Mower X blade review, twice the cutting power?
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- čas přidán 11. 07. 2020
- Today I talk about and review the X blade kit from Ballard-inc.com. It allows you to install a second blade on each of your mower's spindles. Does two blades per spindle give you twice the cutting power? I put it to the test.
We also go over the very popular Oregon Gator G6 blades. These are a hybrid mulching blade that requires no mulching kit for your mower. I discuss some pluses and minuses with these blades. I also find out how to overcome some downfalls I've discovered over the years of use on my property. I've been using these successfully and am overall pretty satisfied with the mowing quality they provide on my lawn. Today they got an upgrade.
I'm using a 2017 Ferris IS3200Z 61" with a Vanguard 37 hp EFI with the Oilguard dry sump oiling system. This commercial mower is phenomenal with full suspension and incredible horsepower. The Oilguard system allows you to mow on any slope you and the machine can safely navigate without fear of starving your engine of precious oil. With its large wheels, wide stance, and compliant suspension, it handles the hills incredibly well. I highly recommend these mowers. - Věda a technologie
I have been mowing lawns for 25 years and I my opinion the g6 blades are the best blades out there.
Very nice video! Thank you for the info!
Was doing some research on this subject when this video popped up. I have the same exact mower (w/suspension seat), it definitely has enough power to swing dual blades. I've been leaving a few stragglers since I got this mower, not a lot but enough to be irritating. Running G6 blades and just ordered another set with a 5/16 offset (to keep the cut almost the same on all 6 blades). Great video and confirms my thoughts.
Excellent video chief
My last mowing of the year was with Ballard adaptors on the 52” deck on my Toro 522xi. I put the gator blades on top and high lift blades on the bottom. I had to buy and install longer bolts. If the tractor engine is cold the PTO will kill it, but not if it’s warmed up. About 3 years ago a local mower mechanic without asking me bypassed the safety switches on my 522xi so what I’ve done is release the tensioner arm in the mower deck mule drive, turn on the PTO, get off and slowly close the tensioner arm in the mower deck mule drive and that works. I’m thinking that the best setup is two Gator type blades,,,,, BUT one of them with a dogleg bend in it so that after blades are installed they have the same blade tip height. I hope I can try that next year.
I'm a huge fan of the 8TEN LawnRazor Blades incredible blades
I run 4 stock blades (x-kit) on my residential Toro Z4200 and it works phenomenal. I had to weld some guides to the factory blade brace/channel to hold the extra blades at 90 deg. as a premade kit wasn't available. I balanced all the parts prior to use and installed grease fittings on the spindles. I engage the blades at 1/2 throttle and then throttle up. So far the chute pressure is amazing. It will cut 8" grass without leaving uncut pieces. I'll be testing them bagging soon. If done right x-blades work well without hurting the life of the supporting parts. They do sound diffrent and use more gas though. But mowing 2x with single blades uses more gas too.
That was exactly how it worked for me. 👍🏼
I used to run X blades on my push mower. I installed a dethatching blade on the top position and a regular blade on the bottom. It kept the thatch from building up, and when you hit dog poop, it just vanished.
I have a push self propell John Deere canni do the same on that?
Lol
Since your creating more air movement would the help when using a leaf vac?
I have the same feeling about the heaver blades. Wish I didn't buy them. But they stay shape for a much longer time.
Thinking about running this on my john deere 636m. Little 36's just don't create that suction that bigger triple blades do
Help! I want a better blade to replace the blade on my new 2021 80v 21" Kobalt mower. Can you advise me?
Nice!! I like.
I think you would like the result of high-lift at bottom and g6 on top as well. Can't go wrong with double stacking the g6's though. Nice video👍
This is actually pretty close to what I ended up using. I have a stock hi-lift with one G6. It works well and gives the best overall compromise without much of any drawback. 👍🏼
@@dieselshadow Very nice👍 Tweak until we get it right😎
Do you know the part numbers for the blades?
(I have a ferris 61" deck too... isx2200)
Nice video
Nice video. Love this idea but I'm thinking that the spindles will wear out quicker with added stress. A follow up video would be nice.
Been using this type of set up for years on a Dixie Chopper. In fact Dixie Chopper offered this from the factory.
Thanks for the review Jason. What was your initial inclination for trying the x-blade configuration? Dissatisfied with the oem configuration and cut or just curiosity? PS, I'd love to see you sharpening your blades with your hi-tech equipment!!
Geez Frank, somehow I missed your comment. And looking at the date, I missed it A LONG TIME AGO! Wow!
Yeah, I saw a few videos and a recommendation from another channel I watch and decided to give it a go. My Ferris cuts very well, but not quite as nice as the John Deere’s I’ve owned. So I was looking for an improvement. It’s now what I run all the time. It works, at least in my conditions, very very well. 👍🏼
What about running dual gators?
You're supposed to run the high lift blades on the bottom and the mulching blades above them
Hi, I just start working w/xblades and is very good cutting quality.
Have u used it on leaf jobs? That's what I'm looking at more than anything I have a grass cutting service and leaf removal service
@@ronnrogers9459hi, yes this type of set up is very good on leaves I will said mulch the leafs 10 times better for sure.
@@dogoargentino1420 ok thank u
Very well done
I would think that the lowest blade would do all the cutting before the top blade. Unless the top blade is stepped to bring the cutting edge down to the same plane as the lower blade.
Thanks for sharing. I am running a similar set up X blades on my grasshopper 718K front mount deck mower. However, instead of using any type of adapter to cross my blades I cut my gator blades into two pieces. After cutting the gator blades I welded the two separate pieces to my original contour cut blades. I am doing this as an experiment because due to some of the scattered taller weeds seem to twis in the air flow and the blades fail to cut them. I also have several large willow oak trees that drop millions of leaves in the fall. Hopefully this blade combo will turn them to dust. Last fall I removed of 80 wheelbarrow loads of leaves.
Now that idea might just work as both blades are exactly the same level.
@@rbnjr I have cut my 3 acre lawn since installing them. I had very little visible missed cut grass stems. I have a fair amount of crabgrass in some areas and it is typically almost always wet by nature due to its dense growth. The blades did a good job of pulverizeing the clippings into a mush and there were minimal clumps. I purposely mowed and kept the discharge blowing into the uncut grass to see how it would work. Overall it did ok. However, there was a good bit of build-up in some areas under the deck. Next time I will mow and discharge into the previously cut side to monitor clumping and build-up under deck. I may need to work with some other blade combinations for best results.
Try using 1 regular blade and 1 mulching blade . It works really well
Spray the underside of your deck with"PAM"or any store cooking spray.. you won't have grass buildup!!
Mulching blades on top any other blade on bottom for the best cut
Does this put more stress on your spindles?
why does it say high lift blades are not recommended on Ballard's website?
I couldn’t say for sure. The combo that works the best on my mower and my grass has been Oregon G6s and the stock hi-lift blades. Your mileage may vary. I encourage you to try various combos until you find what works best for you. 👍🏼
because it creates blowback and too much force, as per the problem he said in the video, they recomment a standard and a mulching blade
how did you balance them?
There’s no need to. If each blade is balanced, then two on the same spindle makes no difference. It works quite well.
Hi dieselshadowman we are the makers of the Kavli Blades I think you should have a look at the Kavli X-Treme blade and tell us what you think.
I would absolutely try them out, but it seems I can’t find them. Can you post a link?
what's your favorite blade on the ferris
I usually have two Gator blades stacked or one Gator and one high lift. It depends on the conditions.
Good vid,dull blades,sharping every ten hours will keep blades from splitting down and ripping.
Ken- you need to be closer to the mike could barley hear you with volun all the way up.
Some have said that the dual blades require less throttle than the single blade setup.
I’m not sure how that can be. You are trying to spin up at least twice as much weight all of a sudden. That’s twice the load on the engine.
Maybe if your clutch isn’t as fast engaging as most electric clutches are, then less throttle could be utilized.
But since twice the load is being introduced, we must either slip the clutch a bit longer or add power. It’s no different than driving a manual car. If it’s twice as heavy, you slip the clutch a bit longer and give a bit more throttle to overcome heavier loads. But since most machines these days utilize electric clutches, we don’t have control over the amount of time the clutch slips as it engages. For all intents and purposes, they are virtually instantaneous engagement. This calls for more throttle or the engine needs more spinning mass to overcome this bigger load that was applied.
@@dieselshadow Extra weight creates more momentum to give more spin on the blades. Mr. Ballard recommends lowering the throttle before you disengage and engage the blades.
Momentum is a mass that is moving already. More weight at the same speed = more momentum. Change either the speed or the weight and you change the momentum. Items at rest have zero momentum.
So having twice as much momentum due to twice as many blades means yes, you do want to disengage the clutch at slower engine speeds. The blades are slower at that point and far easier for the clutch brake to stop the blades.
I agree with the thought of less throttle/rpm to start the blades as much as possible. However, due to twice the mass, you may not be able to accomplish that. Each machine is different. Most will stall if they have an instantaneous style engagement such as an electric clutch. This means if the engine is at idle, it will most likely stall.
My Ferris will stall if you engage the X blade setup at idle. With just three blades instead of 6, it’s ok, but can struggle a bit. So for my machine, it go to full throttle and hit the PTO button immediately after. This gives the engine some throttle at the same time as engaging the PTO while the engine is accelerating from a lower RPM. It’s not the same as going to full throttle and engaging the PTO after the engine is at rated RPM.
As stated in my video and the comments, your machine is different than mine. This is a bit of a science experiment for all. Nobody’s machine, lawn, and other conditions are the same. What works for me may not work for you.
Matches to manufacturers part
Why do you have one spindle with the blades different than the other ones
I’m not following? All three are setup the same. 👍🏼
Maybe he has a high lift and g6 on the shoot side to throw out the grass faster but the rest are just g6's
26 14 largest tire on zero turns
What the heck shadow, that mower is not green. Lol. And how is the 60 coming?
Double g6's??? 😳 holy smokes, that's like running four sets of regular blades under that mower 😂
It is not necessary for them to keep the X pattern. It does not go out of balance or anything.
I wouldn’t think so, but I can’t say for sure as I haven’t tried that. If you try it out, report back and let us know what you find. 👍🏼
I hit the top of a water utility pipe a few weeks ago and the lower blade spin up to the upper mulch blade. The Ballard adaptor bent the tabs and the lower blade bowed down. I posted a short video of it on my channel.
Why not cut and weld then together so you don’t have a height difference
It's possible but you'd need to cut and weld it so it's perfectly balanced otherwise you'd get a lot of vibrations
If one blade is lower than another, your cutting with the lower blade only and the second blade is just going around and producing your wind.. not sure this is a benefit.. if both sets of blades were at exactly the same level it would be a benefit to have a second blade. cheers!
I am running a set of test X blades I made for my Grasshopper 718K on my 52 inch front mount deck. To create double cutting at same heights I cut the out the center section of the shredder blades and welded to the matching location of the contours blades. So far they cut very well.
Fine Sir Ferris mowers were-are made for elderly women who need to still cut their grass themselves. For men a company called John Deere make the best cutting and overall performing zero turns that last and last. Scag and gravely also make excellent machines but their cutting decks are extremely tough and long lasting, but cut quality is still 2nd place to John Deere.
Excellent job on the video honestly. Thank you for your time as we all know how extremely dangerous you are considering how every single neighbor you've ever had is still missing to this day, but hey at least you still cut their lawns for free! Lol take care man an again dam fine job with the video and than lawn
John who ? 🤔
John Deere doesn't hold a candle to Ferris. I own them both and three Ferris. John Deere just for the pto.
@@snewpdoge9911 good to hear you found the machine for you. Must be locations as where we are most guys admit even tho they don't run or own one the Deere is the best cut and top shelf.
John Deere are for amateurs
@@MrReagan1978 that'ah boy!! 👍
Clover is awful for clinging to deck. I HATE (keeping up with the Jones’s) using weed killer and fertilizer. SO BAD for our freshwater ecosystems!
Twice gasoline consumer
Ya dont do that
You don’t do what?
"Gentlemen"??? You saying you DON'T want us ladies to watch???
No no no. Not at all. Please, watch and comment like anyone else. Women are just as welcome here on my channel as the men are. I mean the vast majority of my viewers are male, but that doesn’t mean women aren’t welcome. My videos are meant for all. 👍🏼