Honda HRR216 poor bagging when lowered

[bertsmobile1]

The big black thing at the back I gather is the mulch plug
Isn't the mulch plug supposed to be removed when you are bagging ?
Evry mower I have seen down here is set up that way .

 

[gotomow]

That is the belt shroud/cover I believe.

 

[ShawnCarl]

I got a response from Honda after sending them my videos.

Thank you for writing us back and sending in the videos, and pictures regarding your mower. First, I would like to complement you on a beautiful lawn. I showed the files to our model engineer and he notes that by the size and color of the blades that are being left behind the mower is pulling up a layer of thatch. Please note that the the mower is not leaving blades of green grass behind and the mower is pulling those strands from below the surface of the living green grass as you are passing by. Several actions can be taken to keep this from happening. Since you have a thick and lush yard you may need to mow more often, slow the pace especially as the bag becomes full, and de-thaching your lawn will bring that dead grass to the surface.

Doesn't really explain why those thatch strands aren't being picked up. I power raked last night and it pulled out a lot of dead grass, but I thought thatch was more of a layer instead of just dead grass strands. The layer below the grass wasn't thick, but there were quite a bit of dead vertical grass strands.

 

[Darryl G]

Happy to see that Honda took the time to try to address your issues.

I'm sticking with the "velcro effect" after viewing your videos again. Think of it this way - your turf is the hook part and the cut grass is the fuzzy part. Note how you actually have to work at combing the grass out with your fingers. The sides of the grass blades have small serrations on them, and due to the high density of your turf, each of those pieces of cut grass that aren't getting picked up is laying across/embedded in countless vertical serrated blades of grass that are gripping them.

Also in the first video where grass is thrown out on the left side, that's indicative of overloading the deck by going too fast. You can hear the engine bogging at the same time.

 

[gotomow]

Happy to see that Honda took the time to try to address your issues.

I'm sticking with the "velcro effect" after viewing your videos again. Think of it this way - your turf is the hook part and the cut grass is the fuzzy part. Note how you actually have to work at combing the grass out with your fingers. The sides of the grass blades have small serrations on them, and due to the high density of your turf, each of those pieces of cut grass that aren't getting picked up is laying across/embedded in countless vertical serrated blades of grass that are gripping them.

Also in the first video where grass is thrown out on the left side, that's indicative of overloading the deck by going too fast. You can hear the engine bogging at the same time.

I agree. The more I watch the video's I think that this is happening. @ShawnCarl if you used a dethatcher then with your lawn i'm thinking a power rake is in order. Power rakes can remove up to 4 times as much material as a dethatcher. A neighbor up the street who has one of the best lawns in the neighborhood used a power rake and I was shocked at the amount of material he got out.

 

[ShawnCarl]

Makes sense. Looks like I'm going to have to dethatch my lawn more often - maybe twice a year - since winter seems to kill a lot of my grass. Technically I detached it using one of these - https://www.sears.com/craftsman-18-in-electric-powered-dethatcher/p-07129280000P but I consider it more of a power rake than dethatcher like you get at the rental store.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I got a response from Honda after sending them my videos.



Doesn't really explain why those thatch strands aren't being picked up. I power raked last night and it pulled out a lot of dead grass, but I thought thatch was more of a layer instead of just dead grass strands. The layer below the grass wasn't thick, but there were quite a bit of dead vertical grass strands.

The bigger worry is why they have not rotted down to compost like they are supposed to do.
Also they are very long which suggests that you are cutting too much grass off for effective mulching

 

[slomo]

I got a response from Honda after sending them my videos.



Doesn't really explain why those thatch strands aren't being picked up. I power raked last night and it pulled out a lot of dead grass, but I thought thatch was more of a layer instead of just dead grass strands. The layer below the grass wasn't thick, but there were quite a bit of dead vertical grass strands.

Calling BS on the Honda thatch deal. These mowers will barely fill the bag up. Needless to say suck up dead thatch at the dirt level through the foliage. How can some Honda employee see this from a video? LOL

slomo

 

[bertsmobile1]

Because they see it 20 times a day.
The bag is there to catch the fresh wet grass clippings and is designed for that .
Pulling up very thin long & light previously mowed dead grass clippings is a different matter

We have swing back blades down here and the Hondas come with a 4 blade carrier .
There is a high lift & low lift blade so we can adjust the lift from on pair of low lift on really sandy soil through to super vacuum using 2 pair of high lifts which fill the bags so full the mower does a wheel stand.

If there is a higher lift blade then that is worth a try but from what I can see it is an operator problem, not a mower problem .
And FWIW I can tell how people mow, how often they mow and how much they cut in a single pass by the wear patterns & build up under the deck and the wear pattern on the blades.

 

[ShawnCarl]

The bigger worry is why they have not rotted down to compost like they are supposed to do.
Also they are very long which suggests that you are cutting too much grass off for effective mulching

I think a lot of these strands are just dead grass, not previously cut strands. Mowing pulls (not cuts) this dead grass up when I lower the cutting height. Pulling explains why the strands are long (they didn't get cut). This is my theory. I'll have to wait until next year to see how much grass dies off again to examine it again.