higher?

Thanks.

 

[DH1]

Never modified one, when I cut rough areas I set mine all the way up about 6" maybe 7", I don't hit as much stuff that way can go right over to of a brick, small rocks, 4x4s, The higher you go the poorer the quality of cut I notice.

 

[Jnelson]

I suspect that the reason that the quality of the cut diminishes at higher cutting heights is due to the fact that the deck is designed to create a lifting action on the grass and when the higher setting upsets this the grass can actually get blown down away from the cutting blades. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of this will be able to confirm or debunk this theory.

There are a couple of things that I can think of that you may want to consider besides a potentially poor quality of cut. The first is shielding from grass and objects thrown from under the deck. When run close to the ground the deck tends to keep projectiles from getting out from under it. The higher the deck is the more chance there would be to throw something. Second, how will the higher position affect the angles of the PTO shaft? While a PTO shaft is capable of turning in a relatively wide arc, the loads, the wear and the vibration will increase significantly as the running angles increase.

JN

 

[GB in MN]

Hi, perhaps a rotary cutter would be better suited for the type of cutting you have. The rotary cutters have a large spinning disc with 2 heavy duty blades and are designed for heavy / large weeds grass and mall brush, these are also referred to as bush hogs.
Jn is right on with hi pot about rasing the mower to high.
GB in MN

 

[Raindem]

I suspect that the reason that the quality of the cut diminishes at higher cutting heights is due to the fact that the deck is designed to create a lifting action on the grass and when the higher setting upsets this the grass can actually get blown down away from the cutting blades. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of this will be able to confirm or debunk this theory.

There are a couple of things that I can think of that you may want to consider besides a potentially poor quality of cut. The first is shielding from grass and objects thrown from under the deck. When run close to the ground the deck tends to keep projectiles from getting out from under it. The higher the deck is the more chance there would be to throw something. Second, how will the higher position affect the angles of the PTO shaft? While a PTO shaft is capable of turning in a relatively wide arc, the loads, the wear and the vibration will increase significantly as the running angles increase.

JN

You bring up some good points. It is a rear discharge model and I noticed that they have short sections of chain to keep stuff from getting launched out the rear. I'm sure I could lengthen those as well as rig something up for the side.

As for the PTO shaft it shouldn't be a problem. Right now it slopes down from my tractor (JD 2305). My proposed modification would actually bring it more level.

 

[Raindem]

Hi, perhaps a rotary cutter would be better suited for the type of cutting you have. The rotary cutters have a large spinning disc with 2 heavy duty blades and are designed for heavy / large weeds grass and mall brush, these are also referred to as bush hogs.
Jn is right on with hi pot about rasing the mower to high.
GB in MN

Is the cutting height of a rotary higher than a finish mower? My land is pure grass so I don't need to worry about heavy brush or saplings. I really like the way my finishing mower cuts. I'd just like to make the cutting height a little higher than stock.

 

[DH1]

When I cut the rough areas, horse pastures, the 1st cut when the grass is 12" 16" tall is not a good cut, alot of it gets folded over but if you go back and cut again in a day or two you get a much better cut. I found that if I cut every week or 2 weeks it's not too bad and if you can lower the deck a bit after you see where all the obstacles are even better.
Picture of what I use.

 

[Tencubed]

I use a 44" cut brush hog to keep the heavy grass and wild oats down around the place. If the grass gets too tall it tends to do a crummy cut on it. I think it's because the type of blade does not move a lot of air and also the sides of the cutter tend to bend the grass over quite a bit.

You might consider adding a width of old conveyer belt to the sides of your finish mower to lower them if you are concerned about it throwing stuff out. I know the brush hog will launch stuff quite a distance from time to time even with the deep skirts it has.

As Doug mentioned the second time over the brush hog does a much better job of cutting. Makes short work of saplings and such but has problems when the tumbleweeds get up around four or five feet tall and are still green. It'll cut and chop them but it's kind of slow.

I'd say give it a shot with your raised finish mower and let us know how it works out. May be several of us want to copy your lead.

Mike

 

[Jnelson]

Raindem,

The one thing that you are doing right is to use the inverted caster wheel assemblies to raise the ride height of the deck. What you don't want to do is to mow with the deck suspended by the three point - in other words you want the wheels to support the deck.

You might also be interested in researching a different style of blades for your project. SLKPK has quite a thread on Meg-Mo blades that you might find interesting at http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=52964.

JN

 

[DH1]

Raindem,

The one thing that you are doing right is to use the inverted caster wheel assemblies to raise the ride height of the deck. What you don't want to do is to mow with the deck suspended by the three point - in other words you want the wheels to support the deck. JN

Defiantly I agree 100% as you can see from the picture my deck runs on wheels at the back but is suspended from the tractor at the front.

4 caster wheels on the deck make it full floating, follows the terrain much better.

Mine when you go over ups and downs either scalps or cuts way to hi.

 

[Raindem]

Here's my mower. I was also thinking of taking one of the brackets to a fabricator and have him make me new ones with different angles.