Dog Days of Summer: Keeping Grass Green in the Heat

After an extended spring season that featured long periods of rainy weather, the summer is continuing the “all or nothing” trend. It’s been hot and dry in the northeast and green lawns are starting to turn brown under the stress.  Here are a few suggestions on how to help keep your lawn looking its best.

Irrigation – Getting water on your lawn nourishes and cools the grass. It’s the first line of defense against hot, dry spells. The best time to water is early in the morning from 3-8am. This allows the soil to soak up water needed and excess water will evaporate when the sun comes up. When a saturated lawn remains in contact with excess water, it creates a breeding ground for disease. This is why watering in the evening can do more harm than good! Finally, watering during the hottest part of the day is bad news…water is evaporating and your lawn won’t appreciate the tease!

PRO TIP: Avoid watering by hand. Use sprinklers to evenly water and connect timers for consistency.  There are even smart-phone apps that can operate irrigation controls! Generally speaking, most lawns want between 1”-2” of water per week. This can vary based on soil and grass types, location, and time of growing season.

Let it Grow…Let it Grow!  Set your mower deck at 3” or greater. Taller grass can absorb water better and creates its own shade too. Cutting too short not only stresses the plant, it prevents it from growing deep roots that could further protect from dry conditions.  

PRO TIP: Get a mulching blade and don’t bag the clippings. A mulching blade cuts the grass a few times before dropping it back into the lawn. The dry, starved lawn will appreciate the mulched clippings for food and shade.

Keep Fertilizer in the Bag. Unless you have an irrigation plan in place, don’t fertilize the lawn when the hot, dry conditions take hold.  Fertilizers provide nutrients for growth, but, without water you’re asking the lawn to do the impossible. Plus, fertilizers need to be watered in to be effective. If the product sits on the lawn for days only to be washed away in a thunderstorm/downpour, you might consider yourself lucky. The alternative would be fertilizer washed into lower areas in super concentrated for that kills the grass in a hurry.

PRO TIP: Use the money you saved on fertilizer and take your spouse to dinner.  A night out beats watching grass grow any day of the week…    

With lawn care, you can’t beat the heat - Mother Nature always has the upper hand. If drought and heat threaten your lawn each year, you might consider a new yard design. Trees can be added to create shade, planting a drought tolerant type of grass, and even reducing the lawn size are all long term solutions to consider.    

The Snowblower Parts Crunch

The 2013/2014 winter has been brutal. The weather pattern has been delivering storms nearly back to back. Coupled with extended bouts of bitter cold, it seems the only way to cope with the conditions are to give it a name(Polar Vortex), so we can really get mad at it!

The conditions don’t just test our patience, they challenge the machines that contractors and homeowners use to manage all the snow.  Increased use and heavier snow will cause snowblowers to fail. When snowstorms span the entire country, from Texas to Bangor, Maine, the number of people using snowblowers is insane!  Belts and bolts give way on the machines driving demand on replacement parts.

Again, consider the size of the storms – cities in the southern half of the country don’t have a fleet of snowplows to handle the snow. The locations that do have snow removal equipment probably haven’t used or serviced the machine in over a year, so a major snow event is when issues first arise.  

When the entire country needs a new auger housing on a random Tuesday following a 4 day storm, it’s easy to see how parts quickly become unavailable or backordered. Manufacturers who build the parts have nothing to provide small engine shops to sell to customers.  Back to back storms slow everything from airline travel to parts deliveries.  

It’s frustrating to tell a customer a part is on “national backorder.” National backorder means there is no estimate when a part will be available and that stores nationwide can’t access the item. A $10 snowblower belt in July is practically an afterthought. However, in February, that belt is absolutely critical to clearing snow and keeping walkways safe.

TIP:  In most cases it is more effective to keep your original order with your parts vendor than cancel and check elsewhere!  Parts vendors all pick from the same inventory. Think of it like standing in line and deciding to leave your spot; if you change your mind and return, you go to the back of the line.

The ProParts Advantage allows our company to be in the top tier for all major suppliers. This means we are the first to receive backordered parts.

In the era of Amazon providing next day service – and exploring “drone” deliveries, it’s frustrating that the nature of our industry can’t even come close to that speed. We offset the demand by keeping a massive inventory of fast moving parts like belts, sheer pins, and bearings.  – but when it rains, it pours….or snows in this case.    

While it’s impossible to predict when or what will break on your machine, it’s a good practice to keep the usual suspects on hand. Having an extra belt or sheer bolt on hand is invaluable.  

The new “Age Old Question”: Horsepower vs cc’s

How powerful is your snowblower? When a customer shops for a new machine, the most common question is about its power. An engine’s CC (Cubic Centimeters) determines how large and ultimately how much power it can put out. Ft lbs tells you how much torque the engine will produce… but that’s another story for another day. Two things to remember:

•       There is no math equation to calculate Horse power.
•       Adjustments in gear ratios and rpms will impact the performance of any snow blower.

A general understanding of CC’s will prepare you when shopping for a new snow blower this season.

Here is a chart to help approximate cc to torque to horsepower. We used 3600rpm in this example.

179cc = 5hp

205cc = 8-9 gross torque = 5.5 – 6 hp

250cc = 11-11.5 gross torque = 7 – 8 hp

305cc = 13.5-14.5 gross torque = 9 – 10 hp

342cc = 15.5-16.5 gross torque = 11 – 12 hp

While the above calculations aren’t exact, it’s a step closer to understanding how cc’s correspond to horsepower. Keep this in mind next time you are shopping for a new snowblower!

We Trust Aftermarket Parts, you can too.

We receive questions about lawnmower parts constantly. Landscapers and homeowners use our website to look-up parts diagrams and repair equipment. Our experienced lawnmower specialists receive texts, emails, and calls from customers in the field who need help. It's a great feeling to know our customers turn to us when they need the right answer. 

Not every call or email leads to a sale and that's okay. In fact, that's great! Selling deck belts, mower blades, or snow blower parts isn't a complicated task. Gaining and retaining the trust of a great customer base is hard work and a job we take seriously.

With that said, it's important to recognize that when we suggest a part or advocate for a particular brand, it's a well thought out decision.

Oregon has been a leader in outdoor products like mower blades, chains, and forestry accessories. Oregon manufactures aftermarket parts that meet and often exceed the standards of OEM brands. Quality products and quality customer service are the cornerstone of ProParts Direct's operation. The product offering from Oregon is rock solid with quality control we trust will keep our customers equipment running.

Over the years, we have witnessed brands and manufacturers fail to innovate or adapt to the concerns of their customers. Oregon continues to step up their game offering parts that we trust and recommend to our customers. As the Product Manager for ProPartsDirect, I personally handle hundreds of parts each week. Oregon aftermarket parts have the feel of quality and top-notch performance. I take pride in offering our customers great parts.  Oregon is a brand we trust and a brand you can trust too.      

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