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Gator vs Regular Blades

#1

John R

John R

Just put a set of Gator blades on my Scag so I could grind up my leafs, works good, do the Gator blades work as good for lawn mowing as the blades that Scag put on their mowers from the factory?

Or should I change them back out in the spring?


#2

BlazNT

BlazNT

Gators are very good blades. But as with all blades the cutting ability has to do with lots of factors. First Gators are not high lift so you will have that problem. I run them in the spring early summer when grass is growing and strong. Mid summer to fall I go back to high lift to pull the grass up the the blades. So this is my experience with gator blades. Use as you wish.


#3

Ric

Ric

John R said:
Just put a set of Gator blades on my Scag so I could grind up my leafs, works good, do the Gator blades work as good for lawn mowing as the blades that Scag put on their mowers from the factory?

Or should I change them back out in the spring?
Click to expand...

Gator blades are a high lift blade, there just high lift mulching blades. The [SIZE=-1]high lift on Gator Mulching blades draws the grass up, giving it a more even cut and with a 18000 BTS or better will produce much smaller clippings. Gator blades work best when side discharging and they will bag as good as the regular high lift also. I run the G6 Gator blades all year long on both my Grandstand and Z-Master. They also do a good job with wet grass.[/SIZE]


#4

J

Jkluckman

John R said:
Just put a set of Gator blades on my Scag so I could grind up my leafs, works good, do the Gator blades work as good for lawn mowing as the blades that Scag put on their mowers from the factory?

Or should I change them back out in the spring?
Click to expand...

My experience is gator blade do work well for mulching and bagging but if your going to side discharge they wont throw grass as evenly or as far out of the deck as my regular high lift blades. Dont get me wrong they still work for side discharge just not as well in my opinion.

Its almost as the back wing of the high lift blade acts like a blower impeller and help blow air along with grass out the side causeing the grass to be blown evenly and farther where the gator blades seems like the grass gets thrown out at the same distance and makes more clumps since it all lands in the same area instead of over a larger area.


#5

John R

John R

One thing I did notice, they make a bit more noise than the standard blades did.
They also really grind the leafs to small pieces, I'm happy with my investment.


#6

RDA.Lawns

RDA.Lawns

I run high lift on my 3 z masters until fall then I switch over to Gators. My reason is I have a bunch of biweekly accounts and a few will call. Grass is typically higher and the high lift seems to do a better job on these. Plus my high lift blades get 1 more sharpning out of them before they are wore out.


#7

G

Graham Burns

I just stick to high lift blades on all my mowers, I find the gator blades will not disperse the clippings well enough, leaving the yard looking a bit messier. High lift blades are the way to go in my opinion, they work well in almost all situations.


#8

Ric

Ric

John R said:
One thing I did notice, they make a bit more noise than the standard blades did.
They also really grind the leafs to small pieces, I'm happy with my investment.
Click to expand...

Yes I found the same thing when I first started using Gator Blades, they do make a bit more noise but after a while you don't notice it anymore. Gator blades are designed to deliver a finer, smaller grass clipping which will drop through the cut grass and fall to the soil. The clippings break down faster and delivered the nutrients to soil which helps feed and water your lawn. Some say that using Gator blades can deliver as much as 25% of your lawns fertilization needs.




[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1].[/SIZE][/FONT]


#9

B

bertsmobile1

Jkluckman said:
My experience is gator blade do work well for mulching and bagging but if your going to side discharge they wont throw grass as evenly or as far out of the deck as my regular high lift blades. Dont get me wrong they still work for side discharge just not as well in my opinion.

Its almost as the back wing of the high lift blade acts like a blower impeller and help blow air along with grass out the side causeing the grass to be blown evenly and farther where the gator blades seems like the grass gets thrown out at the same distance and makes more clumps since it all lands in the same area instead of over a larger area.
Click to expand...

Pure physics.
The blades are spinning at the same speed so they throw the grass out at the same speed.
But the Gator clippings are smaller so have far less momentum thus drop earlier than the longer clippings.
If you can not visualise this, consider throwing a 1/2 lb quarts rock and a 1/2 lb of loose sand.
The single rock will go a lot further than the sand.
An experiment I did many times with my students using a mouse trap catapult.
It always amazed me how many times some needed to do it before they would believe the results.
Physics as a stand alone subject was dropped from the sylabus some time ago.
Next to biology the most important thing you can teach people as physics is the description of the real world.


#10

Ric

Ric

bertsmobile1 said:
Pure physics.
The blades are spinning at the same speed so they throw the grass out at the same speed.
But the Gator clippings are smaller so have far less momentum thus drop earlier than the longer clippings.
If you can not visualize this, consider throwing a 1/2 lb quarts rock and a 1/2 lb of loose sand.
The single rock will go a lot further than the sand.
An experiment I did many times with my students using a mouse trap catapult.
It always amazed me how many times some needed to do it before they would believe the results.
Physics as a stand alone subject was dropped from the sylabus some time ago.
Next to biology the most important thing you can teach people as physics is the description of the real world.
Click to expand...


That's the problem you run into. People really don't understand how Gator Blades actually work or cut.


#11

B

bertsmobile1

And what I forgot to mention is the size range of the clippings will be large with std blades than it will be with a Gator.
Thus the standard blade spreads the clippings over a wider area than Gators.
However 2 days latter those "clumps" of Gator clipping will be gone while the regular clippings will still be there blanketing the grass


#12

B

BoylermanCT

I used Gator blades on my Craftsman lawn tractor, and loved them. Put a set on my Raptor SD, and they tended to clog up the deck, and I had to scrape the deck each time I mowed. Switched to high lift blades, and no more scraping the deck and much better discharge. I won't go back to the Gators on the Raptor SD. I think the issue is the Raptor SD blades spin faster than the lawn tractor, and the faster speed tends to blend the grass too much, creating a stickier discharge which coats the deck. I always mow in the afternoon, so its not that the grass is too wet.

I still use the lawn tractor in the fall when I am doing leaves. The Gator blades pulverize the leaves to dust.


#13

RDA.Lawns

RDA.Lawns

I use high lift blades on a z master with a mulch kit installed. Couldn't ask for a better result. Except for the dust lol.. I do have gator blades on a JD they work good on it .


#14

A

Alton R

John R said:
Just put a set of Gator blades on my Scag so I could grind up my leafs, works good, do the Gator blades work as good for lawn mowing as the blades that Scag put on their mowers from the factory?

Or should I change them back out in the spring?
Click to expand...

John R said:
Just put a set of Gator blades on my Scag so I could grind up my leafs, works good, do the Gator blades work as good for lawn mowing as the blades that Scag put on their mowers from the factory?

Or should I change them back out in the spring?
Click to expand...
I find when cutting high grass with mulching blades it doesn't wrap around my spindles.


#15

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

I have gator style blades in my 61" ferris. I side discharge. Cut is as good as the factory blades. The clippings are finer than the stock blades. They have the fusion edge and stay sharper much longer than the stock marbain blades. I have not tried to much with them.


#16

M

MikePA

Once I tried them, I've never looked back. Much finer clippings. Never had a problem with dispersal.


#17

F

fixit1ddh

MikePA said:
Once I tried them, I've never looked back. Much finer clippings. Never had a problem with dispersal.
Click to expand...
Biggest problem with gator blades is they like to quit making them for lawn equipment. Making a good unit with gator blades worthless without. I will never BUY a OREGON Product again. The ones I had left over were cut up and are trailer hitches now. When I sent OREGON a email asking about the blades. Got a VERY RUDE answer back. Now I enjoy cutting up them NOS gators and welding them into something more useful.


#18

M

mulchy

I found this article pretty helpful: Gator Blades vs. Regular Blades


#19

M

MParr

The factory Scag blades or their generic equivalents are better for use during the growing season. The Gator blades are fine early or late in the season. If you use the G6 blades, you are going to get a lot of front blowout. You and your machine will be covered in dust and clippings.


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