Re: (ET) In Search Of... Again

["David Roden" <etpost drmm net>]

On 22 May 2019 at 16:08, Dean Stuckmann via Elec-trak wrote:

> The only reason I can think of for an un-mowed strip would be blades 
> that are
> too short. I think that would be true for any deck - regardless of the 
> number
> of blades it has.

I may not know what I'm talking about, but the few ICE riders / tractors 
I've had (limited) experience with had blades whose paths overlapped a 
bit.  
However, the blade drives were belted together.  The belt was set so that 
the blades were always at right angles to one another.  That is, they were 
timed so they'd never strike each other when rotating.  (I guess you hope 
that the belt doesn't slip.)

When you have 2 independent motors driving the blades, as in the R36 / ER8-
36 and E8 / E10, you can't time them that way.  You have to find some 
other 
way to ensure that the blades will never strike each other.  The ways I 
can 
think of to do that are by allowing clearance between the blades, or by 
setting one blade slightly higher than the other. 

If you offset them in height, the cut will be uneven.  Not so good.

If you allow clearance between the blades, you'll have some amount of 
grass 
that's missed.  That's not great either.  Maybe it should only be a few 
mm, 
but there has to be some. 

If you have an E15 or E20 with a 3-motor deck, the center blade is farther 
forward.  It can (and IIRC does) overlap the others' cuts horizontally.  
That eliminates any gap.  

You don't have this on a 2-blade deck such as the ones on the riders and 
the 
small-frame tractors.

Now, it may be that my R36's blades are indeed too short.  They're what 
the 
mower came with when I got it  I've been assuming that they were standard 
factory issue, but I bought the mower used, so who knows for sure?  Maybe 
they're aftermarket blades.  But they always leave an unmowed stripe an 
inch 
or so wide in the middle of the deck.  So I overlap cuts about 55-60% when 
I 
mow.

Really?  Nobody else with an R36, ER8-36, or E8/E10 has this problem with 
the mower leaving an unmowed stripe down the middle of the deck?


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA

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