Mowing Mower Problem

   / Mower Problem #1  

Mark Page

Platinum Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2009
Messages
559
Location
Maryland
Tractor
Massey Ferguson 2615 48hp, 4wd, loader
I have a 7ft Woods rear discharge finish mower that I use for keeping our pastures mown. Starting last fall I noticed it was leaving about a 6" partialy unmown strip down the middle of the swath. I'm cutting to a height of 4" high on grass that's 7" or so high.
Not being sure what to do I put on a new set of blades which made no difference.
I don't think it's a bent spindle or it would be cutting the width of center blade low.
I'm using a 48 horse Massey so power's not a problem.
I really like the job a finish mower does, but this problem leaves an unsightly mess, unless I want to cut everything twice to get rid of the strips.
I'm not sure what to do.
 
   / Mower Problem #2  
Picture of the grass and a picture of the underside of the mower deck? Maybe a brace/guide is bent on the deck.
 
   / Mower Problem #3  
Your cutting too fast of speed.
 
   / Mower Problem #4  
Any chance the center spindle isn't spinning as fast as the outer ones?
Loose belt beginning to slip or bearing not turning freely?
 
   / Mower Problem #5  
Belt slipping and/or a build of grass on a baffle underneath that isn't allowing the grass to stand up to get cut. Going too fast might do it to. A bent spindle (or possibly bad bearing) would make only one side cut lower though. If you can block the mower up, measure the distance from the blade tip to the deck on each side of the blade and turn the blade 360 deg's to check the full rotation.
 
   / Mower Problem #6  
I had a broken keyway that did shaft damage on the spindle that did the same thing as you describe, the pulley would get under load and slip.
John
 
   / Mower Problem #7  
lotsa good ideas here.

i'll add that 7" grass is high on a finish mower.. thus travel speed and having everythign right under the deck to stand the grass up and cut it needs to be in order.
 
   / Mower Problem #8  
I had the exact same problem with my zero turn mower. To me, it looked like center blade was spinning just fine when I opened the floorboard and saw the belt spinning and the spindle turning.

When I went under the mower, it turned out there was lots of grass stuck between the spindle and the deck. Lots of hardened grass. I could tell something was wrong because the blade was difficult to turn by hand even with the belt loosened.

So, I cleaned all that grass out, sharpened the blades and that fixed the problem 100%. I was amazed at how hard that grass was to remove, I guess when I mow the grass when it is a little wet the grass gets stuck and when it eventually dries it becomes sort of a packed, hard block.

Hope you find the issue.

MoKelly
 
 
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