Can anyone school me on the right decision between the spindle driven vs non spindle driven grass catcher? What are your experiences? About a 25% price difference between the two, so want to make sure that I know how different the performance is between the two.
You are asking a lot of the blades to toss all of the clippings up that long chute.
Without the fan a lot of baggers can only fill one bag as the clippings do not have enough energy to go all the way to the 2nd ( or 3rd ) bag by themselves.
Then there is the type of grass & the frequency of cutting.
Bagging also rips the blades so they wear out at the bend between the cutting part & flute.
Using a blower allows you to cut with low lift blades which works a lot better.
Biggest down side, apart from the overhang is the extra weight on the discharge side of the deck tends to lift the off side and wear out the discharge side mounts very quickly.
A couple of my customers have a counter weight on the left to keep the deck level however that adds a lot of weight so the deck lift becomes a bit on the He-Man side
?????
Elpescador00 was asking about a Scag ZTR
Snappers were never marketed down here ( well not as Snappers any way )
We had 3 local makers of RER's and apart from the Ariens 9000 series there were very few RER's sod down here.
And to add to the original response , consider upgrading the air filter unless you already have a Donaldson type twin element filter fitted.
Baggers dump a lot of dust right where ZTR's suck their air in.
Also pay attention to cleaning the fins under the blower housing for the same reason if you bag.
bertsmobile1 described it quite well! Without the blower/bagger, you can experience plugging at the chute if your grass is damp/moist, which is most of the season. We bag a lot here in the great NW and I would strongly recommend the blower assist bagger without question.
