Archive for August, 2015

Hunt Brothers Pizza and Exmark Help People ‘Mow Like a Pro’

Sunday, August 30th, 2015

Exmark Mow Like a Pro Home PageExmark and Hunt Brothers Pizza teamed up again in 2015 to present the Mow Like a Pro sweepstakes, and the winners recently received their new professional-grade Exmark mowers.

Today, we’ll introduce you to a number of 2015 Mow Like a Pro winners and their new Exmark machines.

Mow Like a Pro - Wayne Sparks

2015 Mow Like a Pro grand prize winner, Wayne Sparks, sits with his new Exmark Lazer Z X-Series mower.

Wayne Sparks of Cusseta, Georgia is the grand prize winner of the 2015 Mow Like a Pro sweepstakes. He took home a top-of-the-line Exmark Lazer Z X-Series zero-turn riding mower valued at more than $12,000.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Sparks said. “Owning my own landscape business means I need quality mowers I can rely on, so winning one of the top mowers on the market is a blessing.

“It’s great to finally have a new mower after wanting one for a very long time. Not only do I have the equipment I need to start cutting more grass, I can do it in style!”

Joshua Calkins - Mow Like a Pro

First place winner, Joshua Calkins, and his new Exmark Pioneer S-Series mower.

The first place prize — an Exmark Pioneer S-Series zero-turn riding mower valued at more than $7,000 — went to Joshua Calkins of Montere, Louisiana.

Puxico, Missouri’s Regina Hale took home the second place prize: an Exmark Quest S-Series Front Steer riding mower. The machine is Exmark’s first steering wheel-equipped zero-turn rider and it’ll make quick work of Hale’s property.

Three third place winners each took home a new Exmark Commercial 30 walk-behind mower, including: Suzanne Looney of Nettleton, Mississippi; Mathel Carter of Clarks, Louisiana; and Michelle Adams of Albany, Louisiana.

Regina Hale - Mow Like a Pro

Second place winner, Regina Hale, looks ready to mow on her new Exmark Quest S-Series mower.

In addition to the six mowers, Hunt Bros Pizza and Exmark gave away 100 pairs of safety sunglasses (4th place prize) and 100 pairs of work gloves (5th place prize). Click here to see a complete list of secondary prize winners.

“On behalf of Hunt Brothers Pizza, we congratulate all the winners of the ‘Mow Like a Pro’ sweepstakes and thank all participants for their support,” said Keith Solsvig, vice president of marketing at Hunt Brothers Pizza. “The sweepstakes provided us an opportunity to connect with and reward many of our fans that are landscapers and enjoy the outdoors with a quality prize from one of the best brands in the landscaping industry.”

Stop back Wednesday, September 2 to learn more about how you could get a chance to win your own new Exmark mower!

 

Lawn Mower Parts or Exmark Original Parts – What’s the Difference?

Sunday, August 23rd, 2015

Exmark Original Parts logoWhen you need lawn mower parts for your Exmark, you’ve got an important decision to make. There are a lot of reasons to run Exmark equipment, but productivity, durability and cut quality are reasons our customers often cite. Our products perform as they do thanks to the innovative design and manufacturing, and ultimately the performance, of each of the machine’s original parts. Collectively, they contribute to the overall performance and durability of your Exmark.

If any of these components are compromised, the machine’s performance or durability will inevitably be affected. Virtually any company can sell you lawn mower parts that are almost right for your machine. But only Exmark can provide you with OEM lawn mower parts designed, engineered and extensively tested to work optimally with every other part on your Exmark machine. You’ll get precisely the right performance, every time.

Learn more about the Exmark Original Parts Advantage:

You didn’t buy an Exmark because you wanted “almost right”, did you? Don’t settle for anything less than Exmark Original Parts and you’ll never get less than 100 percent genuine Exmark performance. That’s what value looks like to us.

Learn more about the difference between lawn mower parts and Exmark Original Parts at Exmark.com/OriginalParts.

Mower Settings for Late Summer and Early Fall Lawn Care

Wednesday, August 19th, 2015

Mower settings are a hot topic of debate for some, but a few basic guidelines can help keep your lawn healthy and weed-free throughout the year. Today, we’ll talk about the seasonal cycle of mower height settings, with a particular focus on lawn mower settings for cooler late-summer and early-fall cutting conditions.

Mower settings for late-summer

Your ideal cutting height range will depend on the type of grasses you’re cutting.

Ultimately, your ideal mower height settings vary with the type of grass you’re cutting and the time of year. While it’s typical to cut cool season grasses a little longer, in the 2 to 4 inch range, warm season grasses can be cut to as short as one inch, sometimes less. Consultation with your local county extension office or lawn care professional can help you dial in your mower height settings based on region and grass type.

The seasonal cycle explained

While turf types may vary, the method for setting mower height is similar within the ‘ideal’ range of the grass you’re mowing. Here in the Midwest, Kentucky Bluegrass is prevalent, which typically thrives when cut to a height of 2-3 inches. With Kentucky Bluegrass, set the mower at roughly two inches in the spring, and as the weather warms up in July and August, gradually increase mower height to a maximum of 3 inches.

Mowing grass higher in the heat of the summer helps keep vital moisture in the ground for your lawn to use, reducing the need for water.

With the transition to fall, the days get shorter and begin to cool off. As they do, it makes sense to lower mower height gradually, so it’s on the low end of your ‘ideal’ height range just before the first freeze, or you see your coldest annual temperatures. Doing so helps to prevent fungus growth over winter months.

Lawn care rules to remember

Mower settings

As your daily temperatures decrease from their seasonal peak, you can begin to lower your cutting deck incrementally until you reach the low end of your ideal height range.

As you transition to mowing grass shorter, don’t forget the ‘Rule of Thirds’. That is, never cut more than one-third of the total length of the grass. If you’re starting with three-inch tall grass, don’t mow shorter than two inches in one cutting.

Also, avoid mowing during times of heat stress, or extreme wet. Instead, mow just before a forecast rain to allow the freshly cut grass to soak the moisture in.

As soon as the weather begins to cool from its seasonal peak, it’s time to begin adjusting your mower settings for late summer and early fall lawn care. You’ll help your lawn be healthier and more beautiful all year long.

References & Additional resources:

  1. http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/outdoors/gardening/what-is-the-ideal-height-to-cut-the-grass
  2. http://outdoorswithdave.com/landscaping/mowing-your-lawn
  3. http://www.safelawns.org/blog/2012/05/13-essential-mowing-tips-first-and-foremost-keep-the-blade-sharp-set-high/
  4. http://msue.anr.msu.edu/resources/mowing-lawn-turf

Rear Discharge vs. Side Discharge: Why Choose a Rear Discharge Mower?

Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Exmark Lazer Z Rear-Discharge

A rear-discharge mower offers numerous advantages, not the least of which is the ability to trim on both sides of the deck.

An increasing number of Exmark mowers are now available with our UltraCut Rear Discharge cutting deck. And as our customers learn more about the advantages of a rear-discharge mower, they’re choosing the option more and more.

Today we’ll talk through the reasons somebody would choose rear-discharge riding mowers over the more common side-discharge mowers, and what cutting conditions rear-discharge commercial mowers excel in.

Reason 1: increased clipping control

Rear-discharge decks send clippings out behind the deck, under the mower, instead of through a side-discharge chute. The operator stays cleaner and clippings are distributed uniformly over a wider area. Rear-discharge decks also reduce the potential for debris or foreign objects to be discharged at dangerous velocity, making them a popular option with municipalities as well as parks and recreation departments.

Reason 2: increased cutting efficiency

With one counter-rotating blade, the UltraCut Rear Discharge cutting deck offers increased cut quality and even clipping distribution.

With one counter-rotating blade, the UltraCut Rear Discharge cutting deck offers increased cut quality and even clipping distribution.

The UltraCut Rear Discharge deck reduces clipping over-processing using a counter-rotating blade design and patented Flow Control baffles. Because clippings are cut once and discharged, a rear-discharge deck uses less horsepower than an equivalent side-discharge deck, which must pass clippings from blade-to-blade to be discharged. As a result, rear-discharge is a great choice for cutting taller grasses and in rougher cutting conditions, so they are an appealing choice for use on farms or acreages.

Reason 3: ability to trim on both sides of the deck

Whether you’re a landscape professional looking to maximize productivity, or an acreage owner looking for maximum versatility, the ability to trim on both sides of the cutting deck is a big advantage for a rear-discharge mower. No longer must you plan your entire mowing pattern based on the location of landscaping. Now, you simply take the most efficient route and get the job done faster.

Reason 4: reduced noise

Exmark rear-discharge

The decreased noise and increased clipping control of a rear-discharge mower are ideal for maintaining residential properties.

Discharging clippings behind the deck, under the mower, dramatically reduces the noise level of the deck for both the operator and for bystanders.

For those looking for additional noise reductions as well as an increased quality of cut for the most highly manicured appearance, Exmark offers its Finish Cut baffle kit for the UltraCut Rear Discharge deck. It’s perhaps the ultimate combination of cut quality, productivity and clipping control.

Bagging is perhaps the one challenge that the UltraCut Rear Discharge deck doesn’t tackle. That said, our Navigator – a dedicated bagging machine – uses a rear-discharge deck, so if you’re committed to bagging and like the benefits of rear-discharge, it just may be the rear-discharge commercial mower you’re looking for.

The UltraCut Rear Discharge deck is available on select Pioneer and Lazer Z rear discharge mower models. Visit Exmark.com to learn more about Exmark’s entire line of UltraCut decks.

Exmark Employee Profile: Lenny Mangnall

Thursday, August 6th, 2015

Lenny Mangnall of Exmark

Where are you from?

I’ve lived 50 miles from Beatrice, Nebraska my whole life. I currently live about ten miles away, with my wonderful wife and my three boys, ages nine to sixteen.

Tell us about what you do at Exmark.

I work in customer service, which has two groups: customer care and technical service. I’m in technical service, where we focus on the technical aspect of the product, and assisting our distributors. Typically we’re on the road about 50 percent of the time January through March. We go to different regions and do hands-on sessions on-location at dealers, making sure they are up to speed on our latest products.

For the rest of the year, we’re tied to the phone the majority of the time. For instance, last year Exmark customer service took 6,500 phone calls. If there’s a major issue we can’t resolve over the phone, we hop on a plane and go out to help resolve the problem firsthand.

The main parts of our job are preparing our service people with hands-on service and knowledge, and answering the customers’ needs. We combine those two and become both the voice of the service guy and the eyes of the customer.

What’s your favorite thing about working with Exmark?

This industry is amazing, full of such great people. I’ve built amazing relationships with end users, dealers, and distributor partners. It’s something that I look forward to each day.

At Exmark, we focus on doing the right thing and developing partnerships with our distributors, dealers, and our end users. By working together and helping our partners, whether distributors, dealers or end users, we’re making our own jobs a little easier in the long run. We’re all interrelated.

What do you like to do in your free time?

With three boys at home, I don’t have much free time! But my main passion for the last 7-8 years has been coaching baseball for my boys. It’s so much fun. The organization does it right. Even though we want to win, the more important priority is building character. And the people are great. There’s nothing better than getting a group of parents and kids together and watching them grow together as a secondary family.

If you could have lunch with any person, who would it be?

I’d like to talk to somebody who lived through the Great Depression or The Dust Bowl. We take so many things for granted and must remember to be careful with what we continue to take from Mother Nature. Any person that lived through such trying times and fought through that: it’s just remarkable to me. Those people just didn’t have the same benefits we do today. You see pictures of what they went through with the Dust Bowl and it’s remarkable they could persevere. We take a lot of things for granted today.

What’s something surprising about you not many people know about?

I graduated in a class of just 8 people. When I was in 6th grade, the entire school from kindergarten to 12th grade had about 110 people in it so I knew everybody by name. Most people are surprised to hear that.

Lenny Mangnall has been a member of the Exmark family for 17 years.

The Benefits of RED Technology

Monday, August 3rd, 2015

RED_equipped

The cost of fuel is a significant line item for every landscape maintenance professional, so any opportunity to reduce fuel consumption, especially if it doesn’t negatively impact productivity, is one that’s worth considering.

Exmark developed patented RED Technology to optimize productivity and machine life while dramatically increasing fuel efficiency. In fact, a RED-equipped Lazer Z X-Series mower can save up to 500 gallons of fuel in a typical 600-hour annual duty cycle. That’s not 500 gallons saved over a fleet of 10 machines. It’s 500 gallons saved per machine.

Governor Droop chart

RED-eqiupped engines use an electronic governor and EFI to virtually eliminate governor droop, so blade tip speed and cut quality are maximized.

Perhaps even more impressive, performance isn’t sacrificed for the gains in efficiency. RED enables communication and response between key systems on the mower, so the machine maintains performance and blade tip speed in a wider range of conditions.

At the heart of this increased responsiveness is an electronic governor-equipped Kohler EFI powerplant. The electronic governor significantly decreases governor droop, so blade tip speed is more consistent to deliver an increased quality of cut and higher level of productivity.

Lazer Z X-Series control panel

The defined performance modes are selected with the three-position rocker switch just above the Exmark logo.

RED-equipped machines feature three defined operation modes, controlled by a three-position rocker switch. This enables the operator to match the machine’s power to the specific conditions at hand.

RED Technology tracks vital engine parameters including temperature and oil pressure, alerting the operator if thresholds have been exceeded. It places the machine in a “safe transport” mode at that point, so the machine can return safely to the shop for service. In addition, a Clutch Saver feature extends clutch life by engaging blades at 2,750 RPM and disengaging at 2,500 RPM, regardless of throttle position.

Learn more about the advantages of RED Technology in the following video:

Learn more about Exmark’s patented RED Technology at Exmark.com.