Cub Cadet Infinicut™ mowers help John Ledwidge achieve ‘pitch perfection’.
You may be thinking that John Ledwidge, Groundsmanager at the King Power Stadium, has achieved 'pitch perfection' with the immaculately striped pitch he is now renowned for. However, John is always looking for the tool or technique to help them up his game - and now he has 3 Cub Cadet Infinicut™ 34" mowers to do just that.
"When I arrived in Leicester we needed kit, and we needed it there and then. Following years of hard work and investment into the club we're now in a position to refine what we do" explains John. In June 2016, as part of a 5 year plan to refine and upgrade their machinery fleet, John added the 'Infini's' from MTD to his portfolio.
"We had used them on demo for a number of months and were continually impressed with both the build quality of the units and the quality of the cut they produced. Mower design doesn't seem to have changed in forty years, but this is a 'state-of-the-art' product and over and above what we'd been used to. We spoke to Vinny and John at MTD who were happy to adapt the machine to totally suit our specific requirements and all this together made it a no-brainer for us. We've not looked back since."
They use the Cub Cadet Infinicut™ units solely on the stadium pitch, although they are intending on swapping the cassettes in their triplex mowers over to SMARTCut's to maintain the cut quality throughout the facilities surfaces. "The 'Infini's' give us the option to slow the unit down to deliver the fineness and accuracy of cut we need."
Another plus point for John was that it can be driven purely electrically, especially as battery power technology continues to improve. "Petrol driven types, with their noxious fumes and high levels of noise and vibration, seem to be on the way out with battery power being the way forward for the industry. Using the Cub Cadet Infinicut™ all but eliminates both noise and fuel emissions and offer a financial reward as well."
The 34" Cub Cadet Infinicut™ boasts a unique floating head mechanism that is independent of the traction drive, ensuring ground pressure is spread between three rollers, as opposed to two as seen on fixed head units. This helps to regulate weight transfer and minimise plant stress during routine cutting operations which is particularly beneficial where maintaining fibre integrity is paramount, such as on DESSO GrassMaster Hybrid systems.
Final word from John, "We're in an exciting period of groundsmanship - machinery and manufacturers are working together with us to reach our goals as grounds professionals. We're all looking for that next step and these Infinicut's are delivering that for us."