Hi
The 2015-season - my third with the Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower - is long over and with a total of 110 hours on the mower, there is not that much to add this time, other than the mower has worked flawless all last summer.
As I mentioned in the first post in this thread, I haven't been able to find an oil drain plug on my Zanon. It could be interesting if some of you, who have actually changed the oil in the gearbox of any Zanon mower, would enlighten those of us who haven't tried it yet.
I have tried to improve on one item last season though, and that's the wheel-setup when mowing.
Wheels are a constant issue in this forum - and rightly so, as this is one of the few features we can chance on our tractors, and a feature that can have a great impact on the performance and behavior of the tractor. Wheels comes in different sizes, with different tread patterns, and they can be mounted as singles, duals or even triples.
As mentioned earlier, I'm very happy with the 6.5x12x23" wheels, and it annoys me every time I see my 5x10x20" standard wheels just lying on the garage floor, and not being used. Part of my lawn has a slope of up to 15 degree (26.8 %), and even with the 23" wheels all the way out (26"), the up-hill wheel often slips, and tears up the sod. For added stability, I would also like to get the wheels even further out, and all of this gave me the idea; why not use the 20" wheels as the inner wheels in a pair of duals?
I am of course aware, that it makes more sense to use the same size wheels for duals - this was simply a test to see if these otherwise to me useless wheels, could at least be used for something good.
In order to keep the outer 23" wheels within the 82 cm (32") working width of the mower, I mounted the 20" wheels as close to the tractor as possible. The limiting factor is the gear quadrant, but with the help of a few washers, I was able to mount the 20" wheels with an outside track width of 48.1 cm (19"). With the help of one 5" axle extension on either side between the inner and the outer wheels, the outside track width of the 23" wheels were 78.2 cm (almost 31"). This is perfect, as it gives 1/2" to spare on either side, and it certainly has improved the balance of the entire tractor/mower unit.
I used this setup all last summer, and was very pleased with it. Compared to the 23" wheels mounted as singles all the way out - 66 cm (26") - the extra 5" of outside track width, gave a much more stable ride - especially on the slopes. It also gave a much smoother ride when mowing, as the smaller inner wheels kept the tractor more stable, when one of the outer wheels ran into a little hole, and they would support the tractor. As winter slowly comes to an end around here, I will prepare my tractor for the coming mowing season the same way, and again enjoy the fact, that my "useless" small wheels can be used in summer also.
I use them sometimes in winter for sweeping snow - if there is any
Thank you for your offer Bill! I know some of you guys have had your fair share of snow the last few winters, but here we haven't had a decent snowfall the last 3 winters :weepy:
NibbanaFarm, you were considering a mower for your BCS 739 - have you got one? I understand your concern regarding the 23" wheels, but you don't need to worry if they will fit or not. The 23" wheels can be mounted with an outside track width of 22" as with your 20" wheels, and you will have around 1/2" to spare between the tire and the cylinder head. As you have noticed on my pictures, I got 4" of extra ground clearance with the modest 1 1/2" higher axle height, due to the upward tilt of the engine. I use my 23" wheels almost all the time, so I can highly recommend them.
I guess the wheel spacing on the BCS 739 and the 740 are the same. The 20" wheels have a standard outside track width of 22" on the BCS 740, and around 24" when mounted all the way out. The 23" wheels also have around 22" standard, but 26" when mounted all the way out.
All the best from
Jens