After considerable research, I found a friendly dealer and purchased a new JD X540 with a 48" deck with rotatable wheels, 14 bushel PowerFlow bagger and four 42 pound suitcase weights up front since my property has some slopes. The dealer took the deck from an X300 series tractor because it had the rotatable wheels which I thought was an important feature.
Upon delivery, the dealer assured me he had leveled the deck so I lowered it to 3" (my normal cutting height) and set the anti-scalp wheels according to the instructions in the owner's manual. The result was a disaster because the deck tended to scalp the grass on the right side while leaving grass on the left side virtually uncut- especially when cutting across the slope. After one pass I realized the deck was not level and immediately followed the instructions to level the deck. It was off by a considerable amount. Oddly, I had to raise the right side almost to its upper limit while lowering the left side nearly to its lower limit to get the deck level. The result was an improvement but certainly not what you'd expect from a level deck. When I was cutting across my slope, the weight of the PowerFlow head seemed to cause the right side of the deck to dip down and cut a little lower. This was most evident when the PowerFlow head was on the "downhill side" of the slope.
I had a short list of unrelated problems so the dealer picked up the tractor and brought it back the next day. The technician had installed new deck wheels with zerk grease fittings. He set the right side wheels to just touch the ground and explained that the weight of the PowerFlow head needed a little extra support from the wheels gently resting on the ground. The left side wheels were set about 1/2" off the ground. Sounded good. Unfortunately, the result was far worse scalping!!! To make matters worse, since the right side deck wheels were just touching the ground, making a sharp turn caused the deck wheels to tear into the grass. Even though the wheels are rotatable, they're still locked into a forward position with a pin and don't rotate like a caster mounted wheel would turn in the same direction as the front tires. Frustrated, I checked the deck level and discovered it was not level again! The dealer had obviously made changes as the position on the adjustment hanger screws were not at the upper and lower limits. The deck performed much better on level ground but it's still apparent the right side cut lower. Again, cutting across my slope caused the worst problems. Please don't suggest I go up and down the hill instead of across the slope- it's just not possible to maneuver the tractor at the top of the slope. I don't know the angle of the slope but it's not too steep and the dealer agreed it should not pose a problem.
The dealer picked up the tractor again. Tonight I received an email stating that the tractor cut perfectly fine at their dealership (on a level lot) and they had no clue what to do next. They offered a full refund! I won't go into more detail but this is a huge JD dealer and I expected far better service and support. At a bare minimum, I had hoped they would have accepted my invitation to test out the tractor on my property for themselves. So--since the dealer isn't competent enough or motivated to determine the root cause- does anybody have a suggestion to solve this problem? The tractor has just 2.5 hours on it and I have about 10 days left on my 30 day return option. The only other dealer within a reasonable distance has a horrible reputation and I had a bad experience with them servicing my Stihl chain saw a couple of years ago. Thanks for any input you can provide......!!!
Upon delivery, the dealer assured me he had leveled the deck so I lowered it to 3" (my normal cutting height) and set the anti-scalp wheels according to the instructions in the owner's manual. The result was a disaster because the deck tended to scalp the grass on the right side while leaving grass on the left side virtually uncut- especially when cutting across the slope. After one pass I realized the deck was not level and immediately followed the instructions to level the deck. It was off by a considerable amount. Oddly, I had to raise the right side almost to its upper limit while lowering the left side nearly to its lower limit to get the deck level. The result was an improvement but certainly not what you'd expect from a level deck. When I was cutting across my slope, the weight of the PowerFlow head seemed to cause the right side of the deck to dip down and cut a little lower. This was most evident when the PowerFlow head was on the "downhill side" of the slope.
I had a short list of unrelated problems so the dealer picked up the tractor and brought it back the next day. The technician had installed new deck wheels with zerk grease fittings. He set the right side wheels to just touch the ground and explained that the weight of the PowerFlow head needed a little extra support from the wheels gently resting on the ground. The left side wheels were set about 1/2" off the ground. Sounded good. Unfortunately, the result was far worse scalping!!! To make matters worse, since the right side deck wheels were just touching the ground, making a sharp turn caused the deck wheels to tear into the grass. Even though the wheels are rotatable, they're still locked into a forward position with a pin and don't rotate like a caster mounted wheel would turn in the same direction as the front tires. Frustrated, I checked the deck level and discovered it was not level again! The dealer had obviously made changes as the position on the adjustment hanger screws were not at the upper and lower limits. The deck performed much better on level ground but it's still apparent the right side cut lower. Again, cutting across my slope caused the worst problems. Please don't suggest I go up and down the hill instead of across the slope- it's just not possible to maneuver the tractor at the top of the slope. I don't know the angle of the slope but it's not too steep and the dealer agreed it should not pose a problem.
The dealer picked up the tractor again. Tonight I received an email stating that the tractor cut perfectly fine at their dealership (on a level lot) and they had no clue what to do next. They offered a full refund! I won't go into more detail but this is a huge JD dealer and I expected far better service and support. At a bare minimum, I had hoped they would have accepted my invitation to test out the tractor on my property for themselves. So--since the dealer isn't competent enough or motivated to determine the root cause- does anybody have a suggestion to solve this problem? The tractor has just 2.5 hours on it and I have about 10 days left on my 30 day return option. The only other dealer within a reasonable distance has a horrible reputation and I had a bad experience with them servicing my Stihl chain saw a couple of years ago. Thanks for any input you can provide......!!!
