Since it’s spring and there’s already talk of mower adjusting, I thought I’d share this:
Last summer, a close neighbor was having troubles with his mid mount mower cutting an uneven swath. He’d adjust it to cut level on his flat areas but when mowing on a graded slope in one direction the cut was a little off. But mowing on the same slope in the other direction, the mower would almost scalp the ground on one side. Confused, he asked for some help adjusting. It was a John Deere 10 or 20 series tractor with a 60” deck.
We checked his tire pressures and corrected the imbalance. He made an adjustment on his mower deck and after a trial cut he came back stating there was a little improvement but the cut was still uneven as heck. Especially when mowing on the sloped area of his lawn. This was now getting to be a real puzzler!
We needed to find a way to start at the very basics and first know that his tractor was sitting level or at least parallel with my concrete shop floor. I quick made a little device to compare the center height of each end of both axles. It consists of two rods (1 vertical and 1 horizontal) with adjustments for the horizontal rod, which fit neatly into the axle’s center index hole. Here’s pics of that device.
Measuring the center height of front axle: With equal pressure in both tires, we found one side was a half inch higher than the other at the center point! How could that be? He remembered having a bad tire replaced at some point and even with the same type tire and equal air pressure the replacement’s diameter was nearly an inch larger.
Measuring the rear axle height: Equal pressure in both tires resulted in one side being quite higher than the other and it happened to be on the same side as that front problem tire. That explained the odd cuts and scalping from mowing on the sloped areas of his lawn in one direction!
With the tool and using different air pressures in all the tires we were able to level the tractor axles with the concrete floor. But now the mower deck was again totally out of adjustment. I noticed one of his deck hangar rods was different than the other side. Asked about that, he said one had been bent so he replaced it and used the threaded portion as a guide to set it the same as the old one. Asked if he had noticed that the threaded portion on the new rod was much longer than the old one……..he of course hadn’t taken that into account.
After adjusting the hangar rods to spec, front to back cutting height, and calibrating the height adjustment knob, he reported that the mower cut so nice that even his wife was happy! But now he still has to use my device every so often to level the tractor as each tire requires a different amount of air pressure to accomplish that.
The moral of the story: Don’t take anything for granted, but instead verify. Start with the very basics. Get the person you’re helping to fess up or at least try to remember anything that’s been changed and how that was accomplished. Knowing those facts might’ve saved us a bunch of time and confusion! But it did give us time for more refreshment on a hot summer day! And that’s not a bad thing.
Last summer, a close neighbor was having troubles with his mid mount mower cutting an uneven swath. He’d adjust it to cut level on his flat areas but when mowing on a graded slope in one direction the cut was a little off. But mowing on the same slope in the other direction, the mower would almost scalp the ground on one side. Confused, he asked for some help adjusting. It was a John Deere 10 or 20 series tractor with a 60” deck.
We checked his tire pressures and corrected the imbalance. He made an adjustment on his mower deck and after a trial cut he came back stating there was a little improvement but the cut was still uneven as heck. Especially when mowing on the sloped area of his lawn. This was now getting to be a real puzzler!
We needed to find a way to start at the very basics and first know that his tractor was sitting level or at least parallel with my concrete shop floor. I quick made a little device to compare the center height of each end of both axles. It consists of two rods (1 vertical and 1 horizontal) with adjustments for the horizontal rod, which fit neatly into the axle’s center index hole. Here’s pics of that device.
Measuring the center height of front axle: With equal pressure in both tires, we found one side was a half inch higher than the other at the center point! How could that be? He remembered having a bad tire replaced at some point and even with the same type tire and equal air pressure the replacement’s diameter was nearly an inch larger.
Measuring the rear axle height: Equal pressure in both tires resulted in one side being quite higher than the other and it happened to be on the same side as that front problem tire. That explained the odd cuts and scalping from mowing on the sloped areas of his lawn in one direction!
With the tool and using different air pressures in all the tires we were able to level the tractor axles with the concrete floor. But now the mower deck was again totally out of adjustment. I noticed one of his deck hangar rods was different than the other side. Asked about that, he said one had been bent so he replaced it and used the threaded portion as a guide to set it the same as the old one. Asked if he had noticed that the threaded portion on the new rod was much longer than the old one……..he of course hadn’t taken that into account.
After adjusting the hangar rods to spec, front to back cutting height, and calibrating the height adjustment knob, he reported that the mower cut so nice that even his wife was happy!
But now he still has to use my device every so often to level the tractor as each tire requires a different amount of air pressure to accomplish that.The moral of the story: Don’t take anything for granted, but instead verify. Start with the very basics. Get the person you’re helping to fess up or at least try to remember anything that’s been changed and how that was accomplished. Knowing those facts might’ve saved us a bunch of time and confusion! But it did give us time for more refreshment on a hot summer day! And that’s not a bad thing.
