11 vs 14 blade reels. Cancel The title field is required!

1. Kyle Fick

   

   4 posts
   
   5/8/2015 6:05 AM

   What are all of your thoughts here. Got into some 14's last summer, now sort of looking back not so sure.
   
   From a maintenance standpoint, our EM doesn't really mind them vs 11's. But I felt we were getting a lot of missed blades that shouldn't have been. I've since had the EM adjust the attitude some, and we are low enough of an HOC right now that 14's will probably work.
   
   I just wanted to ask others if they are sticking with the 14's or going back to 11's?

   
   
   
   
2. Henry Heinz

   

   0 posts
   
   5/8/2015 7:05 AM

   With the hoc of greens, there will not be a HOC that is high enough to merit a change back to 11 blade reels. If you have the capabilities to adjust reel speed like you can on a deere 220e or Jac eclipse where you can adjust ground and reel speeds, then 11 blades will save you on your budget. If your running units that are non-adjustable, then going to a 14 or 15 blade unit will help you out. It's all personal preference, and where you see the best results. We havent had a need to go up in blades as we use Deere 220e units and keep reel speeds maxed out all the time year round.
   
   Regards,

   
   
   
   
3. Christopher Johnson_3

   

   0 posts
   
   5/12/2015 3:05 PM

   Read this and it should help you see if you need 14 blades or not. http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/ironinfocus-052413-closer-look-frequency-of-clip.aspx If your having missed blades than your FOC (Frequency of clip) may need adjusting. I'm not familiar with the 220E that Henry is speaking of but sounds like his machine is similar to an eclipse where the reel speed and ground speed can be set on the LCD screen as well as the FOC. What machine are you using? I attached a photo of the manual settings to a Toro Flex 2100.[attachment=0">FOC.png[/attachment">

   
   
   
   
4. Dinger Greg

   
   5/12/2015 4:05 PM

   I've heard some discussion on this topic before, as to whether the 14 blades increase bedknife wear over the 11 blade units. I'd be looking closely at the bedknife gap/land area for wear (14 bullets hitting it instead of 11, was a comparison I remember). Also, make sure you are using Toro's most up-to-date bedknife spec chart, as they have changed some angles around recently.

   
   
   
   
5. Kyle Fick

   

   4 posts
   
   5/13/2015 6:05 AM

   They are on JD 2500 E triplexes. I think i have it worked out a quite a bit. Just some tweaking vs what the distributor had set up on our units prior to shipping.

   
   
   
   
6. Christopher Johnson_3

   

   0 posts
   
   5/13/2015 7:05 AM

   Greg Dinger said: I've heard some discussion on this topic before, as to whether the 14 blades increase bedknife wear over the 11 blade units. I'd be looking closely at the bedknife gap/land area for wear (14 bullets hitting it instead of 11, was a comparison I remember). Also, make sure you are using Toro's most up-to-date bedknife spec chart, as they have changed some angles around recently.

   
   
   
   I would agree Greg but as long as the FOC is similar the same amount of bullets are gonna hit over a given distance. If you drop your FOC from say .153 to .115 (Just using this from the chart I posted) then you could expect more wear since you are cutting more grass. I don't think it would be measureable if you went from .147 with the 11 blade and changed to .149 or .143 with the 14 blade.

   
   
   
   
7. Henry Heinz

   

   0 posts
   
   5/13/2015 8:05 AM

   Well then there the answer, if the FOC is the same and there's no difference, then may as well just save a few bucks and stick with the 11 blade..... That's if your going to be in that close of a FOC range. I personally don't feel you'd notice that much wear if you're setting your units with no contact or a very light contact like a wornout pair of scissors. Just my thoughts.

   
   
   
   
8. Christopher Johnson_3

   

   0 posts
   
   5/13/2015 10:05 AM

   Wouldn't the point of running a 14 blade reel is to achieve a FOC that you couldn't with the 11? If your frequency of clip goes up then sure it should wear a little more on a bedknife. Someone stated more wear with a 14 blade but you also should be getting a better ball speed with the FOC change. As stated in the link with the 14 blade you could dial them back and for your day to day mows and then crank up the reel speed for Tournament week. Which would be easy on the hybrid mowers that you can program. Here I would need to move around the 3 gears to adjust the FOC up and down.