What on earth am I doing wrong? Before my mulching mower (gas push rotary) can get over top of the leaves to mulch them, it blows them well out of the way..

Do I need to raise it? Lower it? Go faster? Go slower?

Or do I just need more leaves before it works?

When mulching my lawn, I typically overlap a lot more in order to hit the leaves that were blown out of the path of the mower. I don't get all of the leaves (only 97.5%) but it's been successful so far.

Check the blade, it might be on up-side-down.

Not that I know that from experience......

I get maybe 1% of the leaves. The rest end up 10 feet away from the mower.

I think I put it back on the way it was after I sharpened it. Although I did get it used from my parents, so maybe they put it on upside down.

Of course they always bagged, so maybe I have to switch the orientation to mulch.


edit.. actually if it was on upside down the dull side of the blade would be doing a really bad cut.

The wings of the blade need to be pointing up.

Also, if you got the mower "pre-owned" and it was only used to bag, is it possible you don't have mulching blades??

I confirmed today that it is a mulching mower and the blade is on correctly. It just blows so much air out the front that I can hardly mow over any leaves... Unless I mow backwards... and let me tell you that got old very fast.

I think the blade /mower might be for mulching grass and not leaves.

Possibly it's just a poor design. However you could try to confirm the deck is level, ie: the front and back wheels are in the same notches. After that, then either raise the back 1 notch and see if it improves, if not then set it a notch lower and see. My mower calls for the front of the mower blade to be a bit lower than the back.

Mow it and aim towards the neighbors yard

KJensen wrote:Possibly it's just a poor design. However you could try to confirm the deck is level, ie: the front and back wheels are in the same notches. After that, then either raise the back 1 notch and see if it improves, if not then set it a notch lower and see. My mower calls for the front of the mower blade to be a bit lower than the back.

That's good advice. However, it sounds like a poor design most likely. How old is the mower and what model?

I have tried various deck angles. Didn't seem to help.

Maybe if I wedge the bag plug open an inch it will suck the leaves in.

Its a 2003
craftsman 21" high tunnel muncher
self propelled mower
model# 917.378481

That's pretty much the same walk behind mower I have, except mine has a few more years on it and has the larger rear tires. Same dimensions though and looks to be the same engine and rear bagger. It's a pretty reliable mower, still starts on the first pull despite being neglected since the day I bought. I'm afraid to change the oil or even the spark plug.....both are original and might be holding the whole thing together.

You are right though, it doesn't do a great job at mulching and the bag spews dust back at unreal amounts when collecting thatch or just dead grass/leaves (maybe I need to tighten the bungee cord holding the bag together), but it tends to do the job.

C'mon, Smolie - fess up. You are one of the members that learned the most this year, but you're still counting the leaves in terms of Nitrogen. No Nitrogen? Smolie ain't dealing with the leaves unless they are a warehouse of Nitrogen. Get out there and spread the leaves and run them over three or four times. When you get to understanding that lawns aren't a Nitrogen game (you're still believing the Scott's mindset), you'll thank us for pushing you. "More Nitrogen" does not equal "Better". Say that to yourself 25X tomorrow.

Finally got it to work reasonably well.
There was a clog of grass in a opening intended for air to flow through when the bag is off. (right next to the door that snaps shut when the bag is off)

However, I still had to experiment with the deck alignment and what finally worked was lowering the deck (still level) and walking at a medium pace (faster than I was).

andy10917 wrote:C'mon, Smolie - fess up. You are one of the members that learned the most this year, but you're still counting the leaves in terms of Nitrogen. No Nitrogen? Smolie ain't dealing with the leaves unless they are a warehouse of Nitrogen. Get out there and spread the leaves and run them over three or four times. When you get to understanding that lawns aren't a Nitrogen game (you're still believing the Scott's mindset), you'll thank us for pushing you. "More Nitrogen" does not equal "Better". Say that to yourself 25X tomorrow.

That was last week, or at least several days ago, Andy. I now have a plan to "borrow" my neighbor's leaves and spread them across my yard like a brown carpet. Hopefully they'll increase my organic matter enough so that my microherd will recover quicker from the Heritage G bomb I unleashed several weeks ago.

The urea app. that I'll put down around Thanksgiving should help the herd break down all of those leaves a bit faster too.........just in case they need it.

I find less leaves blow around when the deck is a bit lower (i.e, 2.5 inches). Also, if they are a tad moist it helps. Wet is no good, but super dry is tough too. In a few weeks I mow in the morning before work (its dark after work) and the dew seems to keep things from blowing around too much.

+1, JG. I switch to winter height when mulching the leaves. It really makes a difference.

I love the fact that I learned that I can/should mulch mow the leaves into the lawn... so much easier than raking/blowing/bagging. I just wish I could have known that as a kid when my parents made us bag all those damn leaves! Better late than never I suppose...

Bentface1 wrote:I love the fact that I learned that I can/should mulch mow the leaves into the lawn... so much easier than raking/blowing/bagging. I just wish I could have known that as a kid when my parents made us bag all those damn leaves! Better late than never I suppose...

Keep in mind that in your first year of doing it they may hang around a bit during the winter. Don't worry; so long as the tips of you blades are poking through the leaf mulch you'll be OK.

Bentface1 wrote:I just wish I could have known that as a kid when my parents made us bag all those damn leaves!

Same here. My sisters and I spent hours upon hours doing that crap ever year.

Not me. I was too lazy to care. I ran those leaves over every fall with my my dad's push mower, and when we got a LT when I was a little older, I went over them twice.......just because.