Belly mower does a ragged job - why?

CH4Ohio · Aug 16, 2021

Midniteoyl said:
Not a true story: Fact or Fiction?: NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts Used a Pencil

If fact it's believed that the graphite is what sparked the fire that killed Grissom and crew.

Oh well. It was kinda offered as a "parable" anyway. I'm not surprised that it didn't pass the fact-check.

Regardless, don't you think that a lot of this discussion has missed the smoking gun comment that he's mowing at 2100 RPM??

Midniteoyl · Aug 16, 2021

JWR said:
Several of us are reading directions written by people with poor English skills and not involved in the logic of what they are saying. It is 100% obvious that you can minimize the wear/tear/jerk by engaging the mower at a low rpm before revving it up. Duh ! The manual saying to "engage" at full throttle needs to be rewritten to say "operate at full throttle" not "engage at full thorttle."

Owned by, designed by, and built by a company in Albany, In. No translation problems I would think.

I get the reasoning, just saying that not all manuals state the 50% throttle position.

Midniteoyl · Aug 16, 2021

CH4Ohio said:
Regardless, don't you think that a lot of this discussion has missed the smoking gun comment that he's mowing at 2100 RPM??

It did at first but there have been lots of posts regarding it since he mentioned what it was suppose to be. I just assumed when he said 'at 2100rpm' in his first post that he was talking about deck/blade rpm. Once he cleared that up it became kinds obvious he was running too slow.

sunandsand · Aug 16, 2021

Blades going out tomorrow for sharpening, and a new set will also be ordered (just in case). All baffles appear to be present, unbent and accounted for (no RH baffle according to the parts book). Belt good, not slipping, not cracked or glazed.

When it is all put back together, I'll take it out and run it harder. I also intend to double check the alignment, angle and the height of the anti-scalp wheels.

This ought to be done by this coming weekend, and I will advise my results.

(The problem with the Russian pencil trick was conductive graphite flakes floating around in zero-g. The Apollo fire was caused by a spark in an almost pure oxygen atmosphere, which was kinda dumb because the astronauts had their own air supply anyway - so there was no real reason for having a pure O2 atmosphere in the capsule itself.)

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

CH4Ohio · Aug 16, 2021

sunandsand said:
Blades going out tomorrow for sharpening, and a new set will also be ordered (just in case). All baffles appear to be present, unbent and accounted for (no RH baffle according to the parts book). Belt good, not slipping, not cracked or glazed.

When it is all put back together, I'll take it out and run it harder. I also intend to double check the alignment, angle and the height of the anti-scalp wheels.

This ought to be done by this coming weekend, and I will advise my results.

(The problem with the Russian pencil trick was conductive graphite flakes floating around in zero-g. The Apollo fire was caused by a spark in an almost pure oxygen atmosphere, which was kinda dumb because the astronauts had their own air supply anyway - so there was no real reason for having a pure O2 atmosphere in the capsule itself.)

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

Great! Let us know how it works when you get a chance to run it. Still mowing a LOT here -- usually it's slowed down by this time of the summer.

ljjhouser · Aug 16, 2021

LD1 said:
Its a mindset I dont think you are ever gonna change. Its laughable to think one buys a tractor and should keep it under 25% service factor...lol

T4 might help with that mind set. Run it hot or have to regen often. That might convince someone to operate at high power. By the way, on my tractor, 2800 is full power and 540 pto.

sunandsand · Aug 16, 2021

Running at less than full power to save the engine . . .

Not just limited to tractor operators.

The small Continental aircraft engines (C-75, 85, 90 and O-200) last longest when they are FLOGGED. Pilots who "baby" the engines usually don't make it to the normal 1800 hour overhaul interval. The ones that do are usually in trainers (like Cessna 150s) and get mercilessly abused by student pilots day in and day out, but they run happily to TBO (time between overhaul in hours) or beyond.

Go figure . . .

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

4570Man · Aug 17, 2021

CH4Ohio said:
Oh well. It was kinda offered as a "parable" anyway. I'm not surprised that it didn't pass the fact-check.

Regardless, don't you think that a lot of this discussion has missed the smoking gun comment that he's mowing at 2100 RPM??

Mowing at 2100 rpm and with blades dull as a banana are definitely contributing factors. That definitely needs addressed before further trouble shooting is done.

LD1 · Aug 17, 2021

sunandsand said:
This ought to be done by this coming weekend, and I will advise my results.

You never did answer (or maybe I missed it) how tall are you letting the grass get, and how close are you trying to mow it, and how slow/fast are you going?

you started this post 5 days ago. Mower still isnt fixed and now you are hoping it will be done by this weekend to try out.

Maybe you have had some weather that the grass is kinda stagnant and not growing fast. But up here....a week in between mows is almost too long....and you have to slow down to get a quality cut even with a professional zero-turn. And you are going LONGER than that between mows with a belly mower. Perhaps just mowing more frequently would solve the issue.

Quite simply no matter what kind of mower you have, you cannot let it get to 8", then try and cut it back to 3", and have a nice healthy lawn and clean manicured looking cut.

As the saying goes.....your never supposed to cut off more than 1/3 of the grass at a time. So if you want your lawn at 3"....you need to be mowing when its only 4.5" tall. If you want it 4, dont let it get over 6. And in times of fast growth....yes this means mowing a couple times a week. If you only want to mow once ever 10-14 days.....worrying about quality of cut and the looks of your lawn is pointless.

Maybe none of this applies in florida? So maybe Im barking up the wrong tree. But thats how it is here in the midwest.