"DaveL" wrote in message ...
When I first got the tractor, it did a superb job of mulching -
both the grass clippings and leaves in the fall. The lasts three years
or so, it has started leaving a trail of grass clippings down the
middle, and it take repeated passes to chop up the leaves in the fall.

I typically mow once a week.

I have tried all the following with no success:
Sharpened the blades
Changed the blades
Cleaned the deck
Leveled the deck
Tilted the deck forward and backward
Changed the drive belt
Cheched the RPM
Mow more often

You did many unnecessay things as far as your mulching problem is concerned.

You said you changed the blade. There is a special mulching blade,
different from normal blades. They have more tilt to them and a curve
about halfway between end and center. The theory is that it sets up
upward air curents around the blade which blow the cutting up and as they
fall, the blade cuts them again, and again. They kinda work okay, but
you need to travel slower since (in theory) you are cutting more grass by
cutting the same grass more than once. The second thing is that the blade
must be kept very sharp for maximum effectiveness. By very sharp, I don't
mean new blade sharp, because most new blades are not sharp. I mean
knife-like sharp. The edge doesn't hold long, so blades need to be
sharpened frequently.

Don't know if any of this will help you or not. Hope so.

Bob-TX