Re: (ET) mulching

[Barry Woods <barry woods wright edu>]

I am the member who is using the gator blades (although I believe there may 
be one other who is also.)

This is the third year of using the blades and have not encountered any 
problems.  Yes, they do use more power (I don't recall the exact value I 
measured using Steve S.'s meter) but there has been no negative 
consequences.  I only had one motor shutdown once and this was when mowing 
tall, wet grass.

The gator blades cut better than the standard Elec-Trak blades and work well 
in the fall to mulch leaves.  They are louder, however, than the OEM blades 
due to their aerodynamics.

Gator blades do not require you close off your chutes.  My deck is totally 
open, right discharge chute uncovered, no flap on the rear and no baffling 
under the deck.  The gator blades were just slightly larger the standard 
blades and hit the baffles.  The deck works fine without them.

If you read the gator blade literature you will see the small wings on the 
blades are designed to throw the clippings straight up in the deck so they 
will fall back down over the blades.

This is apparently true as there is little discharge from the side or back 
deck openings.

Barry

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