Zero Turn traction issues

[LouNY]

I had been shopping for a larger lawn mower for some time and had looked at the numerous zero turns, and the Stieners and Ventracs, thought about the power trac's, kept coming back to the front deck mowers, finally came across a couple of front deck mowers and was going to go look at them, bought the first one test drove.
I have never been a Kubota fan or a hydro stat fan, that said I now own a Kubota F2000 which is a front 72" deck on a 4wd chassis with a hydro, I got a decent deal on it I believe.
For $2000 a 4wd with a 72" deck with only 2800 hours, of all the mowers I have tried out and demo over the last 10 years I will say that this is the best I have tried until I got over the $20,000 level which I was not going to pay to mow lawn.
In conclusion if you have steep areas to mow you owe it to yourself to try one out, any 4wd front deck.

 

[Michael In Tennessee]

I love the cut, the speed and the maneuverability, but the traction (negative traction?) going downhill is near ridiculous. The only way to go down our steeper slopes is to start at a crawl and slowly speed up, or you end up skidding/slewing down the hill. And forget about stopping in the middle of even a moderate downgrade and turning to do the next cut.

Since it is "lawn" you can get away with more. I assume you don't need perfection. I'm using a Simplicity Cobalt, which is a larger cousin to your Ferris.

I have about 3 acres of lawn and about 5 acres of something approaching pasture. The lawn is fairly steep in the 15 to 20% slope. The pasture is more like 20 to 25% slope. I don't care the cut or the tire damage on the pasture area.

My solution is that I have two sets of rear tires. I use Carlisle Turf Smart on the lawn and switch out to lugged tires for the pasture. I could not find ATV type tires in my size, or I'd have tried those.

I can mow either lawn or pasture sideways with little difficulty. The big issue on the pasture is enough traction to change direction at the ends of the pass. The lugged tires help immensely. I can mow both up and down too, but its easier sideways. Downhill is much better with lugged tires, but I can skid those too if I'm not careful.

Mostly, regarding downhills, your best bet is technique. Go slow. Start turning across before trying to stop. Slowing down abruptly just skids the tires. Subtlety is your friend when slowing down regardless of terrain. I can skid the turf tires on flat land if I just chop the throttle sometimes.

I mostly mow crosswise from bottom to top. This makes your turns uphill, which is easier to control. I do K-turns uphill. Turn uphill about a row and a half, then back down while turning to align on the next pass and then forward to the end again.

There are a few spots in the pasture where I do have to mow uphill, but they are localized steep spots that are no more than about 10 or 15 feet square. The exits at the top and bottom are less steep and provide plenty of bail out room.

DNW64, when you say "steep", how steep is it? Get a 4 foot level and a tape measure and check a few spots. If you have 12 inches of rise over that 4 foot level, your slope is 25%. I'm wondering if mostly you need more seat time to get comfortable mowing sideways or if your lawn really is that steep. My first cuts were up and down hill until I got comfortable.

Also, what about mowing on the bias? 45 degrees to the slope?

 

[stevem5215]

Not really interested in buying an $8k mowing machine and having to add another $1k or more for an adaptation (Ted brakes). Turns out my z-turn seems to be able to deal with my hills, though with a pretty big learning curve, and more danger than I anticipated. Of course almost nothing is truly safe on steep hills, except maybe a Power-Trac or Ventrac.

Or a Steiner. Love my 420. When the hill gets (cutting across it) too steep you know it by the fact that you have it in full articulation with all the wheels trying to move up hill and you are still only sidehilling with it.

Steve

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I suggest trying some bar tires (sometimes called chevron tires), such as the Carlisle AT-101 or the Kenda or OTR tires with that tread pattern. The traction improvement with that tread is truly amazing.

 

[4570Man]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I suggest trying some bar tires (sometimes called chevron tires), such as the Carlisle AT-101 or the Kenda or OTR tires with that tread pattern. The traction improvement with that tread is truly amazing.

It might not be an apples to apples comparison since I have a heavy diesel powered mower, but the bar tires has helped my mower immensely. The real fine strand grass suffers a little but most other grass is fine.

 

[Texasmark]

I have the IS700Z and had the same problem. Fix costs you about a hundred bucks. Go to ebay:

2PK 22x11-8 22 11-8 22x11.-8 Golf Go Kart ATV Tire 4PLY P322 Dimple Knobby | eBay

This tire is on an 8" wheel (from ebay too) rather than the original because I wanted a soft ride since I mow my pasture with mine and heavy clay soil cracks open and makes for a rough ride. The large balloon area run at 10 psig does make a difference.

Point here is the tread design. I have pond banks running 30 degrees and couldn't mow with turfs. So I started with bar lugs and then golf cart traction tires, then other stud designs of ATV tires and currently running these and I like them. If you are careful how you turn around ZT style, you can mow your lawn without tearing it up yet hang on with a hill.

 

[Buppies]

I mow everything I can across it. Its much better than up down. ZTRs don稚 drive down hills very good. Bar tires help a bunch. This hill is 17 degrees and it痴 about the limit of what I can drive straight down when wet without losing control, but it痴 no problem sideways. View attachment 567343View attachment 567344

Same tires on our toro now almost unstoppable

 

[valdez54]

Our Z turn mower was a hazard on our many grassed slopes... I replaced rear turf tires with ATV tires running about 3 psi and the improvement is amazing...
while this does increase some lawn damage if the operator drives carefully the benefit of the improved safety is entirely worth it. Damage is usually on damp/wet grass and spinning the machine in its own length. I bought the tires on Amazon Prime for $89.00 and had our mower shop mount them for $30 more.... best move we could have made.

 

[DK35vince]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I suggest trying some bar tires (sometimes called chevron tires), such as the Carlisle AT-101 or the Kenda or OTR tires with that tread pattern. The traction improvement with that tread is truly amazing.

Sure is.
I got tired of the turf tires on my Z sliding off our hill every time.
Replaced the turfs with AT 101 bar tire and the difference is huge.
Same hills that always gave me problems with the turfs are no problem at all now.

 

[4570Man]

Sure is.
I got tired of the turf tires on my Z sliding off our hill every time.
Replaced the turfs with AT 101 bar tire and the difference is huge.
Same hills that always gave me problems with the turfs are no problem at all now.

Those are the same tires I have and if you can’t mow it with those then it doesn’t need mowed. I can push mud with the deck.