As others have noted, unless you are looking at a commercial mower, you are probably limited to about 190-200ccs
The solution may be to not bite off as much per pass. I.E. don't try to cut the entire width of the deck each pass. I had a zoyzia lawn and looked for the narrowest, most powerful mower I could find so it wasn't trying to cut a full 22" A 20" with the most powerful engine was where I landed. I don't want self propelled because that's power that isn't going into the blade.
But if you need self propelled, you may only want to cut a swath about 2/3rds of the deck width. You'll need more passes, but not as many as if you cut the lawn 2x at different heights. Leave 6-8" of the deck not cutting anything when it starts to bog down and see if you get better results.
Originally Posted by grampi
Originally Posted by javacontour
Of course the low tech solution is to just take a more narrow pass. I.E. maybe only try to cut 2/3rds of the width of the mower deck. Sure, it takes longer, but you don't have to get a new mower.
That may be the "price" you pay to mulch.
I suspect once summer hits and the rains are less frequent, this is no longer a problem.
I still have to buy a new mower because the drive system on the one I have now quit working...I don't mind walking behind the mower, but pushing it is another matter...