Eclipse
Prototype in Western PA
Western PA Previews the Next Generation of Greens Mowers, the
Jacobsen Eclipse
The NEW prototype Jacobsen
Eclipse Walking Greens Mower made its way through western PA and
the feedback from golf course superintendents was excellent. Krigger & Company was pleased to have the
opportunity to show this new and innovative mower to end users
for two reasons. We are excited about this and other products
due to come out from Jacobsen and wanted to share this
innovation with our customers, AND we wanted to make sure that
golf course superintendents in our part of the country had a
chance to provide feedback to Jacobsen on this mower before it
goes into full production.
We were able to make it to 6 different golf courses to present
the Eclipse to groups of users including superintendents,
assistants, and mechanics. (See
pictures below) Our presentation was broken into five areas:
1) Jacobsen R&D: We discussed Jacobsen's commitment to fully
test equipment before it is released for full production and
mentioned how their feedback from our presentation /
demonstration is one of the keys to Jacobsen's successful launch
of this new product.
2) Current Components: We pointed out the components that
Jacobsen has currently and successfully in use on other products
such as the traction unit differential and the InCommand System
handle, but the feature that was most exciting for everyone to
see was that Jacobsen has elected to use the same cutting unit
on the Eclipse that is also in use on the G-Plex III Triplex
Greens mower. The whole idea of this mower starts with
Jacobsen's leadership in "quality of cut", and everyone that had
a chance to see this mower in operation was impressed with the
cut quality. The use of this cutting unit also means that there
is immediately available a full line of attachments and
accessories for the Eclipse Walking Greens Mower including Turf
Groomers and verticut units.
3) New and Innovative: The interchangeable cutting unit and the
interchangeable power supply (between gas and electric power)
were considered to be flexible options for everyone to consider,
but the most innovative and most thought provoking feature for
those that saw this mower in operation was the variable reel
speed. With the ability for the superintendent to control reel
speed (RPM) AND mow speed (MPH) via the electric controller
there was much discussion on what that will mean for quality of
cut. Not only are these two speeds variable, but their settings
are independent of each other as well. At most of the
demonstration locations the greens we mowed had already been
mowed 2 or 3 times prior to our mowing and we still removed a
fair amount of clippings (probably because of the faster reel
speed).
The unique ability of this mower is a result of the fact that
once the gas engine is set to produce 60 volts through the
attached Gen-Pack everything else runs electrically giving the
superintendent the ability to independently control the
operation of this mower and for the mechanic to trouble shoot
its components.
4) Hands-on mowing: Nearly everyone took their turn at mowing a
few passes with this new Eclipse Greens Mower. No one was judged
on their straight lines, but everyone that operated the unit had
two very similar comments - the mower was very comfortable to
operate and the tracking was very true. Others commented on how
quiet the 4hp Honda engine was and that it seemed to run at a
low idle (the engine only needs about 2hp to produce the
required 60 volts it produces through the attached Gen-Pack).
The resulting cut quality was excellent even at lower mowing
heights and no scalping occurred even on greens and at heights
where other mowers would have scalped.
5) User feedback: Many excellent comments and suggestions were
made for possible improvements and these have already been
passed on to Jacobsen.
As a result of this week, Krigger & Company has been able to
gather some valuable feedback and pass it on to the R&D Team at
Jacobsen. We are excited about Jacobsen's R&D efforts and look
forward to bringing the Eclipse to market.
We want to sincerely thank our host superintendents and the
attendees for their time and insight. A pair of tickets to
an upcoming Pittsburgh Steeler game was distributed to each of
our host superintendents and some of the attendees (picked by a
lottery). Let's hope they all see a winner! |
