D130 Mulching issues

pda1977

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I inherited a D130 last year from my father in law, and installed a mulching plug on it and some G3 blades. it cuts just fine, but it puts a lot of grass on the deck, and also leaves a fair amount on the ground. If I stop the mower to turn around, it will leave a large pile on the ground as well.

I would have thought that it would do a lot better than it is doing, but would love some suggestions on how to make it better. At this point, the walk behind does a lot better, other than taking longer to do.

The grass is thick, and we have had a lot of rain this spring, but I wait for it to dry out before cutting. I can accept the grass being left behind when it is quite long, but it is leaving it behind all the time.

thanks!
 

semimechanicman

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I inherited a D130 last year from my father in law, and installed a mulching plug on it and some G3 blades. it cuts just fine, but it puts a lot of grass on the deck, and also leaves a fair amount on the ground. If I stop the mower to turn around, it will leave a large pile on the ground as well.

I would have thought that it would do a lot better than it is doing, but would love some suggestions on how to make it better. At this point, the walk behind does a lot better, other than taking longer to do.

The grass is thick, and we have had a lot of rain this spring, but I wait for it to dry out before cutting. I can accept the grass being left behind when it is quite long, but it is leaving it behind all the time.

thanks!
You said it yourself, the grass is too tall. Grass that is too tall is going to be really hard for the mower to mulch it. Dry or not it is still a tough job. You could try to side discharge it first and then mulch it or just double pass the grass two times with the mulch cover on.
 

bertsmobile1

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You can not cut 6" of grass and mulch it into the remaining 4"
Rule of thumb is cut 1/3 to hide in the remaining 2/3 .
Mulching, throwing & bagging all requires totally different air flow characterics under the deck.
Not every deck is capable of mulching.
Gators do not mulch .
They cit then recut then THROW out the side so the finner clippings will drop under the remaining grass, but it generally takes a day or two to happen because the clippings are finer & a lot lighter .
 

slomo

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Bert nailed it as usual. That deck is not meant to mulch. And trying to mulch tall grass asks too much from the deck and blade/s.

Do like all the 0-turn guys do. Run over the yard like 16 times.

slomo
 

Smokeeater

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I inherited a D130 last year from my father in law, and installed a mulching plug on it and some G3 blades. it cuts just fine, but it puts a lot of grass on the deck, and also leaves a fair amount on the ground. If I stop the mower to turn around, it will leave a large pile on the ground as well.

I would have thought that it would do a lot better than it is doing, but would love some suggestions on how to make it better. At this point, the walk behind does a lot better, other than taking longer to do.

The grass is thick, and we have had a lot of rain this spring, but I wait for it to dry out before cutting. I can accept the grass being left behind when it is quite long, but it is leaving it behind all the time.

thanks!
Try doing your first run at the grass with a high cut. Then go over it a second time with a slightly lower cut. It will produce shorter blades on the lawn
 

grassy

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A proper mulching kit will have walls and ramps under the deck around each blade to direct the grass back in to the blades along with also blocking the discharge. You might not be able to get one for that deck, I don't know. Just blocking the discharge is not enough and will cause problems like you describe.
 

semimechanicman

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A proper mulching kit will have walls and ramps under the deck around each blade to direct the grass back in to the blades along with also blocking the discharge. You might not be able to get one for that deck, I don't know. Just blocking the discharge is not enough and will cause problems like you describe.
I think the issue is that he is trying to mulch grass that is too thick
 
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