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I found your forum after I bought a new Ferris IS3200 last week for my wife.

It is the 32 HP 61 inch ICD deck, with a striping kit and mulching kit.

I always say if you want a perfect lawn, buy your wife a good mower.:smile:


Her old zero turn was a TORO 52 in. commercial mower with a 23 hp Kawasaki and she said she wanted

a new one. So far the Ferris is not making her happy, it leaves a line of grass on the right side and it

doesn't stripe like the TORO does. We kept the TORO as a backup mower.

My job is to make it stripe better and try to figure out why it leaves a trail of grass

on the right side.

The first thing I would do is check the deck for level and pitch. You'll want to make sure that the tires are set to the proper psi listed in the manual first (typically 10 to 12 psi, not the max listed on the sidewall). The manual should also list the proper deck pitch and the procedure for adjusting it. Sadly a lot of dealers, in their haste to get things out the door, just keep tires at their shipping pressure and don't bother to level and pitch the deck properly.

Darryl G said:

The first thing I would do is check the deck for level and pitch. You'll want to make sure that the tires are set to the proper psi listed in the manual first (typically 10 to 12 psi, not the max listed on the sidewall). The manual should also list the proper deck pitch and the procedure for adjusting it. Sadly a lot of dealers, in their haste to get things out the door, just keep tires at their shipping pressure and don't bother to level and pitch the deck properly.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The book that tells how to properly set up the deck came with the mower and it says exactly what you are saying.
Now all I have to do is take time to do it.

Good luck. The engine rpms being too low can cause cut quality problems too.

Have you talked to the dealer about the issues? If I had a brand new machine with a cut quality issue I'd be giving my dealer an earful and expect them to at least attempt to address it. I'm sure it's quite a disappointment. But I wonder if you have a mulch kit on your Toro. Mowing with a mulch kit is a whole different thing compared to mowing with an open discharge. You're quite limited in how much grass you can take off at a time and you have to go a slower, painfully slow at times. If your wife isn't used to mowing with a mulch kit it's very possible that she is just overloading the deck by going too fast resulting in the uncut strip. It also won't stripe as well with a mulch kit because the grass isn't getting stood up and layed over the way it will with high lift blades discharging.

My wife's TORO has had a mulch kit on it for 14 years and I put a full width roller under that deck once the TORO striping kit wore out. She is no stranger to mulching is what I am saying. The new mower cuts the grass nicely it's just that trail and the striping is secondary. If the strip of grass is left behind it kills the grass under it. I watched her the other day and she was moving slow and still left the trails.






Here is a picture of the new mower with the beautiful stripes that the TORO lad down.
I will try to figure it out before I go to the dealer, it isn't the end of the world yet. lol
I have noticed a large amount of grass blowing out the front of the mower deck and it builds up on top of the deck, they all do it a little but this may be if the deck isn't pitched properly.
The grass that left the trail wan't particularly tall or heavy and almost dry.

:welcome:

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to move this thread over to our Ferris section to see if we can help you get some perfect stripes.

I finally got around to adjusting the mower deck on the Ferris and the right blade was way low. I wasn't sure how level my garage floor was but I made the adjustments and today was the first time she tried it. The grass was really wet and there is more rain in the weather forecast so she mowed today and what a difference. I din't think it would fix the problem with leaving a trail of grass on the right side but she said it is OK now. The Ferris has big shoes to fill comparing it to her 14 year old TORO but I think it will be fine.

Glad to hear. Drives me nuts that most dealers don't bother to set up mowers properly. You shouldn't have to do it yourself!