Bad Boy Rouge grass strips from wheels

[MParr]

Here is the OEM high lift blades for your mower.

038-7230-00 - Bad Boy Mowers 72'' High Lift Fusion Blade or Bad Boy Parts number 038723000

Bad Boy Mowers Parts for sale at www.badboylawnmowerparts.com. Get your 038-7230-00 - Bad Boy Mowers 72' High Lift Fusion Blade here! Find your Bad Boy Blade using our colored parts diagrams or simply search online by the Bad Boy Part Number 038723000

www.badboylawnmowerparts.com

 

[MParr]

Personally, I would try the Rotary #6404.

 

[BigBlueEdge]

Is this the blade that you are talking about?

038-5400-00 - Bad Boy Mowers 72'' Gator Mulching Blade or Bad Boy Parts number 038540000

Bad Boy Mowers Parts for sale at www.badboylawnmowerparts.com. Get your 038-5400-00 - Bad Boy Mowers 72' Gator Mulching Blade here! Find your Bad Boy Blade using our colored parts diagrams or simply search online by the Bad Boy Part Number 038540000

www.badboylawnmowerparts.com

If so, those are Gator mulching blades and they do not develop the lift that standard high lifts do. On top of that, they will pack your deck with wet grass.

The Gator G6 is not primarily a mulching blade. It gets the 'mulching' attribute because of the serrations on the back side. But it is primarily a high lift blade. See attached feature list. Which is reflected in Bad Boy's renaming of it as "High Lift Fusion". In fact, I'm not entirely sure the Bad Boy OEM version of the blade has the serrations that the true Gator G6 has.

I've had G6 blades on my JD x758 for years. They don't really do much for mulching and they don't lead to deck buildup at all. I only clean the deck once a year in the fall when I have it off and am sharpening my blades just because it is habit, but it usually doesn't need it. I mow 7 acres a week.

I'll check into the Rotary ones you suggest...

Rob

 

[MParr]

Yes, Oregon does make Bad Boy blades. Now if the blade is 2.5” wide, it’s a G5. If it’s 3” wide, it’s a G6. My former Toro Timecutter HD 54 would take the 54” Bad Boy blades. I used both the Bad Boy high lift and the Had Boy Gator and I got much better performance out of the high lifts. When the Gators were toast, I never bought another set. With the Gators, the mower would puke big wads of grass all over the yard. I had much more blow out from the front of the mower. That didn’t happen with the notched high lifts. I highly doubt that I will waste my money buying a set for my new Gravely Pro Turn 160.

 

[BigBlueEdge]

So, the stock blades are 2.5" wide. And they have a single notch in them, not the serrations of the true G6. Apparently whatever info I had seen that implied the stock Bad Boy 'High Lift Fusion' blades are Gator G6 was wrong. And they don't look like G5s either. These don't have the lifting surface of the G6 blades on my x758. So maybe a good set of true high lift blades will help me.

Rob

 

[BigBlueEdge]

After looking at the Rotary blades, the stock blades look a lot like them. Very similar lift surface and notch.

 

[MParr]

So, the stock blades are 2.5" wide. And they have a single notch in them, not the serrations of the true G6. Apparently whatever info I had seen that implied the stock Bad Boy 'High Lift Fusion' blades are Gator G6 was wrong. And they don't look like G5s either. These don't have the lifting surface of the G6 blades on my x758. So maybe a good set of true high lift blades will help me.

Rob

Those are the standard notched high lift blades. Those are the ones that I would use. The Gator blades don’t have any more lift than the standard blades. When serrations are cut into the wing, you actually loose some lift. Like going down the road with your hand out the car window. Closed fingers and the wind goes around each side of your hand. Open fingers and the wind goes around each finger. Sunbelt XHT makes some super high lifts. I will try to find you the part number.

 

[MParr]

Sunbelt XHT blades aren’t listed for your 72” mower. It looks like you don’t have a wide selection in that size. You are limited to either Bad Boy, Hustler or Dixie Chopper blades. Here’s a Stens Dixie Chopper high lift. The lift wings are longer than the Bad Boy. It will definitely give you more lift.

315-499 Hi-Lift Blade

www.stens.com

Here is the same blade by Rotary.

6833

6833

www.rotarycorp.com

These two blades would be my choice.

 

[PORKIE]

Overlap so whichever front caster wheel isn't plowing through the uncut portion of the Grass. Slow down. Cut at a lower setting if possible and try not to mow when the grass is wet with DEW, like in the early morning. No matter what blades you are using, make sure they are SHARP. As they come from the Factory, you couldn't dent a Watermelon unless you used all of your strength. I like a 'Pocket knife' type edge on mine.

Sam

 

[BigBlueEdge]

Well, if I was going to slow down and overlap my path that would kinda defeat the purpose of having a zero turn that can mow faster. I could just as well go back to mowing with my Deere x758 which doesn't require overlaps or multiple passes and uses less fuel (it's a diesel) and finish in the same time then. I bought a commercial quality zero turn so that I could reduce the time to mow my 7 acres.

The blade sharpness is something I'll check. I assumed a new unit would have sharp blades on it, but that could well be false. However, the fact that the 'mohawks' are due to grass that hasn't popped back up to normal height, not a generally uneven cut, makes me think even sharp blades aren't going to resolve the issue.

That said, BB has been good to work with on this issue and the unit is currently back at the dealer having some revised front wheel arms mounted. This redesign (which may become their new standard for future models) moves the front casters out of line with the blade spindles. Apparently the thinking is that the part of the grass with the least blade coverage (by percentage) is directly in front of and behind the spindle (think about the area of a circle being cut by the blade as the mower moves ahead) and combining the lesser area with the knock-down from the wheels is a bad combo. I'm not entirely convinced but since it is free to me I'm willing to give it a shot. At this point I'm so unhappy with the cut I'm ready to sell the unit so any improvement will be appreciated.

I will try the high lift blades mentioned above when I can, too, but they were out of stock when I tried to order last week.

Rob