Mower blade tip speed. Getting the Best Lawn Mower Cut Quality

Getting the Best Lawn Mower Cut Quality

Cutting the lawn has more purpose than making tall grass short. It’s about crafting landscapes that bring pride, landscapes that host parties and landscapes that literally work for you. By delivering superior cut quality for your clients, your reputation as a sharp landscaper will help retain current clients and be a selling point for new ones.

Read the following tips to learn how to get the sharpest looking landscapes. On a zero turn lawn mower, there are both adjustments and techniques landscapers can make and perform to ensure a smooth, even and appealing result with each mowing.

Adjust lawn mower deck pitch

Fine tuning a mower deck enables the aerodynamic design of the cutting chamber to lift grass, cut it evenly and discharge it effectively.

What is mower deck pitch?

Lawn mower deck pitch, or sometimes referred to as, rake, is the tilt of the mower deck from front to back. Forward deck pitch creates an air seal at the front of the deck when the blades are rotating. This seal limits air entry into the cutting chamber to the rear of the deck, allowing the aerodynamic design of a Gravely lawn mower deck to maximize grass lift and cut evenly. This design results in a superior cut quality and an even discharge that’s less likely to clump.

For most effective results, a lawn mower deck should have a pitch, or height difference of 1/8-inch to 1/2-inch between the front of the deck to the back of the deck. Naturally, this makes the sweet spot about 1/4-inch of pitch, depending on the mower model. In any case, the front of the deck should be pitched lower than the deck rear. Be careful not to pitch too much that you start scalping lawns.

How to adjust lawn mower pitch

All Gravely decks are built so their owners can adjust deck pitch quickly and easily. There’s no special tools or mechanical training required to complete this procedure, either. Just a couple wrenches and a few pieces of hardware. Before you begin, park the mower on a flat, level surface, stop the engine, remove the key, check that the tire pressures are equal and grab a tape measure.

Check pitch

As directed in the operator’s manual:

This Could Completely Change The Way You Mow. Meg-MO Blades

Raise the mower deck to a cutting height of 3.5 inches.
Manually and carefully turn the blades so they’re positioned front to back. When manually turning blades, always grab the dull edge of the blade.
Measure:
The distances between the front tips of the outer blades and the ground.
The distances between the rear tips of the outer blades and the ground.
If front measurements are lower than the rear measurements by less than 1/8 inch or more than 1/2 inch, adjust pitch.

Adjust pitch

Deck pitch can be adjusted by lowering the front of the deck, raising the rear of the deck or a combination of both. Be sure to make adjustments so that the distances of your final measurements at the front of the deck accurately reflect the cutting height of 3.5 inches that was set earlier.

To lower the high side of deck:

Loosen jam nuts against deck lift links.
Turn adjustment bolts counterclockwise.
Retake measurements and continue adjustment, if necessary.
Tighten jam nuts against deck lift links.

To raise the low side of deck:

Loosen jam nuts against deck lift links.
Turn adjustment bolts clockwise.
Retake measurements and continue adjustment, if necessary.
Tighten jam nuts against deck lift links.

After pitch adjustment is complete, check deck level.

Leveling your mower deck

Level the mower deck to ensure grass cutting height is even across the width of the deck. This will help ensure a smooth and seamless side-by-side blend between each row of freshly cut grass.

What is lawn mower deck leveling?

This is easier to understand than deck pitch. Deck leveling is simply making the cutting height on the left side of the deck even with the cutting height on the right side of the deck. In all cases, decks should be level with as little variance between each side of the cutting deck as possible. No variance between the left and right side of the deck is best.

How to sharpen lawn mower blades THE CORRECT WAY ( Angle grinders will destroy your mower blades)

How to level the mower deck

Leveling a Gravely lawn mower deck is done the same way as pitching a Gravely mower deck, except it’s adjusting the deck height from side to side, not back to front. Same components and tools with pitching a mower deck, and as before, start with the unit parked on a flat, level surface, inflate the tires to specification and grab a tape measure.

Check mower deck level

As directed in the operator’s manual:

Raise the mower deck to a cutting height of 3.5 inches.
While wearing thick, sturdy gloves, manually and carefully turn the blades so they’re positioned side to side. When manually turning blades, always grab the dull edge of the blade.
Measure:
The distance between the left blade’s left cutting edge and the ground.
The distance between the right blade’s right cutting edge and the ground.
If the distance between the left blade tip and the ground is 3/16 inches greater than or less than the distance between the right blade tip and the ground, level the deck.

How to level your lawn mower deck

As directed in the operator’s manual

Loosen jam nuts against deck lift links.
Turn adjustment bolts counterclockwise.
Retake measurements and continue adjustment, if necessary.
Tighten jam nuts against deck lift links.

Loosen jam nuts against deck lift links.
Turn adjustment bolts clockwise.
Retake measurements and continue adjustment, if necessary.
Tighten jam nuts against deck lift links.

How to sharpen lawn mower blades

Same as with dull knives or scissors – they don’t cut efficiently and results in duplicate effort. On a mower, dull blades leave behind stragglers and require the terribly inefficient practice of mowing the same rows twice.

Dull blades may require a total replacement, which isn’t bad since new blades are relatively cheap and easy to replace. However, if the blades aren’t worn too far, they can be sharpened without spending money on new blades. Be aware that blades should not be sharpened if more than a half-inch of the blade material is worn away (by previous sharpening or wear) or if the air lift is eroded. If the air lift is eroded, blades can no longer lift grass effectively and cut evenly. Blades that are bent or broken should be discarded.

Read the safety instructions and the procedure instructions in the unit’s operator’s manual.
Remove the mower deck according to the instructions in the operator’s manual.
Remove the blades according to the instructions in the operator’s manual.
File or grind an equal amount of blade material from each cutting edge until sharp. Do not change angle of cutting edge or round the corner of the blade.
Slide the blade onto an unthreaded bolt and hold the bolt horizontally. Position the blade horizontally and check for blade balance. This is critical. If the blade moves, sharpen the heavy end until the blade remains balanced in a horizontal position on the unthreaded bolt.
When the blade is sharpened and balanced adequately, reinstall it under the mower deck and torque it to the specification listed in the operator’s manual.
Reinstall the mower deck.

Cleaning your mower deck

Mower decks packed with grass clippings, dirt and debris can damage your mower, affect cut quality and hurt lawns. Grass, dirt and debris holds moisture that corrodes bare metal on the spindles and mower blades, weakening them. Additionally, grass-packed cutting decks can harbor fungi and bacteria that can spread to other lawns and damage them.

Grass buildup around the discharge area can prevent clippings from discharging evenly and could lead to clumping. Grass buildup under the deck can also affect the aerodynamics of the cutting chamber, disrupt the air lift under the deck (detailed in What is mower deck pitch?) and affect the cut quality.

Good lawn mowing techniques

Sometimes, getting a better cut quality can be achieved by breaking a few bad habits like mowing too fast, mowing in the same pattern and cutting grass too short.

Why you shouldn’t mow too fast

For busy landscapers, efficiency is important. And while landscapers will find many creative ways to shave time off each job, patience on the jobsite yields better results. Driving faster than the mower blades and deck can process overwhelms the deck and leaves behind stragglers and clumping. Slowing down the drive speed of a mower allows the blades enough time to lift, cut and discharge grass clippings evenly.

Why you should mow in different patterns

After mowing the same properties, landscapers will learn the best way to navigate through their clients’ properties and will sometimes stick to one efficient mowing pattern. However, mowing in the same pattern is bad for lawns.

Grass is like hair. If it’s accustomed to being pushed in the same direction, it learns which way to fall. After mowing in the same paths cut after cut, grass falls to one direction and doesn’t stand straight up, making it more difficult for the mower to lift the grass and cut it evenly.

Additionally, mowing in the same pattern creates ruts. The weight of a mower driving over the same rows with each mowing causes the soil under a mower’s wheels to become compacted. As soil compacts, it restricts water, air and nutrients from reaching grass roots, leading to grass discoloration in those mower tracks.

To avoid these issues, landscapers should mow in a different pattern that crisscrosses the pattern of the previous mowing.

Why you shouldn’t cut grass too short

Grass that’s kept longer grows healthier.

Grass that’s cut too short becomes stressed because it uses its energy re-growing what was just cut instead of growing its root system. Longer grass makes healthier lawns because longer grass has deeper root systems which access moisture and nutrients more effectively. Additionally, longer grass helps prevent the ability for weeds to take hold in the soil and germinate because tall grass blocks sunlight from those weeds.

Landscapers should cut no more than one-third of the length of grass with each mowing.

Best mowers for good cut quality

Performing service and adjustments on any lawn mower makes a big difference in cut quality, but you’ll never get the best cutting quality without having the right equipment. Consumers have numerous choices in a commercial lawn mower, but they’re not built alike.

Gravely commercial lawn mowers are designed for landscapers. Not only is a Gravely durable, reliable and comfortable, but each Gravely is designed to deliver superior cutting results.

Strong deck stability

As opposed to decks that shake excessively when cutting, Gravely decks are sturdy and move with the contours of each landscape, ensuring an even cut.

Cutting deck dimensions

The deep depth of a fully fabricated Gravely commercial mower deck processes greater volumes of grass faster with reduced need to compromise speed for quality on the jobsite.

Superior deck aerodynamics

Grass is lifted and discharged evenly and effectively, meaning there’s less chance for stragglers and clumping.

Constant belt tension

Gravely’s trademarked constant belt tension, or CBT, applies the same tension to a brand new mower belt than it does to an older, stretched mower belt. This ensures consistent blade tip speed and cutting results throughout the life of the belt, even as it wears.

Lawn mower dealers near me

Ready to learn more about the machines that have been shaping the American landscape for over a century? Stop by your local Gravely dealer to explore Gravely’s full product lineup and to get replacement parts like belts, blades and more. Add a Gravely lawn striper kit this season to enhance each lawn by giving it that professional, finished look.

Honda Commercial Lawn Mower Review – HRC216HXA Self-Propelled

The HRC2163HXA Honda Commercial mower presents some of the best build quality and power we’ve seen in a commercial walk-behind mower.

Honda Commercial Lawn Mower Pulls Out All the Stops in Lawn Mower Shootout

We consider lawn mowers one of the crown jewels of the OPE world, so we brought in 24 various models to see which ones handled its business the best. We looked at gas-powered lawn mowers, battery-powered lawn mowers, residential mowers, commercial mowers, and every variation of those categories. On the gas-powered and commercial side of the equation, the HRC216HXA Honda commercial lawn mower stood out as the top dawg in a short field of worthy competitors.

Pros

Rock-solid build
Super quiet at 86 dB(A)
Roto-Stop: engine runs even when mower and self-propel bales disengaged
Twin blades
Near-unstoppable power
Incredible fuel efficiency

Shootout Results

The HRC2163HXA Honda commercial lawn mower presents itself as the pinnacle of Pro walk-behind mowing technology. It’s sturdy, exceptionally quiet, and has enough power that it’s actually pretty difficult to bog down. We love the Roto-Stop blade brake and MicroCut twin blades as well. It has a few quirks to it, and a price that makes budget shoppers shudder, but if you want one of the best mowers money can buy, this is your ticket.

Performance

We use a variety of tests to come to our conclusions and feel free to take out word for it. However, you’re welcome to hold us accountable and check out the details in our gas mower shootout.

Cutting Power

The faster the cutting edge of the blade is moving, the better it cuts. We measured the blade tip speeds under lighter loads as well as heavier loads to simulate your normal working conditions. We wanted to see how these mowers handled both maintenance cuts as well as those thicker grasses you’ll inevitably run into over the course of the day.

Under a light load, the Honda commercial lawn mower topped out with a blade tip speed of 194.8, the fastest of the commercial mowers we tested (interestingly, almost all of the residential models were faster).

However, when we threw the Honda commercial lawn mower into a heavy load simulation, we noted that the blade tip speed only dropped by 2.2 mph. The Honda model still maintained a blade tip speed of 192.6 mph. This type of consistency in power means that you can expect a smooth, even cut, even when trekking through the thicker grasses.

As I said, that was a simulation. So we decided to see how well it can handle mowing in a worst-case scenario.

Torture Testing

Obviously, your mower’s engine has a lot to do with how well your blade tip speed is affected by thicker grasses, and we put the Honda commercial mower’s 163cc GXV160 engine and MicroCut twin blades to the test. We ran it, along with some of our other top contenders, through two weeks worth of overgrowth. We set the cut height at 2.5″, the walking speed at 2.5 mph, and mowed until the mower bogged down and stalled out.

The Honda commercial lawn mower dominated every other mower we put through these particular paces. Of course, grass consistency will always be an inconsistent factor, so we didn’t use this test in our final calculations for scoring. But the Honda’s performance was definitely noteworthy as we traveled 113.5 ft before bogging it down. The next closest competitor, interestingly enough, was EGO’s Peak Power Dual Battery model. Every other mower paled in comparison.

Cutting Area

One of the benefits of gas power over electric is that, if you run out of fuel, grabbing the gas can and refueling takes a lot less time than waiting around for your batteries to charge back up. However, it still takes time and effort. So, the less you have to stop to refuel, the better.

mower, blade, speed, getting, best, lawn

Your blade size, fuel capacity, walking speed, and a variety of other factors can affect the area you’ll be able to cover on a tank of gas. For instance, the Honda HRC216HXA lawn mower, with its 21″ blade and 60 oz tank, could mow 1.21 acres on a tank when at 2.5 mph.

This type of cutting area capability is nothing to shake a stick at, but it’s worth noting that it came in second for our commercial mowers. It was bested by the eXmark Commercial X-Series mower, which topped out at just over 1-3/4 acres on a tank thanks to its massive 120 oz tank size.

Fuel Efficiency

Having said that, we need to talk about fuel efficiency. While the eXmark model did mow through significantly more acreage than the Honda commercial mower, the Honda model has better fuel efficiency.

When both engines were run with 4 oz of TruFuel, the Honda commercial lawn mower ran for 9.1 minutes compared to eXmark’s 6.8 minutes. Teasing that fact out to its logical conclusion, what can we expect from Honda’s fuel efficiency?

That gives it an overall fuel efficiency of 2.57 acres per gallon of gas. The tank doesn’t hold an entire gallon, but it gives us a mark to measure by. Snapper was second with 2.12 acres per gallon with eXmark in third with 1.88 acres.

This type of fuel efficiency sets the Honda HRC216HXA apart by leaps and bounds over the other commercial mowers for this category.

Feature Set

Self-Propelled Drive Roto-Stop Blade Brakes

A self-propelled drive isn’t anything new to the world of walk-behind mowers, particularly in the commercial realm. But this is no ordinary self-propelled drive. The Honda commercial mower features a hydrostatic transmission that seamlessly lets you adjust your speed without the jumps and bumps of a belt-driven system.

It also has the Roto-Stop blade brake system that allows you to stop the blades from spinning without stopping the engine. It’s great to be able to stop to move something out of your path or empty your bag without having to stop and restart the motor.

MicroCut Twin Blade

Our shootout introduced us to some unorthodox blade designs, and Honda’s is one of the more unique. Rather than using a single blade, like some modern-day Philistine would, the Honda HRC216HXA mower opts for two blades stacked tall like pancakes. The idea here is that you get super fine clippings from the four cutting surfaces; it makes for better mulching and bagging applications.

Deck Material

Generally, gas mowers use a steel deck, and the Honda Commercial doesn’t depart from tradition here. This suits us just fine: steel is more durable than composite or plastic, and since the drive system is doing the heavy lifting, the increased weight won’t affect you, the user. It also includes deck guards and a front bumper for protection to the deck, as well as another point to tie down to.

Adjustability

Single-point cutting height adjustment is easier than the 4-point adjustment that the Honda model opts for, but the putting all the weight of a commercial gas lawn mower on one lifting point is a bit too much. Most commercial level mowers avoid single point adjustments because of that. It can also introduce additional flex into the system.

It might be annoying to adjust the height at all four wheels individually, but we can’t argue with the sturdiness of the build.

Pro Tip: When you’re bagging, set the front wheel height one notch higher than the rear. It’ll help the mower bag clippings more effectively.

This Honda lawn mower has 8 height levels ranging from 0.875″ to 4.125″. This is a wide enough range that you ought to be able to properly mow just about any grass species you’re likely to find in the States. Further, you can adjust the handles to 2 different positions, giving you a couple of height options.

Discharge Options

Like almost all of the lawn mowers we tested before or during this shootout, the Honda Commercial mower allows you to mulch, bag, or discharge your clippings out the side of the deck.

Nexite Wheels

Honda’s 9″ wheels are strong, lightweight, and easy to replace should you ever need to. They also include precision sealed ball bearings in all four wheels that make for smooth, easy movement.

Noise

We don’t usually put a ton of stock into a gas-powered mower’s noise levels. If you’re running gas, you’re going to need ear protection. But the Honda HRC216HXA lawn mower runs at 86 dB(A), which is the quietest gas mower we tested. It’s even legitimately competitive with some of the battery-powered mowers we looked at.

You’re still going to need some protection when you’re mowing. Our test tells us how much noise the engine produces on its own and it will be higher when you’re cutting.

Value

There are no two ways about it: the Honda Commercial lawn mower won’t come cheap at 1269. Even for a high-end commercial model, this mower is on the pricey side of things. It comes with a 2-year commercial warranty on the engine, and a 1-year warranty on the rest of it.

Ultimately, this is the category that separates budget shoppers from those willing to pay more for higher quality. No matter which side of that statement you’re on, it’s not a knock against you. Just realize that if you want the best, it comes at a premium.

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The Bottom Line

Honda Commercial Lawn Mower Manufacturer Specs

For more information about the Honda HRC216HXA, check out the product page by clicking here.

ISX™ 3300 Zero Turn Mowers

Featuring next-generation suspension technology – ForeFront™ Suspension, a 2-belt iCD™ cutting system, heavy-duty dual commercial Hydro-Gear ® ZT-5400 drive system, and travel speeds up to 12 mph. Plus, select models feature EFI-ETC technology for fuel savings, easy starting, and smooth, consistent productivity.

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Cutting Width

Power Rating

Ground Speed

Limited Warranty†

Features

ForeFront™ Suspension System

The system utilizes four upper and lower control rods and mower-specific shocks that ensure the front caster bearing remains vertical through the full range of travel. This controlled motion results in a smoother ride, more precise tracing of the terrain and an improved cut.

Ride-On Mower Warranties

Coil-Over-Shocks and all suspension-related components are covered for 5 years (60 months), for unlimited hours. We are committed to providing performance, productivity and durability.

Vanguard BIG BLOCK™ Engine

The EFI-ETC engine with Oil Guard delivers a 500 hour oil change interval and 40 HP, giving you added cutting performance to excel in thick, dense, and wet conditions. (select models)

Drive System

Dual, commercial Hydro-Gear ® ZT-5400 Powertrain ® transaxles with 9 cooling fans

Premium High-Back Suspension Seat

Mow in superior comfort with arm rests, multi-position head rest, adjustable lumbar and seat recline

Hercules™ II Cast-Iron

Hercules™ II Cast-Iron; 10 dia. cast-iron with industrial double row angular contact ball bearing with 1 3/16 dia. shaft. Contact ball bearings with 1 3/16 dia. shaft.

Vanguard Electronic Throttle Control

This new technology allows the engine to harness all the power that is generated for more consistent blade tip speed. (select models)

Specifications

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Premium high-back suspension seat with adjustable arm rests, multi-position head rest, adjustable lumbar and back recline