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Thread: Victa mulchmaster 560

  1. #46
    Member Redeye's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    l've been using these for over 25 years, 550 & 560, only things that wear for me are the drive belt and the rear wheels (l recently took to them with an angle grinder)....with the clutch spring, l blow them out with the compressor occasionally and use silicone spray.
    Must say the 560 isn't near the quality of the old 550's, since Briggs took over the quality has fallen.....like honda, rover, masport




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  2. #47
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    Improving mulching abilities will have test results this coming week
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  3. #48
    Senior Member RSM-Gazza's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    Interesting post BJ, I've three of those Turfmaster blade carriers. (I think that's what they are at least)
    If I'm correct those photo'd blade carriers do pick up debris of the lawn far better than the 216 I found after switching to the 216's from the Turfmaster.
    In the e-mail notification there are no photos, so I thought "Improving Mulching" humm, hope we don't have to walk backwards all day.

    Edit; Also when you wear through the Plastic side plug, those cheap 2 part steel mix putty sticks from the bargain shops applied thickly in the holes will give extended life.
    Cheers Garry

  4. #49
    Member Redeye's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    be interested in your results mate......




    http://curraronggardening.com/

    "All sin is washed away in the Holy goodness of Beer"
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  5. #50
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    As you can see in the 2 previous pictures the MM has 2 high lift blades and 2 Toro kickers fitted,then i went to re fitting the Victa mulching blade carrier using 2 high lift and 2 low lift blades with kickers removed.All blades are sharpened along the entire length of blade.

    In one of those setups it was a complete failure while the other is showing an improvement from standard factory set up.
    Only did a test run today and will need to cover a variety of lawns this week to see if anything new has been discovered.This picture is what i'm aiming at to replicate in one pictured setup
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  6. #51
    Member Redeye's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560





    http://curraronggardening.com/

    "All sin is washed away in the Holy goodness of Beer"
    Book of Redeye, Psalm 69

  7. #52
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    What ever i tried didn't make any difference
    Has become a little embarrassing to what finish has been left on top of the lawn on some jobs,in some cases had to run the mower over twice to get a better finish costing me time.

    On dryer lawns it leaves a good finish and most other brand mowers which can mulch would leave the same result
    Went to a different Victa dealer last week and we talked about mulching mowers,he showed me a new model ride on where the manufacturer improved it's mulching ability,what they did was make the deck deeper and more dome shape on top.While looking at the Mulch master the deck was concave and it couldn't recycle the clippings enough times leaving longer pieces instead of micro clippings

    I have had good (better) results with other mowers mulching,the Mulchmaster will now only be used during the driest parts of the season as that's the only time it shows some value besides as a slasher

  8. #53
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    Just to clarify these tests were done on 60,90 or 120mm kik grass some at 2 weekly or 3 weekly cuts,the other 2 machines handled it better in mulching the grass blades into micro pieces where the MM left larger pieces laying on top like it was slashed
    MM handles the 20-25mm grasses fine like you see in REDS and Greenies YT vids

  9. #54
    Senior Member GardeningSolutions's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    Best mulching mower I've owned is the self propelled Masport. It has a high dome alloy deck, bar blade and leaves a great finish.
    Also good was a MTD with a high dome pressed steel deck with a bar blade.
    Had a toro mulcher with a flat deck that left a mess at the end of each run. I feel the Honda 216 mulching was as good as the Toro.
    The Hustler ZTR has a deep deck and mulches great. I think the success to mulching is high/ deep decks.

  10. #55
    Senior Member BeetleJuice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    I ran the Rover 560 yesterday mulching Santa Anna lawn (first job) which needs to have a clean table top finish,the rover was able to do that providing i slipped the clutch at full revs to slow down forward speed.

    Today i ran the Mulchmaster and straight away i could see larger clippings laying on top,the only way to get the best end result was to overlap each run so it could have a second go at recycling the clippings
    22 inch cut was overlapping at about 11 inches so i could pick up the loose trail the Mulchmaster leaves on the left side.Nothing was wet or overgrown,ended up with good results but losing time overlapping

    Overall best results with different lawns the rover wins easily,both machines had to be run counter clockwise as both leave a trail of clippings LH side but the MM is worst doing that

  11. #56
    Senior Member GardeningSolutions's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    I reckon I'll be getting a Rover in the New Year

  12. #57
    Senior Member edbeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    Here's my take on mulching mowers

    Pretty much all of the lawns I mulch are not quality lawns and mostly are out of spec for ideal mulching, so nobody is expecting a perfect result.
    If they want perfect, they pay to mow more often or pay to catcher mow.
    I don't have any pure Kikuyu lawns that I mulch.

    In my situation, the fact that the MM doesn't hold onto the clippings for fine processing is an advantage. At least you can get the lawn mowed & deal with results later.
    Mulched a lawn today with the Rover 950 and because it holds onto the clippings for longer, it was a battle just to mow the place and the mess was just as bad, except the clippings were finer.
    Did another place today that I usually do with the MM @ 2 weeks. Sparse couch +weeds. The MM breezes over it, up & back and I barely have to use a blower at all afterwards. Today with the Rover, every pass left a fine trail on the left side that had to be picked up by overlapping 3" or blown away later. It's been a while since I mulched with the Rover 560, but I think it was pretty similar, and the HRX was about on par too.

    So in less than ideal mulching conditions, they all leave a mess that can be cleaned up with a blower. Just that the MM lets you make that mess easier
    And if the job is too tough, you can take the side plug out of the MM and the result is sorta ok too.

  13. #58
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    Didn't want to start a new thread

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  14. #59
    Member Redeye's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    l looked into them a few years back, very mixed reviews from memory




    http://curraronggardening.com/

    "All sin is washed away in the Holy goodness of Beer"
    Book of Redeye, Psalm 69

  15. #60
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Victa mulchmaster 560

    yeah I thought they had been brought up before, seems like they all get 1 or 2 things right but stuff up the rest

    Maybe we should design our own

    check out lawn porns latest you tube vid, he demos a cylinder mower that you can change the reel to other attachments it looks really good

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