Bobcat Mower Failure

[Wildmikey]

Well, after only 15 hours, my MMM deck suffered its first, (hopefully only) failure. Its interesting that while I was mowing, my wife said, "Boy that don't sound right", (just what I need to hear from her!). I continued mowing and saw that the bolt for the belt cover had backed out about halfway. So I tightened it up and put things away. This weekend when I went out to cut grass, I heard the same noise again. I checked and rechecked the bolt for the cover. Finally after making about my 2nd pass, I took the cover off and ran it just to get rid of the noise. It continued to be noisy that is when I looked down at it. It seems that the pulley for the right-hand blade broke loose of the shaft. It almost looks as though the weld wasn't too good. Anyone suffer the same kind of failure? I don't know who makes the mower decks for Bobcat. They seem extremely heavy duty, but this episode doesn't instill me with a lot of confidence.

 

[BillyB196]

This April (2010) I bought a Bobcat CT122 with a 54" front loader and a Mid-Mount 54" finish mower. After 12 hours of use, about 10 hours on the mower, the mower started making a horrendous noise, so I shut it down and notice the mid-pulley was a miss. I unhooked the mower and dissembled it and the center pulley had become loose and been wobbling around the shaft. The key was nowhere to be found, the pulley was destroyed and the belt was eaten up but the pulley. Upon further inspection I found several (over ｽ) of the bolts on the mower to be only finger tight. I took the pulley to the local Bobcat dealer and they warranted the pulley, key, belt and some of the bolts that were missing.

I now have 24 hours, used the mower a few more times and now and it began making a noise again. I shut it down, unhooked the mower and dissembled it and this time the right pulley had become loose. I disassembled the pulley and the key was there but was severely damaged. Going to gather up all the parts and take them to the Bobcat dealer in the morning.
I致e had 2 of the 3 pulleys fail for appears to be the same problem with very little hours on the mower. I think Bobcat should replace the entire mower at this point.

I知 wondering if anyone else has either the Bobcat MM-44 or MM-60 mid mount mowers and if they had experienced similar problem.



Center pulley after 12 hours (4 mowings) on tractor:
http://img94.imageshack.us/i/1020677v.jpg

Right pulley after 24 hours (6 mowings) on tractor:
http://img580.imageshack.us/i/1020844.jpg

Billy

 

[IslandTractor]

Center pulley after 12 hours (4 mowings) on tractor:
http://img94.imageshack.us/i/1020677v.jpg

Right pulley after 24 hours (6 mowings) on tractor:
http://img580.imageshack.us/i/1020844.jpg

Billy

I cannot open your photo links. However, there is little question that this sort of thing shouldn't be happening.

That is a pretty new mower design and I don't know who Bobcat contracts with to manufacture it. With two guys reporting similar failures of new mowers though it sure looks like they have a problem.

Might be a warning to others considering a Bobcat MMM in the near future until Bobcat sorts this out. Kioti sold a different MMM for the same basic tractor until they discontinued it a couple of years ago due to high cost and low demand. Those mowers seem reliable though, at least we didn't hear complaints about them on TBN.

 

[radman1]

At this point, your chance of getting a new mower is near 0. Requesting a new mower at this time is not reasonable IMHO. However, it should be repaired correctly and hopefully it was just assembled poorly and not a recurring problem. I doubt if anyone at the dealer would even check the pulleys or spindles before delivery. They just put it on the CUT, leveled it correctly, turned it on and it probably ran fine for the next 15 seconds.