We moved into a new house this summer. My in-law had fixed up an old Honda mower for us at our previous house. It worked great until the last cut of the season the previous year in which the self propel cable snapped off. I found out just how much extra weight that extra "feature" adds. He repaired it over the winter. On the second pass of the first mow the next spring, it snapped again. It had worked perfectly prior to that. Needless to say, as we were selling the house, I used my neighbors "franken-mower" that was a mish-mash of different parts and hack-job repairs. The thing was super light weight, cut through the tall, thick stuff like it was nothing, and so easy to push. I wanted one immediately!
Our new property is about .43 acres and have a lot of house/driveway/deck/garden that brings that down a bit. Honestly, pushing isn't bad at all in my opinion - I felt like it only took about an extra 15 minutes over our last place and that was a .3 acre lot with a smaller house footprint (2 story vs ranch), less driveway, less garden, and less deck. We also had more sun there so the grass grew faster and thicker. Anyway, the big issue we have at our new house is we are surround by leafy-trees. We have mowed just leaves probably 3 times so far, due for a 4th time whenever, and many of our trees still look pretty full...thankfully a couple are finally empty. The Bolen's model I got has a side-discharge only option. I know the deck is 1" smaller than the larger model, which I regret that I didn't buy given it is a pain to adjust mowing height on my model. It would also probably solve my issue since it would be easier to find a solution. That said, what is the best way to convert my 11A-020W765 (it is a Lowe's exclusive) into a mulching mower? Looking online, I see there are replacement mulch plugs available from the manufacturer for like $12, but that is the 21" deck, not my 20" deck. I don't care if it is a "perfect" fit so long as the vast majority of leaves are getting ground up. I got a pretty good mulch with the side discharge, but it took double the time and many more passes. Between my new neighbor and I, I imagine we could trim the plastic or add new holes to the deck.
I'm not looking for "perfect" mulching. I'm looking for a similar outcome, but closer to my 1 hour mow time as opposed to 2 hours. I will probably be on yard duty all of next year since we are trying to have our second kid and my wife will (knock on wood) be pregnant or have recently given birth at "leaf time". The following year, my wife will more than certainly insist we buy a riding mower. The mower is kept in a shed. I really just need something that will function for the rest of this year and next. Given how little sun our lawn gets, I would probably just leave the mulch plug on at this point since there are only 2 small spots that actually grew at any noticeable rate this summer and has any thickness to actually have a chance to clog anything. A couple of times, we spent 10 minutes total and just mowed the little section in back and the little section in front - probably ~300 square feet or less.
Thank you!
