Blade Height to Collect Leaves

J.D.

The answer is "It depends". :think:

It depends on how thick the leaves are, how wet they are, and the type of leaves.

I try to set the mower as low as if I were mowing the grass. If it starts to push leaves, I raise it up a little. The wind blows leaves in my front yard into windrows so I do a lot of reverse mowing. The good news is that the PowerFlo does not plug up too often. Wet leaves are a PITA.

Maple leaves are much easier to pick up oak leaves.

GotDeeres

My experiences on two different tractors produced the same results. On a L130 and a X500 both with 48" decks, I found the high-lift blades somehow did not perform as well as the mulching blades. The high-lift blades had a tendency to throw the leaves...I think forward of the front of deck creating a lot of chasing.

"It depends", also represented my experiences. Length of grass as well as picking up leaves in/on non grass surfaces, such as gravel driveways may require often changing deck heghts.

This is a huge advantage you have with the D series over the X series tractors...with my L130 I was able to respond instantly to ground irregularities or variations in leaf quantity. When working in my long 500' gravel driveway there were times when gravel may have been raised (by anything: a vehicle stopping/starting too quickly, heavy downpours flowing gravel etc) coming into contact with deck or even blades, hand on deck raising/lowering lever was far faster than foot or hydraulic controls on X series machines.

Just FYI! I use a Brinly Poly-Vac collection system. Deere now offers the Brinly system in addition to their own.

Experiment...the feel will be worth more than our advice!

Good luck

Set the deck height to the normal cut heighth that you mow your lawn at, also check with your local dealer if there is an anti-blowout baffle kit available for your 100 series. The "X" series machines have them available which mount along the front edge of the deck and keep the leaves and grass clipping from blowing from under the front of the deck and "chasing" them around the yard.