Do you have a McLane reel mower and have a question about working on it? Do you have something to share? Ask or share here.
McLane Reel Mower Questions
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dfw_pilot
Do you have a McLane reel mower and have a question about working on it? Do you have something to share? Ask or share here.
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10K SQFT Tif419, RR Revolution 26(Adeline), Honda HRX217(Mownique), Mclane Edger, Dewalt Lawn tools
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I don't have that issue but I will say this, after working on my Mclane this past weekend, the fit and finish is terrible on this thing, like made in China bad even though it's supposedly made here so I'm not surprised you are having that issue. No way should this mower cost $2k brand new. $1,000 is pushing it. I have bolts with bad threads, metal covers that were bent out of place from the factory, parts that are impossible to line up after you do minor maintenance. Don't get me wrong I'm happy I have it as my yard has never looked better but that's a function of the reel versus rotary cut not the machine itself. I'm already thinking about upgrading to a used John Deere or Toro reel next year after only having had my Mclane since October.Sonoran Desert Lawn said:
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What are you using to get an accurate measurement for height of cut on the greenskeeper model?
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Cross post for those interested in a NEW Split Grooved McLane roller with TLF Discount and Giveaway!
If you have any questions please ask them on the post above as I don't want to litter this thread with too many posts.
Thanks!
If you have any questions please ask them on the post above as I don't want to litter this thread with too many posts.
Thanks!
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142 Posts
Does the r&r backlap tool fit the GK series mower or does it only fit the GR models?
Check out how to with doc YouTube channel. He shows the reel to bedknife adjustment on a GR series which from the looks of the GK series it will be the same. He does not show HOC adjustment on that machine but it looks like you may need an accuguage to do it properly
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205 Posts
About the HOC adjustment for the McLane Greenskeeper. I have a push 10 blade McLane "Greenskeeper" model and a couple of the 20" gas powered regular McLane reels. I am familiar with the style of height adjustment on your mower because the little 17" push mower has most of the same set up, aside from the knurled knob adjustment screws.
So to start with, as csl23 said above you're going to need some kind of HOC gauge/bar. Knowing exactly the height of the cutting edge of the bedknife off the ground is basically impossible without this specialized apparatus, but it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. There's a thread under popular equipment topics for making your own bar on a budget. I followed that myself and made a couple of gauges from 1/8" angle iron bought from Home Depot. You can buy one ready made but they're kind of expensive usually. It wasn't expensive to make, but I already had some necessary tools like a drill press and an angle grinder.
Once you have a HOC gauge that fits your particular McLane, you can tilt the mower all the way back and place the gauge so that it makes good contact with both the rear wheel and the flat part of the front roller straight ahead of it. The "gauge" which in cheap-o HOC bars like mine is just the head of a screw should sit on top of the bedknife's cutting edge. When the bar is in contact front and back with the rolling surfaces and the screw head or washer is likewise in contact with the cutting edge, then you can remove your hand the bar will sit in place. Remove the bar, and taking pocket carpenter's ruler (which must be marked with 32nds of an inch or finer) you can measure the distance from the top of the bar to the bottom the screw head or washer, and that is your current height of cut (bench measurement). To change HOC to something different, set the height you want on the HOC gauge, then loosen the bolts that secure the front roller and move it up or down with the knurled knobs on both sides, until you are sure the bar is in contact on both front and back roller surfaces and the screw head is in contact on the top of the bedknife. The bar should be able to just hang there by itself (a washer epoxied to the bottom of the screw head helps here) without losing contact at any of those 3 points. Need to be careful about not nicking that bedknife edge though. You will need to set and check both sides of the machine. It's possible to set the front roller out of parallel with the bedknife which will result in uneven cutting.
The screw head and washer are obscured by a reel blade here.
Before moving on to how the roller is loosened to make the adjustment, I need to add some details about tilting the mower back. Greensmower like Toros and John Deeres are made with a kickstand that allows them to be tilted back for this adjustment. McLane's are not. Also the rear wheels on the mclane are smaller I think than the roller drums on the rear of commercial greensmowers. This means it may be more difficult to get your HOC bar fully underneath the rear wheel, depending on how your gauge is constructed. To tip the mower back far enough, you must push the handles down all the way to the floor, and then hold the mower down like that with a weight on the handles. I put a rubber mat over the handles and then a cinder block on top of that. You don't want to leave the mower in this position very long, as oil will eventually creep past the piston rings and lock the engine. You may also want to shut off the fuel supply valve. When not actively adjusting, return the mower to normal upright position.
Before you can adjust the knurled knobs, the front roller has to be loosened in 3 places on either side. There is a round bar across the width of the reel that has a threaded shaft through it. That has a nut on one end that must be loosened - and it looks like there's nuts on both ends on your mower. On my push mower that's an 11/16" nut. Then there are two 1/2" bolts on each side just down the side plate from the horizontal bar (Not the ones down closest to the roller). They also have to be loosened. Looking at these bolts you see that there is an vertical slot that they can travel up and down once they are loosened. Finally, you have jam nuts on the adjuster bolts and those will need to be spun up the bolt on both sides in order to twist the knobs to lower the HOC. Once you have the height set on both sides where you want it, the jam nuts need to be tightened down again. Then the horizontal bar nuts and the 1/2" nuts in the vertical slots (not the arcing slots - they are used for reel to bedknife adjustment) on the side panels. I'm assuming that the lower brackets that the adjuster bolts go through are threaded, and the silvery nut above is there only as a jam nut, to hold the setting until you have all the other bolts for the roller firmly tightened down.
I used angle iron instead of flat bar stock because the angle iron lay flatter on the Home Depot floor than the flat bars. Hot rolled steel gonna roll. Because it was angle iron I needed to cut a diagonal off the end of the gauge that goes underneath the rear wheel. I tapped the screw hole for extra credit, but as you can see below I was off vertical when I drilled the hole, so when taking measurements I have to use the lowest spot of the screw head/ washer. There are jam nuts on either side of the HOC bar to fix the setting so it doesn't wander away from what it's supposed to be while I'm trying to set the mower to that height.
Also, It's necessary with the McLane to measure carefully where the leading edge of the bedknife crosses the
HOC bar you're making before drilling the hole for the screw. Not much wiggle room. Whereas with Toros and JDs and similar it seems like there's plenty of leeway to slap a HOC gauge up against the drum and move it front to back to position the needle to the bedkife without the end of the bar hitting the floor. One HOC gauge seems to fit all models. But with theMcLane the bar needs to be tailored to your model. I have different bars for my 17" push reel and 20" gas McLane reels, because the distance from rear wheel to bedknife is so different.
Hope that's useful information.
So to start with, as csl23 said above you're going to need some kind of HOC gauge/bar. Knowing exactly the height of the cutting edge of the bedknife off the ground is basically impossible without this specialized apparatus, but it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. There's a thread under popular equipment topics for making your own bar on a budget. I followed that myself and made a couple of gauges from 1/8" angle iron bought from Home Depot. You can buy one ready made but they're kind of expensive usually. It wasn't expensive to make, but I already had some necessary tools like a drill press and an angle grinder.
Once you have a HOC gauge that fits your particular McLane, you can tilt the mower all the way back and place the gauge so that it makes good contact with both the rear wheel and the flat part of the front roller straight ahead of it. The "gauge" which in cheap-o HOC bars like mine is just the head of a screw should sit on top of the bedknife's cutting edge. When the bar is in contact front and back with the rolling surfaces and the screw head or washer is likewise in contact with the cutting edge, then you can remove your hand the bar will sit in place. Remove the bar, and taking pocket carpenter's ruler (which must be marked with 32nds of an inch or finer) you can measure the distance from the top of the bar to the bottom the screw head or washer, and that is your current height of cut (bench measurement). To change HOC to something different, set the height you want on the HOC gauge, then loosen the bolts that secure the front roller and move it up or down with the knurled knobs on both sides, until you are sure the bar is in contact on both front and back roller surfaces and the screw head is in contact on the top of the bedknife. The bar should be able to just hang there by itself (a washer epoxied to the bottom of the screw head helps here) without losing contact at any of those 3 points. Need to be careful about not nicking that bedknife edge though. You will need to set and check both sides of the machine. It's possible to set the front roller out of parallel with the bedknife which will result in uneven cutting.
The screw head and washer are obscured by a reel blade here.
Before moving on to how the roller is loosened to make the adjustment, I need to add some details about tilting the mower back. Greensmower like Toros and John Deeres are made with a kickstand that allows them to be tilted back for this adjustment. McLane's are not. Also the rear wheels on the mclane are smaller I think than the roller drums on the rear of commercial greensmowers. This means it may be more difficult to get your HOC bar fully underneath the rear wheel, depending on how your gauge is constructed. To tip the mower back far enough, you must push the handles down all the way to the floor, and then hold the mower down like that with a weight on the handles. I put a rubber mat over the handles and then a cinder block on top of that. You don't want to leave the mower in this position very long, as oil will eventually creep past the piston rings and lock the engine. You may also want to shut off the fuel supply valve. When not actively adjusting, return the mower to normal upright position.
Before you can adjust the knurled knobs, the front roller has to be loosened in 3 places on either side. There is a round bar across the width of the reel that has a threaded shaft through it. That has a nut on one end that must be loosened - and it looks like there's nuts on both ends on your mower. On my push mower that's an 11/16" nut. Then there are two 1/2" bolts on each side just down the side plate from the horizontal bar (Not the ones down closest to the roller). They also have to be loosened. Looking at these bolts you see that there is an vertical slot that they can travel up and down once they are loosened. Finally, you have jam nuts on the adjuster bolts and those will need to be spun up the bolt on both sides in order to twist the knobs to lower the HOC. Once you have the height set on both sides where you want it, the jam nuts need to be tightened down again. Then the horizontal bar nuts and the 1/2" nuts in the vertical slots (not the arcing slots - they are used for reel to bedknife adjustment) on the side panels. I'm assuming that the lower brackets that the adjuster bolts go through are threaded, and the silvery nut above is there only as a jam nut, to hold the setting until you have all the other bolts for the roller firmly tightened down.
I used angle iron instead of flat bar stock because the angle iron lay flatter on the Home Depot floor than the flat bars. Hot rolled steel gonna roll. Because it was angle iron I needed to cut a diagonal off the end of the gauge that goes underneath the rear wheel. I tapped the screw hole for extra credit, but as you can see below I was off vertical when I drilled the hole, so when taking measurements I have to use the lowest spot of the screw head/ washer. There are jam nuts on either side of the HOC bar to fix the setting so it doesn't wander away from what it's supposed to be while I'm trying to set the mower to that height.
Also, It's necessary with the McLane to measure carefully where the leading edge of the bedknife crosses the
HOC bar you're making before drilling the hole for the screw. Not much wiggle room. Whereas with Toros and JDs and similar it seems like there's plenty of leeway to slap a HOC gauge up against the drum and move it front to back to position the needle to the bedkife without the end of the bar hitting the floor. One HOC gauge seems to fit all models. But with theMcLane the bar needs to be tailored to your model. I have different bars for my 17" push reel and 20" gas McLane reels, because the distance from rear wheel to bedknife is so different.
Hope that's useful information.
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In case anyone is scratching their head wondering why go to the trouble to make a HOC guage for a 20 " McLane, a reel mower with fixed height settings? It's because there are possible height settings that are not documented in the manual. In the manual, when the front axle is in top hole for the "A" range of heights ( 1/4, 7/16, 5/8 and 11/16), the pivot for the height adjustment arm is supposed to be in the bottom of the two holes on the arm. When the front axle is in the middle hole or "B" range, the pivot for the arm is supposed to be in the top hole. When you follow the manual on that point the published height settings are just as they given in the manual (aside from the typo which mistates the top of "A" range as 1 + 1/16 instead of 11/16. However when you don't move the pivot to the hole on the adjust arm appropriate for the front axle setting that you've chosen, a different set of heights result from the fixed settings. They are, with the reel rollers smooth roller in place, 3/8ths (or a hair lower) , 17/32nds, 11/16ths, 25/32nds (call it 3/4).
My Mclane has front wheels, not a roller. For the life of me, I can't understand how a front roller helps! Doesn't it flatten the grass blades and prevent a good cut? Please explain
By the way, I've added a DIY lawn striper to the back of my Mclane. It's certainly not fancy, but it works, and I made it from parts on hand.
By the way, I've added a DIY lawn striper to the back of my Mclane. It's certainly not fancy, but it works, and I made it from parts on hand.
Reason for a front roller is it mitigates the scalping on uneven ground that would result from the caster wheels sinking into the depressions. Not everyone has a countertop flat lawn. A front roller and full width rear roller make it possible for less than perfectly flat lawns to be reel cut. I do not have issues with a front roller, especially a grooved front roller pushing down the grass because HOC is low enough that it is not an issue. The pushing down of grass is most likely at HOC above 0.75".
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Great explanation, the front roller keeps the bedknife level even if your lawn isn't. Plus, the grass is actually pushed down less prior to cutting (which is a forward motion which pulls the grass up into the bedknife). With front wheels, the weight of the mower is dispersed over 2 small wheels (59lbs over 2 wheels = 25lbs on each 1" area of ground contact pushing grass down). The roller disperses that same 50lbs of front weight across 20" which means the down pressure on the grass blades is 2.5lbs per 1" of area). Yes more grass is being pushed down but it is significantly less push on each blade.
Reel mowers should never have front wheels, it's a huge miss in design for a "reel mower".
Reel mowers should never have front wheels, it's a huge miss in design for a "reel mower".
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205 Posts
Yes, you got it.
I can't find a link to a McLane manual for the 25" greenskeeper model but there ought to be one out there somewhere. I've found manuals for the 17" push McLanes online. The McLane folks should get one to you if you email them. A factory manual would cover height adjustment and would have the parts list and diagram, so pretty important to have one. But it wouldn't cover reel-2-bedknife adjustment or backlapping.
I wish I could write up a howto for reel to bedknife adjustment, but I've never felt I knew the best way to do that. You want the reel free enough to spin with one finger, but also making contact with a light sound that is more or less constant, not intermittent. If the mower is new from the factory it should be set right already and not in need of adjustment. Try the newsprint test - does it cut a folded over piece of newspaper cleanly and cut across the width of the reel? I try to remember the sound of a new McLane that my mother bought years ago to guide me. Like a nice pair of scissors, not too loud, with a consistent pitch. I can never get it quite like that when I backlap and adjust, but that's my guide. If it's making too much contact the sound will be loud and harsh, and the pressure between reel and bedknife will generate excess heat and spoil the cutting edges too soon.
Also if the mower is new from the factory, make sure it has oil in it! They do not ship them with oil in the engine. At least that was their practice 10 years ago.
I can't find a link to a McLane manual for the 25" greenskeeper model but there ought to be one out there somewhere. I've found manuals for the 17" push McLanes online. The McLane folks should get one to you if you email them. A factory manual would cover height adjustment and would have the parts list and diagram, so pretty important to have one. But it wouldn't cover reel-2-bedknife adjustment or backlapping.
I wish I could write up a howto for reel to bedknife adjustment, but I've never felt I knew the best way to do that. You want the reel free enough to spin with one finger, but also making contact with a light sound that is more or less constant, not intermittent. If the mower is new from the factory it should be set right already and not in need of adjustment. Try the newsprint test - does it cut a folded over piece of newspaper cleanly and cut across the width of the reel? I try to remember the sound of a new McLane that my mother bought years ago to guide me. Like a nice pair of scissors, not too loud, with a consistent pitch. I can never get it quite like that when I backlap and adjust, but that's my guide. If it's making too much contact the sound will be loud and harsh, and the pressure between reel and bedknife will generate excess heat and spoil the cutting edges too soon.
Also if the mower is new from the factory, make sure it has oil in it! They do not ship them with oil in the engine. At least that was their practice 10 years ago.
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I'm in the same boat. I've had my Mclane for 3 months and I'm searching for a used GM 1600 or a JD. My lawn looks great, but for $2400 I wish I put that money into a used greens mower. Hopefully I can find a nice one over the winter. The quality control from Mclane is horrible. I was curious if It was just my mower.rockwalltxguy said:
Would like some opinions from the McLane Crew.
Currently looking at a 2021 25" GR model. Already has the R&R smooth roller on the front that would allow the HOC to go down to around 3/8". Is there anything I could do to modify this lower? What methods are others using to get your spring scalp in?
Currently looking at a 2021 25" GR model. Already has the R&R smooth roller on the front that would allow the HOC to go down to around 3/8". Is there anything I could do to modify this lower? What methods are others using to get your spring scalp in?
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I haven't been reel mowing yet this summer & my McLane was on the same setting I used it on last year, but it's scalping hard & the drive chain keeps popping off. Did I install my reel roller incorrect & what's a good way to get it to a higher setting? I had it dialed in last year, but not sure if it got bumped or accidently adjusted during winter storage.
@itsmejson Curious to know what the outcome of this was? The sound of the video, the gouge in the bedknife...looks like I'm now in the same boat as you. Thx.itsmejson said:Yes there is a gouge in the bedknife. I need to look again if there is anything on the reel.SGrabs33 said:
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Heyyyy, me too. Lol. Just picked mine up on monday. I have been trying to make a fitting to backlap mine.Richkm20 said:Well I just joined the McLane family, picked up this G17-PH-10 for a hundred bucks as an upgrade to my crappy great states push reel. Anyone with experience have any tips or tricks?
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