Why GrassFlap
Cutting grass is fun and having good equipment makes it even better. Over the years I have cut grass with everything from a Farmal tractor with a belly mount mower to the latest zero turn riders. In the old days I would blow grass "in" for the first few rounds and then turn it around and start blowing the grass "out" so it didn't pile up.
Then we got a professional walk behind mower and everything changed. I didn't have to cut in squares any more, I could turn on a dime, I could cut strips and patterns. Nothing was the same, nothing except I still had to manage where I blew the grass.
We bought a chute blocker and took it home to install. We dumped all the pieces out and starting trying to fit it on our mower. Nothing fit, it all had to be modified, it was not good. We returned it and I made one myself. It was hand operated from drive position and worked great.
Our next mower was a zero turn that I modified the chute blocker to fit. Again the flap was hand operated. With practice we learned to let go of the controls to flip the chute open or closed. It worked but it was hard to do and not get out of line.
The next season I figured out how to operate the flap with a foot pedal. It was crude, a barn door hinge, a bent rod, a bungee cord and there it was.
With the flap and foot pedal it was now possible to close the discharge chute anytime any place. I couldn't believe how many times in a single yard I would use it, passing a tree, passing a flower bed, passing someone trimming. I even found myself closing it just to turn at the end of a pass to keep from blowing grass in the next yard.
By the time the mowing season was over the pedal was formed steel, the flap had welded pivots and unit would bolt on the mower without needing any modifications. The GrassFlap was reality.
