OEM bedknive angle changes on our Toro 5410

I recently ground the newer 5410 with the damaged reels and with no time for repair could only spin grind the reel and grind the bedknives . When I reassembled the reels they where not cutting as well as I would have liked them to . I like the keep the bedknife angles ground to OEM spec's . After posting the issue I was having on Golftech's I received some ideas and answers of why and how to get my units to cut properly again .

This picture shows the newsprint being pinched by the reel against the bedknife before cutting . The OEM angles didn't provide me with a perfect edge to cut against on a worn down reel ( nearing 4.5  "). As the reel wears the front edge moves upward changing the angle for the grass to lay up on the front face before cutting plus it was affecting where the reel edge was landing on the bedknife . Eventually it could cause riffling of the bedknife .

Here is the newsprint cut after adjustments where made to the angles on bedknife . I went 7 Top and 7 front . Some guys suggested going as much as 8 from a new set up will avoid this issue in the future .

Remember my rough fairways and bedrock out cropping that I talk about . Well this how one of them came back today . The chunk also went back and went through one of the rear cutting units causing more damage .

Cutting newsprint cleanly at a whisper setting sounding smooth across the knife .

For as beat up as they are, there still providing a great cut . We are running the groomers again to thin the grass out . Grass is standing up very well now for play .

A small video of whisper quit sound ......and a little Billy Idle thrown in .

One thing about this type of work and why I like it so much is that there is always something new that comes up and  learning new and better ways to keep things rolling .



Changing out a rear roller brush on the Toro 5410

Noticed one of the rear roller brush was knock out of whack . It pretty much chewed the half bristles off .

Remove the j hooks from both ends of shaft .

Belt cover and belt next .Then the 3 bolts holding the plate on .

Take the brush adjustment bolts out on the drive side and pull it out of the other end as one piece .

Ready to pull out .

Pull the rubber seal off the end and slide the old one off , if it doesn't move just whined it off . 



New brush .

I lined it up with the old marks and slide it on the shaft . Went on fairly easy . 

 Put the J bolts back on and make sure the end goes in the other hole . Tighten up snug on both ends .  

 

Reassemble in reverse order .

All done . Love these brush kits .....so easy to work on .





Member & Guest Sept. 2013

Started of early ( 5 am ) and chipped in and helped mow Fairways . We just got off the fairways  in time for a members 9 am . shot gun. Then at 1 o'clock ,Member & Guest tournament  will be on their way . Clubs been busy getting all their tournaments out of the way before we start core aerating greens on Monday .  The New course has their tournament tomorrow . I'll be back in  real early to run the carts we borrowed back for their 9 am start .

Over all the course looks reely good and manicured . Green HOC was dropped for the tournament and the few guys that we have left got everything mowed up in time . We powered on through our breaks and lunches and grab and go are food as we went .

The extra effort by all paid off .

Here are a few pic's just before tee off time .

Back of 9 green area . It was a field a few years back . View on the way to women's 10 Tee .



Hole #5 par 3



# 10 view from back of 11 Tee decks . Women's tee hit down the fairway , Men hit over the irrigation pond on the right .



#11 Men's Tee deck . Everyone has a pond to hit over on this hole .





View from the back of #14 green . You can see some of the bedrock out cropping's we have on the course . Par 4 , Tee deck hits over a pond and up hill to this area . This is the smaller fairway landing area . Past the bedrock there is a larger fairway .



# 16 Tee . City of Halifax in the background .



Hole #7 . Club house is behind the big tree on the right .

  





Looking down #1 fairway from # 18 green . The cut on the rough looks great as do all the other cuts .

# 7 green . The Members/guest are rolling in .



Our new Club Car Electric fleet are ready to go .



# 8 green is looking pretty good . We redid this one a few years back using cores from aerated greens on the course. It's starting to mature pretty well .





Right side of dog leg on #1 rough . It actually looks this vibrant .



# 2 Fairway . Another pic of bedrock protrusions we have on the course on some holes . Reely takes a beating on the Toro 5410 reels .



The assistant ( Sean ) just finishing up the finally touches with the pro force blower . Will be heading out early when the tournament starts .

Should be a great round for all .



After the Rain !!!! 5410 cutting issue review

I'm sure everyone on the east coast have had their prayers answered to get some rain . After having near drought conditions and the cooler evenings plus the rain the turf took an aggressive jump in growth . Like a lot of the courses on the east coast it's been a battle to get turf knocked back down again especially being short staffed and the timing of the last big dumping of rain .

One thing I did notice is that the 5  - 2 " line pattern from our 5410's were very noticeable after the first cut on fairways . The lines are defiantly from the jump in growth . I also wished they made a 10 blade reel for this model .I'm reely starting to think it is not cutting all the turf and that's why some of us are seeing this line pattern from being double cut in the area where the rear rollers are of a different length  .

We are having another Member / Guest tournament this week . Yesterday we double cut fairways with the groomers engaged . It took care of the lines in a hurry . They look fantastic again .  

All this rain also gave the culvert at the

New Ashburn a good work out . Worked great .........no problems .



Bio hydraulic oil leak update

Well it's been about 12 days in now and we have a small 2 foot x 1 inch section that may have to be replaced . I think if it were rinsed right after the spill with Dawn dish detergent , it would have come back .

Here are a couple of pictures . Pretty much gone now .

 

Hydraulic Leak and Bio Oil

We inherited a few GKIV from our sister course the last few years . I was concerned about hydraulic leaks happening on these old machines since they are used on and around greens . Going with the Greens Care Bio oil paid off last Friday. We are short staffed this time of year , so I'm doing double duty and helping out on the course as needed . Friday I mowed approaches with one of the GK's and the steering line ruptured leaking about 5 liters of bio oil in front of 16 green . 

.

Old technology is never fun to repair in this situation . I was going to do a post on the repair but was getting a little behind .   

The steering lines run down under the floor pan . The machine is a 2000 year model and over time the floor pan wore a hole through the Kevlar rap . Not an easy repair . Well it was easy but a lot of parts had to be removed for repair and it was a little time consuming  .  

Being way under budget last season I was able to get a basic Hydraulic line making kit . So far I have used it a few times making up lines as needed. I'm starting to get pretty good at it now .

This is the Bio Oil from Jacobsen . A lot of manufacturers have their own line .  

After repairing the lines with a high quality replacement  line I also notched out the floor pad and installed these hose guards from Lawsons .

 

A few pictures of the leak 4 days later .

Some courses will use Dawn liquid detergent and water right away to get rid of the Bio Oil streaks.

I have seen hydraulic leaks in the past from NON bio oils and the damaged area had to be removed and replaced with new sod . With this product, turf should look uniform again in a few weeks.

The lines are faint and my superintendent was impressed that no grass was damaged . He asked about what kind of hydraulic fluid was used in the machine . It was my first time seeing a Bio Oil leak and I'm very impressed . I may look into doing our Toro 3150 Q this winter .It is a little more costly and doesn't last as long as regular hydro oil.   The damage may have been reduced a bit because the oil was spraying up on the floor pan first giving it a little time to cool off . The line also blew around 1.5 hrs. into the job.