After 10 hard years of use (abuse?), I finally got around to doing a top-to-bottom maintenance on my mower deck. Nothing super special, just, taking it off, thorough cleaning, lots of lube, new blades (needs them every 1-2 years with all the rocks and dog bones in the yard) and re-leveling the deck. Let's just say, the level was WAY off and took a lot of finicky work to get it somewhere near good again. It has definitely seen it's share of hard knocks over the years and the cut was getting very wonky. It should be good-to-go for a while again. Just lots of lube and liberal blade sharpening/replacements.
What model Mike? I've found that now that I've traded my Bluegrass and Perrenial Rye for Bermuda, I'm relearning my machine and how to cut all over again.
I'm running a JD 42" Edge deck on an X304. It's a great combo. It has served us very well for 10 years so far as a mulching set up (the bagger system was only fair to middling), just regular lube and blade sharpening/replacement. As for our lawn, we are out in the boonies, so it is definitely a mixture of various turf grasses and many invasive/weed species. We are not really about perfect manicures, but more about maintaining a reasonable control of our "lawn" to keep our sheep and dogs happy.
The mulch kit was quickly removed from my 48C on the LT180. This stuff is THICK down here and even cutting 1/2" off the top it was making the machine work (same 17hp twin you have on that X304) harder than it ever did in my NY lawn. I wouldn't mind having an X304 with the dedicated 42" mulch deck. Especially the 2006 model.
Gotta love the good O' Bermuda grass... keep the blades sharp and mow high... but she'll stay green for the summer if she's given drinks of water periodically...
I refer to this as keeping all the weeds the same height ... works beautiful home MM I hope it suits your needs
Nice place ya got there . Well , ifin ya did put a wood burner in there you would probably have a good drafting chimney
I've been doing some homework on Bermuda and since it actually does so well with short cuts, I think I'm going to target around 2". The lawn is irrigated so no worries on the waterfront. It was cut quite high previously and had what I considered to be an excessive layer of thatch which also gave it a very spongy feel walking around. I think I've got it back to about 2.5" now after 3-4 mowings to get it there. Much nicer feel to it albeit it a messy process with all the clippings so the blowers have also gotten a good workout!
.... Couldn't tell you exactly what number on the height... I usually cut about #4 during the spring and wet season and #5 during the dryer season...I'd rather cut more often than butcher it or scalp it during the heat of the summer.... But Bermuda should serve you good down there... Nice Lookin' place you've got there too!
By cutting it lower I should be encouraging it to spread horizontally too. (This does not apply to cool season grasses that do not grow on rysomes along the ground!) with the irrigation system, I can get away with knocking it down and it greens back up in a day or so. I don't have the extra time at the moment but running a slice aerator (like the aerator attachment for a Stihl MM55) over it to cut all the runners (and create more individual plants) and tear out the thatch has some appeal for me too. (I think I just like to play!) This photo was taken just before I moved in and things were a bit dry as the PO had the irrigation system shut down at that point. But you can see the thick thatch layer and how deep the lawn was overall. There's about another inch before you get down to dirt!
