Mowing Caroni 1900 flail mower help needed

[Trails End]

I purchased my mower near the end of May and I
finally have my TM1900 set up and running. After
about 1 hour of mowing, I noticed that the shaft housing
between the gear box and pulley assembly was too hot to
touch. Is this normal? The mower appeared to be running
OK, with no excessive vibration, and I was running at the
recommended PTO speed of 540 rpm.

This is my first experience with flail mowers. I greased
all the bearings and the gearbox has gear lube. Oh, by the
way, the gear box still spews oil out of the vented cap.
I've ordered an extended adapter from British Metrics which
should take care of that problem.

Any help on the 'hot' shaft housing will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rebeldad1]

Not sure if its related.....
Just purchased a Betsco flail mower. The directions said grease the upper belt shaft bearing till grease comes out, will take a lot.
I called and asked how much is a lot? It took close to 3 tubes of grease and of course it came out behind the pulley where you cant see it. Not at the shaft housing where the fitting is.
Had to pull the belts and pulley to get the excess grease wiped out. Alls good now and runs cool. The grease had to fill the shaft tube up.

This may be why yours is overheating.

 

[Rebeldad1]

Could also be why the gearbox is getting hot and boiling the gear oil out.

 

[Michael In Tennessee]

No clue, but if I get a chance to mow tomorrow I'll check.

 

[skipperbrown]

I had a 1900 that I sold. It would leak oil even with the extension. I can't remember if it got hot, but I know my brush cutter gearbox gets quite warm especially if cutting heavy grass.

I had to mow much slower with the flail vs the standard brush cutter or I'd start smoking belts or just knocking the grass over. Are you pushing it hard? Do you have a laser thermometer to see how hot is hot?

 

[Trails End]

Are you pushing it hard? Do you have a laser thermometer to see how hot is hot?

I don't think I was pushing it that hard, with no sign of struggling with the engine. I do have an infrared thermometer and will
check on my next time mowing to get a better indication of how hot it's getting.

 

[Michael In Tennessee]

No clue, but if I get a chance to mow tomorrow I'll check.

After 3 hours, the cross tube was only warm. I'd probably start looking at worn bearings or something. Just did 3 hours of mowing knee high grass. Still have more to go once I get repairs done. I damaged the PTO shield tubes beyond use. The top link pin fell out, and when I backed up, the tubes jammed together and are now nicely twisted together. I need to check if the actual PTO shafts are damaged as well. If they are good, I'll probably complete today's work without the shield.

 

[skipperbrown]

If its just warm, it is probably fine. Painted surfaces can get too hot to touch just sitting in the sun.

 

[Hilbilly]

I'm having the same problem with the same mower. Last year I replaced the belts and no change. Today I decided to try and trouble shoot. I greased all the fittings before starting and ran the mower for exactly one minute (no load). Took the belt cover off and found the idler was too hot to keep my hand on. So I removed the idler tensioner and checked the idler for signs of a worn bearing but couldn't find anything. It turned very smoothly with no signs of a worn bearing. I put it back together and used my Gates belt tensioner to check the tension. There are no specs That I could find in the owners manual or on the Caroni website, so I went by the Gates website, which recommended 150 lbs for a single belt (divide by 3 for 3 belts - so 50 lbs each). I set the tension and ran it again for exactly one minute and got the same results.

The inside of the belts are not hot.
The pulleys are not hot.
The pulley bearings are not hot and turn smoothly.
The back side of the belts are hot and the face of the idler is hot. This must be the source of the heat on my mower but can't determine what the cause is.

This makes no sense to me.

Maybe the OP and I are having the same issues

 

[Hilbilly]

More info;

I ran the mower for 3 minutes at 540 rpm (no load) and got the following temps with an IR thermometer:
1) the back of the belts 165*
2) face of idler 131* but this is a shiny surface and I'm told the IR therms don't work on a shiny surface
3) inside center of idler 169*

The pulleys started to get warmer and the outboard end of the cross tube was starting to get hot.

The only thing I can think of that would cause this, is faulty bearings on the idler (but they feel fine) or friction between the idler and the belts. I did notice the idler was bouncing while running but not what I would consider to be excessive.

Not sure where to go from here.