Woo Hoo. Another slope mower mower.
I am still working on my 40 acres of slope to sever slope. Last week I finally broke my 30 degree mowing and made it to 45. It was just a 10 foot berm with a road at the bottom but man I was really, really puckered up.
As I do 40 acres here is my ton of notes.
The blades on the PT suck. I hope you ordered spares. What I have done is left the 3/8 steel blades off, and went and had made 1/2" hardened steel blades. I am not sure if I am adding wear to the bearings and the machine is swinging a lot more weight, and balance is much more critical. These blades WILL break off, and go by by. Get spares for whatever you do. change the blade bolts to grade 8. Remove the "cap bolts" These are 2 additional bolts but underneath the mower. PT knows that the machine breaks bolts so they give you extra holes so you can keep working. I put in hex plugs into those holes (I can get you a picture if you need). Spray paint your blades a bright color, it helps when they break off. (only a little paint will remain, but anything helps). carry a hammer. the blades get stuck under the hubs. Absolutely remove the spare bolts from the center hub. It is the one that is direct drive and the most prone to breaking bolts.
Remember that the 1850 is 65 HP and 4000lbs. When you hit something imovable(for me it is hidden tree stumps) you will know it. This week I replaced the upper bar with thicker square tubing as I had bent mine up pretty bad.
The mower is low maintenance. On mine there is 3 lube points on the spindles. I destroyed a rear tire, don't know how and have yet to buy a proper replacement.
One trick I do and this is your call is that there are stop bolts on my swing arm (keep the arm from over correctiing). If you look close you can undo the stop bolts, and line up the holes on the swing arm and lock off the mower deck (this will make more sense when you get it the mower, but I can send you pix if you want). What I do is I lock off the mower and then I am able to raise it up and get it over top of stubborn plants and and also use it to mow steep walls (we have a 60 degree cut bank that I park on the road and press the mower up to it).
Mowing a slope is scary stuff. Really. The seat on the 1850 takes some HUGE getting used to. I am VERY tempted to do Kens upgrade as my kidneys can't take much more of this.
When I first mow a slope I am unsure about the angle on, I go up and down. or at the worst 45 degrees to the angle of the slope (across the slope yet heading down). Once you begin to realize that it is pretty impossible to tip the 1850 you will get more secure on cross mowing.
To get the most traction out of the PT you need to reduce the air pressure in the tires. Like down to 8 to 12 lbs. Ken can give you more info. Frankly I don't do that agressive of a slope (45 degrees) very often, and when you reduce the air you get all sorts of other issues, so I run at about 15lbs or so (I also have tubes).
One thing is that the 1850 slides. you have to get used to this when mowing sideways on a steep slope, You kinda point the nose uphill, but the back of the chasis pushes you straight across.
Mowing on wet grass when it is super steep is pretty dicey. Even when dry the cut grass will create moisture and it will get slippery.
Ken and I have lots of maintenance tips for the rest of the machine, but this should get you started.
Oh, Funnest thing every... Get out on your steep meadow, and start doing figure 8's on the hillside. That is how I figured out how powerful this machine is.
PS. You owe us some serious pictures of what you are dealing with.
Carl
