Riding is better Last July, in "Beat the fuel cost blues," LM offered tips on how to boost mower fleet efficiency through effective on-site planning and equipment selection, and by caring for and maintaining equipment. Some recent mower innovations can help reduce fuel consumption while increasing on-site speed and efficiency. Landscape contractor Chris Urbauer, Lincoln, NE, says that the single best efficiency investment his business has made has been the purchase of an Exmark Lazer Z HP mid-size zero-turn riding mower. Urbauer says that prior to investing in his zero-turn rider, he did what he could to maximize his efficiency by developing a service plan for each of his client's properties. The goal was to allow both of his walk-behind mowers to cut as quickly as possible, with as few physical, landscape-related interruptions as possible. Even with plans in place, Urbauer felt his operation had to be sharper to grow. "We became efficient by necessity," he says. Pointing to a roughly one-acre high-end residential lawn he was working on, Urbauer explained that he had been cutting it with two 36-in. walk-behinds operating at the same time. He claimed his efficiency rose dramatically when he began using a mid-size with a 48-in. cutting width. Use the right tools "Instead of having two guys mowing with walk-behinds, I now have one guy on the Lazer and one taking care of trimming and other duties," he says. "We get jobs done in half the time it used to take and since we're not walking behind the mower, we're physically fresher. The rider helps keep productivity higher day-to-day as we get into the busiest part of the season." Urbauer's experience shows that pulling the correct tools off of your trailer significantly affects how quickly the job gets done and how many workers it takes to do it. This counts, since labor is the largest expense item in a landscape company owner's budget. For Urbauer's small-but-growing business, his investment in a zero-turn rider is paying off handsomely. In fact, he's investing in a larger zero-turn to increase his efficiency, a unit with Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI), Exmark's Lazer Z EFI. While the automotive industry has embraced EFI because of its need to comply with EPA emissions regulations, most commercial mowers count on carburetors to deliver the fuel and air mixture that they need to produce power. Certainly after decades of development and R&D these carbureted engines run very well. Even so, many contractors are finding that carburetors cannot compare with an EFI system in terms of fuel efficiency, according to Jim Brazil, owner of Seville Lawn and Power Equipment in Pensacola, FL. "The EFI engine is the best choice of all the higher-horsepower engines," Brazil says, referencing Kohler's EFI engine, which uses an automotive-style system developed with Bosch. "I was shocked at how little fuel the engine uses. It will really save money." Servicing is easy There are other benefits, Brazil says. "Whenever we have an issue with an EFI engine, it's easily diagnosed by plugging it into a laptop. We find out virtually everything about the engine's performance and have a diagnosis in seconds. That's not possible with a carbureted engine." Cam Litt, product manager for twin-cylinder engines at Kohler, compared EFI on mowers and automobiles. "You get in, turn the key, put it into gear, and drive away. Thanks to your car's EFI system, you don't have to worry about things like pulling the choke because the engine's cold. It starts and runs every time, regardless of the weather, no matter who is at the controls. "The landscape business is a lot like the automotive business was 20 years ago. All of a sudden, cars began to have more horsepower under a load, lower emissions and better gas mileage," he says. The EFI system relies on an Engine Control Unit (ECU) to monitor a number of performance indicators within the engine, and is capable of instantly optimizing engine settings to maximize power and efficiency. Because the ECU can adjust to a load much quicker than any mechanical governor system, there's virtually no droop in power when the engine is put under a load, says Litt, adding that when an EFI engine is started, it operates in an "open loop" mode, mapped by the ECU. Once the engine is running, an oxygen sensor begins to analyze the fuel/air mixture in the exhaust. It feeds this information back to the ECU, which adjusts the fuel/air mixture injected into the engine based on the sensor's analysis. This effectively closes the information loop for the ECU, and this "closed loop" system is what allows the engine to automatically adjust to varying environmental conditions such as an obstructed air filter or a change in altitude. "It's the ability to actively adapt to mowing conditions that also decreases the engine's fuel consumption, and for contractors now faced with spending upwards of $3.00 for each gallon of gasoline, it's easy to see how the prospect of saving 60 cents or more on each gallon of gasoline would be appealing," Litt says. | 
