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Permalink Reply by David Grimes on July 11, 2012 at 20:24

Steve i have john deere 455 and 160 both with mulch decks and decks for collecting

we have been cutting the wet grass ok ,things still get a bit sticky

but works better than collecting and stopping every couple of mins

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Brian www.mibservices.co.uk on July 11, 2012 at 20:40

Steve, my wee x277 JD, has been the dogs you know what with this weather, 36' cut and mulch deck, light enuff not to do damage on soddden grass and big enuff to cope with even on my big sites that i would normally use my Ransomes 728 machine on. Yeah defo get a mulching deck mate.

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Premium SupplierPermalink Reply by Derek Tucker on July 11, 2012 at 20:42

Hi Steve,

The X320 in your profile picture looks like it is running a 48" deck and this can be converted to a mulch deck for around £120.00 The kit includes 3 x new blades, and a mulch plug that allows clippings to be recut and left. The blower etc is easy to remove and conversion from collection to mulching will take about 1/2 hour first time around.  Lots of our contractors mulch all the time, but getting customers to accept a mulch finish where they have had collection previously can be an issue. The finish is good, but not as good as collecting. The plus sides are massive time saving over collection - typically 40% is quoted and no grass pile to dispose of or take away.

It is time consuming to swap between mulch and collecting so it is not really practical to swap to different modes for different customers even if you went to the extreme of having two decks - one for collecting and one dedicated to mulching.

Unfortunately there are no easy answers to dealing with the extra ordinary grass growth that we have this year. 

Hope this helps

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Steve Sonic Grounds Maintenance on July 11, 2012 at 21:01

When the mulch deck is on is it not possible to still collect the grass in the bag too? Can u not do both?
What work is involved in changing it from mulch to collect?
Yes u are indeed right it is a 48 inch. A keen eye!!

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Steve Sonic Grounds Maintenance on July 11, 2012 at 21:01

I often take the side blower and chute off. Is it a similar method?

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Premium SupplierPermalink Reply by Derek Tucker on July 11, 2012 at 21:21

It is similar, and you need to fit a mulch boot into place to mulch. This is a big L shaped plastic bung that slides into deck and is held in place with a few wing nuts.  Main issue is the blades. The collect blades have a lip to force grass along deck towards the fan. Mulch blades do not have as much throw and would work with dry grass but would be much worse than your current performance in the wet.  Collecting blades would wreck the mulch bung when that is in place, so as a minimum the swap would involve changing blades each time you remove and replace mulch bung/fan collection system.

Hope this makes sense. 

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Permalink Reply by David Grimes on July 12, 2012 at 6:15

steve we take the mulch gaurd off the bit with two wing nuts with the holes

then our  chute fits in for collecting and we keep the mulching blades on still collects ok

.we have the diesel jd 455 48" cut  LT160  42"

collecting blades still work ok on mulching

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