Learned something new the other day . About a month ago I was checking cuts ( mostly for stragglers missed ) with the prism and noticed that we are cutting below the bench HOC on most machines .I know there is a difference from bench set and actual . I pointed it out but must have been overlooked due to the daily rigors at the course . Now recently the greens are getting a little stress due to hot couple of weeks we are having and I was approached to set the HOC ( height of cut ) up a little to help with the situation . I politely reminded the superintendent that we were cutting quite a bit lower than the bench HOC and I had checked them this morning with the prism . We learned a little bit about why there was such a difference in HOC ." I explained that I deal in bench setting with the numbers given to me" . If you add on grooved front rollers and the weight of the cutting unit plus lift/ lower arms and hydraulics, tire pressure,make and model, type of grass and maintenance practices then the actual HOC can be as much as .010 to .025 . A big difference when your cutting at .125 on greens . So to make things easier I'm starting to mark both HOC's .The super will still tell me the actual HOC and now I will figure out the difference and adjust accordingly so we are on the same page . It's good to have a full understanding between the mechanic and superintendent at these shorter HOC.
Our 3150Q cuts .010 lower than bench and the flex 21's I have to set up .015 more to get the same HOC .
Triplex .135 bench to get actual .125 and matching to flex 21 =.140 bench gets me .125 at this course ...... it most likely will be different at other courses .
A few of our machines .
Notice how similar they look . Not hard for an operator to grab the wrong machine and start cutting if it's not labeled . I have marked them for many years the only thing I changed is marking bench set and actual HOC on greens mowers for Superintendent so that we both know that we're on the same page .
We have never had a situation where the wrong machine has been used since doing it this way .
Prism ? yes when I get a chance I'll post one on the site .
PS. If anyone has a little extra rain that their not using please send it over . Thanks .
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