# Question about TruCut



## Wes (Feb 15, 2017)

I believe several of you here have owned, or do own, a TruCut mower. Today, I noticed several screw holes on the handle that I had never really paid attention to before.

It looks like by lowering the plate that is used to adjust the HOC, I might be able to cut a little lower. Have any of you tried this?


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

I believe so, but I never tried it on my TC. What is your current lowest HOC? And what HOC did you have in mind?


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## Wes (Feb 15, 2017)

Well these are both good questions. I don't have a HOC bar, so all I can really do is take some measurements of the grass which has a fairly wide margin of error considering it's just now coming out of dormancy.

That said, I fully scalped (as low as the TC would go in its current configuration) this weekend. The picture below was taken today:










I thought this would be 3/8" based on the specs of the machine, but obviously I'm not getting there. I also have never backlapped the reel and noticed when examining everything yesterday that the reel wasn't really making contact with the bedknife. This could explain the uneven cut.

I'm ordering some lapping compound, and I'll try to get by the big box store soon to pick up the needed materials to build my own HOC bar.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

When I lower my H20 all the way my bedknife scrapes the driveway. It does look like yours should go lower based on the height of your grass. If you are going to adjust the height more(and scalp) I would do that before backlapping. Correct me if I am wrong but I think scalping can dull the blade, so I would scalp as low as possible and then backlap before you plan on cutting off the green, not the brown.


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## Wes (Feb 15, 2017)

Thanks! That was my thinking as well. I'm less worried about the quality of cut on the dormant stems and leaf matter, although a sharper blade would likely be helpful (more efficient), I don't know if it is necessary. Obviously, if my rotary would get closer to the dirt, I would just use that.

After thinking more about the HOC, I'm not sure that the measurement itself is critical for me right now. I'm perfectly fine working with a relative measurement such as: at the beginning of the year I scalped at the first notch, by the end of the year I was maintaining at the fifth notch.

I know this isn't exact, and an actual measurement would be helpful, but I still need to level the lawn and I'm still getting comfortable with the finer mechanics of reel mowers.

I think for now, I'll play around with adjustments and see what I can learn through trial and error. As always, if anyone has background info on the subject, or thoughts, I would definitely appreciate them.


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

Check the bolts I circled in the picture below. There is a high and low set of holes you can choose from. I agree with SGrabs33 my bed knife will almost scrape the ground at its lowest setting.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Wes said:


> I'm not sure that the measurement itself is critical for me right now. I'm perfectly fine working with a relative measurement such as: at the beginning of the year I scalped at the first notch, by the end of the year I was maintaining at the fifth notch.


My thoughts exactly...



SGrabs33 said:


> we ended up scalping between the 3rd and 4th lowest settings on the Trucut(with front roller).


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## Wes (Feb 15, 2017)

I'm bolted in at the low setting, with a front roller. I just went and toyed with the upper settings, and although they make a difference, it doesnt' seem to be significant.

I will play with them more later and take measurements using the the side plate as a reference. Although I can't find a way to measure HOC without a bar, I noticed the side plate got closer to the ground when I moved the bolts to the top holes. If the side plates are lower, then in theory the bedknife should be closer to the ground.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Wes said:


> Thanks! That was my thinking as well. I'm less worried about the quality of cut on the dormant stems and leaf matter, although a sharper blade would likely be helpful (more efficient), I don't know if it is necessary. Obviously, if my rotary would get closer to the dirt, I would just use that.
> 
> After thinking more about the HOC, I'm not sure that the measurement itself is critical for me right now. I'm perfectly fine working with a relative measurement such as: at the beginning of the year I scalped at the first notch, by the end of the year I was maintaining at the fifth notch.
> 
> ...


I think a good time to backlap is sometime after spring scalp and before full green-up. I like to use that window to service the engine, make final adjustments and backlap the reel.

I think you're spot on with the "relative measurement" philosophy. Several of us use the Accu-Gage, but really all it does is feed our inner OCD  . A HOC bar of some sort is required for a greens mower because the left and right side of the reel is adjusted independently. It has been a while since I've had a Tru-Cut, but I don't think that's something you have to contend with.

If you really want to geek out, the best way to measure actual HOC is probably with a Prism-Gage. I _think_ a member here cough: Mightyquinn :cough has one of these, but I don't want to incriminate him.


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## Wes (Feb 15, 2017)

So I tried two things.

I lowered the bolts on the handle to the bottom position, and then visually measured how far the bed-knife was from the ground. I then raised the bolts to the top position and inspected the bedknife to ground clearance again. I kept the HOC handle adjusted at it's lowest setting for both configurations.

There was a fairly significant difference between the two positions. I'm estimating that it was close to 1/4", but again, this was simply an eyeball test.

I have it configured so that I can achieve the lowest setting, which by the way, now has the bedknife almost scraping the ground as J_nick and SGrabs mentioned.

I'll test it tomorrow. I don't want to piss off the neighbors by either:

a) making too much noise at night
b) accidentally scalping their yard because I can't see where I'm going

Thanks for the help.


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

Glad we could get it lower for ya! Be careful about lowering all the way down at first. You'll want to make baby steps when scalping as the clutch can only handle so much. All this talk made me come out and tinker with mine tonight.

Post made via shop stool.


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