Reel mower suggestions

4751 Views 46 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Spammage, Apr 12, 2018

w0lfe

Discussion Starter · Apr 10, 2018

Alright, so this board has already caused me to spend some bucks in the month since I've discovered it :lol: :lol: :lol: .. But now I'm thinking about going to the next level, at least on my front lawn.. So my front lawn, which is terribly unlevel at the moment, but it's only 1200 sq ft or so of Bermuda, 300 or so of soon to be fescue.. It would be a very easy/quick mow with any mower once level. So, since I've spent some bucks lately on yard renovations and equipment, what would you guys suggest for a reel mower that is a budget/wife friendly price? I keep reading to avoid the manual ones at all cost, especially once the yard gets thick. I have U3 Bermuda, but after seeing what Red's looks like, I have pretty high hopes.

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Greendoc

· #9 · Apr 10, 2018

SCGrassMan said:
Well, I have about 3k square feet and I just got a Toro GM1600. It's absolutely massive, and way more than I need.

If I had it to do over again, I'd be looking at a Swardman, or a JD 220 e (electric motor for different reel Vs ground speed) in that order.

At the slowest speed, my GM1600 is still almost too fast to reliably maneuver around my small yard, but it produces a fantastic cut.

I recommend looking at some in person before you choose. If you go new and get a Swardman, great, if you get used, look up "prairie turf equipment" and talk to Greg.

On the GM walkbehinds, there is a throttle stop adjustment. I followed the throttle cable back to the engine and found it. I adjusted mine so I could just about drag my feet. First time trying it out out throttle stops not adjusted, I almost ran over my roses. Those guys mowing greens are almost running behind the mower.

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Greendoc

· #26 · Apr 10, 2018

Colonel K0rn said:
Greendoc said:

On the GM walkbehinds, there is a throttle stop adjustment. I followed the throttle cable back to the engine and found it. I adjusted mine so I could just about drag my feet. First time trying it out out throttle stops not adjusted, I almost ran over my roses. Those guys mowing greens are almost running behind the mower.

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Thanks for this bit of information. I'm going to adjust mine a bit slower. I take a pretty quick step, and need to slow down the pace a bit.

I take my GM into lawns as small as 300 sq ft. With a lot of tropical foliage and rock work all around them. Crashing into things at 2..5 MPH is not good. Neither is ramming into cars parked on the hell strip or driveways next to a lawn. Running behind a mower is not impressive to me. The slower one is moving the better the rollers are able to follow and negotiate irregularities in the lawn.

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Greendoc

· #27 · Apr 10, 2018

Llano Estacado said:
SGrabs33 said:

Llano Estacado said:

The casters are the best indicator that its a P-20. The P and C models have dual double casters and the H model has a dual single casters.

If you go look at it check to see how wide the blades are. This is the reel off the 27" model I bought and my repair shop is not sure if he can sharpen it or not, I'm going to replace the reel, but thats about $400.

You can see where the blade is welded to the disc that is welded to the center rod. Make sure the blade is a good 1/2" or so past that disc, mine is around a 1/4". I'm still a rookie to reels but I've messed with mine enough to have learned a little. Could the reel in the picture be sharpened? I'm not experienced enough to know for sure, I'll have to take the shops word for it.

Ask the owner to demo it for you.

Tru cut's are nice, but they are a pain to adjust. If you're a mechanically inclined person you'll be ok. If you don't like to tinker you might want to look at a Trimmer or McClane. I love my TruCuts, the ability to feather the clutch and control the speed and the center diff that makes turning corners a breeze. But there are things that I hate, mainly the reel to bedknife adjustment. It has gotten easier the more I do it, but its still a pain.

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I never knew that 1/2" rule. That's great.

Also great simple comparison of the homeowner REELs!

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I don't know that its necessarily a rule, but my repair shop seemed to think there needed to be more blade than what mine had. He may just have not wanted to mess with it.

They cannot relief grind without cutting into the reel spiders, that is what the discs are called. I have heard the same thing from even my golf equipment service centers. They cannot relief a reel with less than 1/2" of blade. A reel that small in diameter is also prone to clogging if the grass is a little thick.

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Greendoc

· #32 · Apr 10, 2018

"you want pictures?, I got pictures." Nice.

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Greendoc

· #38 · Apr 10, 2018

SCGrassMan said:
Colonel K0rn said:

Greendoc said:

On the GM walkbehinds, there is a throttle stop adjustment. I followed the throttle cable back to the engine and found it. I adjusted mine so I could just about drag my feet. First time trying it out out throttle stops not adjusted, I almost ran over my roses. Those guys mowing greens are almost running behind the mower.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this bit of information. I'm going to adjust mine a bit slower. I take a pretty quick step, and need to slow down the pace a bit.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna look into this as well... At the lowest setting mine was OK.. but I'm not sure how slow is "too slow" for the reel to still cut properly.

The beauty of the Toro GM 1000 and 1600 is that the reels and transmissions are synchronized. You cannot slow the engine down to the point of it not maintaining the clip rate. I know you cannot because one of the first things I did to mine was install the clip kit. This consists of a small pulley and a large pulley to be installed in place of the stock pulleys. What this does is slow down the rotational speed of the reel. I also know that it increases the torque on the reel. I can be running my mower literally dragging my feet and it still produces the same quality of cut. In fact,, quality of cut declines when I run it too fast because the front starts to lift up and the mower starts to bounce. I mow some lawns that have not seen sand and probably never will. It is in the homeowner's means for me to keep the grass short, green, and weed free. It is not in the budget to pay for the 10+tons needed to sand cap and level.

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Greendoc

· #40 · Apr 10, 2018

I think this is relevant to the discussion. The majority of lawns I deal with were condemned to being hacked with string trimmers because they were too uneven to mow with a McLane or Tru-Cut. Almost every lawn mowing crew in Hawaii has one of those two mowers. I have tried using Mclanes, Tru-Cuts, and Trimmers. So far, Toro wins for ease of operation. To me, a Tru-Cut is more like trying to drive a car with a manual transmission. You have to constantly play with the drive clutch to get it to go forward. My hands got tired trying to mow with a Tru-Cut. I would reconsider the Tru-Cut if it were geared such that when the drive clutch is locked, it operated at a similar speed to a Toro. McLanes and Trimmers. Those are mowers that operate similarly to a greens mower where the rotation of the reel is synchronized to the travel speed. Their downfall is the usage of wheels on the sides of the mowers. All three of those reels are made of very soft metal. Their bedknives are also soft. In addition, the bedknife adjustment mechanisms are not on springs. On any given lawn, I hit small gravel, bits of coral, etc. The Toro ignores that and maintains the quality of cut. Hit something like a little bit of coral with a Tru-Cut or the other two, that is an adjustment and backlapping at the minimum. Given my experience with a greensmower, I do not think a yard is too small for a 22" greensmower. Slow it down from the running across the green so 5000 sq ft can be mowed in 20 minutes or less and it is a very usable piece of equipment for a small lawn. I know, because I do it 5 days a week.

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Greendoc

· #42 · Apr 10, 2018

PM me, maintaining a reel low lawn on a commercial basis involves more than just mowing. I"ll reply when I get back in from maintaining my reel low lawns.

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Greendoc

· #45 · Apr 10, 2018

Movingshrub said:
I'm glad someone else asked this question. I was skirting at this question in the Equipment forum a few months ago. My question was pertaining more to what features should be pursued and why. For those reels with the casters on the front, do those not ever catch and dig in? I am just thinking of my experience moving every rolling piece of furniture across a rug.

The short answer is, unless your lawn is granite countertop flat, casters will find every irregularity in the lawn and catch, then the reel will either gouge or else show strips of grass cut at different heights. A mower on rollers like a greensmower or the Swardman, will negotiate the irregularities a lot better.

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