hopping mower

[hillslider]

I have a Kubota L3130HST that I pull a 5' International brush cutter with. This weekend I was beating down some weeds in the horse pasture when the cutter started hopping around. Something was obviously out of balance. I shut her down and gave her the look over. No clumps of grass caught anywhere....everything tight and nothing out of place. Engaged the pto again and same hopping. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif I again gave it the look over and again engaged with the same hopping around. I gave up and went up to the house. Before I parked the tractor I thought I would engage the pto one more time......smooth as can be! What am I missing? I do not understand how something can be so out of balance one moment and smooth the next. Any help from all you educated tractor users? For your info I was only cutting thin foot high weeds on a smooth field.

 

[ns_in_tex]

I have seen cases where trash would cause one of the blades not to swing freely & cause this problem. If it happens again. Lift it up, cut everything off & feel to see if the blades are free or binding. I am talking about at the bolt where the blade mounts to the stump jumper.

 

[hillslider]

This was my first thought also. I raised the mower and checked the blades.....I thought one would be stuck....but not the case. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

Could you have a bent blade? That would cause an unbalance as well.

 

[BubbaJr]

If this is a rotary mower, and the hopping is in the vertical mode, I would suspect the PTO shaft. Check it for a bound up u-joint or a bent shaft. If it is a flail type mower, there was probably trash somewhere that fell off after you quit mowing.

Good Luck

 

[hillslider]

I did not think about the PTO shaft. The Mower is new and only has about 10hrs on it. But when I got home I checked the joints and sure enough the joint next toe gearbox was very tight. I greased it up and worked it and seems to have taken care of it. I plan on calling the dealer to possibly replace it....for free I hope. It is a rotory brush cutter by the way. Thanks for the input.

 

[shady1701]

my tiller only has a 8-10" pto shaft when i had the weld off about 1/8" it bounced pretty hard i think the driver's right hand side wanted to torque up but the whole thing jumped up.