[hundojoe]

What are the differences in the mower blades, meaning what are the advantages and or disadvanatges of medium lift, high lift and gator style blades. I have a 50" deep deck and my grass stays fairly wet due to the clay soil im my yard. Just wondering what the best options would be

 

[Hammerdown-7]

Hello Joe
I have a 1983 John Deere 318 that came to me with replacement Mowing deck of 48' width on it that had low lift blades. We get heavy dew here in East Tennessee so unless the grass was some what dry when I cut the lawn with it the grass would ball up and it would leave clumps behind. I switched over to the High Lift blades and it Blows the grass way out now and lay's it down nice and even. I would try a set of High Lift blades on your mowing deck I will Never buy anything But High Lift blades again. I hope this helps, Kurt

 

[jd2854020]

Joe, fyi Deere does not sell a high lift blade for the 50" deck. I prefer the medium lift blades. Never tried the Gators but plan to the next time I need blades.
M86209 Mower Blade LOW LIFT (SUB FOR AM39966)
M76461 Mower Blade MEDIUM LIFT (SUB FOR AM106634)

 

[trapperjohn]

I too use high lift blades on a 60" deck with a MCS. It feeds the collection system great. The one thing you may notice is the high lift blades will be a little louder just because they are moving more air.

 

[hankvc]

Joe, I have the M01013 50" mower on my 318. The blades I am using are M76461 Deere blades, which are listed by Deere as "medium lift." By actual measure, the lift wings are 1-1/4 on these blades.
This dimension is "high lift" on blades for several other decks. I have a Husqvarna 48" stamped deck mower, for which the standard blades are "high lift" with the same lift wing dimension and, indeed, perform as a much higher lift than the Deere mower. It is very noisy, raises tons of dust and could double as a leaf blower.

Since the pasture I mow with both these decks is flood-irrigated from a ditch, there are times when I mow places that are quite wet, and the Deere 50" cuts fairly well through them.

There is a pdf file available from Oregon (saw chain), who make Gators and replacements for OEM blades. OREGON_BladesByOEM.pdf Best found through a web search to get directly to the pdf. They do not list blades specifically for the M01013 50", but have blades, both OEM-replacement and Gators that are dimensionally correct for the mower (17-3/16 long, 11/16 mounting hole) for other Deere mowers under different Deere part numbers. I don't see anything with a higher lift.

I'd suggest you try a set of the M76461 blades on your mower. Can't comment on Gators, as I have never used them.

Hank

 

[hundojoe]

I should have mentioned that I currently have the oregon brand gator blades on there. I have also rebuilt all 3 spindles this spring, sharpened the blades, along with new bearings and new belts, both blade to blade and engine to deck, what I also noticed on Thursday when I cut the grass is that it leaves a small patch of grass thats about a half in higher then the rest only when I turn left. This did not happen last year. I have also made sure my tire pressures are correct and equal and the deck is also level side to side and almost a 1/4" lower in the front. It also had the speed up pulley installed last year. Im now at a loss as what I do to correct this.

 

[3jd318]

Joe the 50 deck does that because the blades are not off set front to back enough

 

[E Behm]

Had a set of gator blades, Don't like them. Terrible cut.