It WAS a good day...

[JDTank]

We have had 2 sunny days here now, about plus 12 Celsius, enough to basically dry out the grass.

I decided, what better time to try mowing for the first time with my new X740.

Well, this WAS a good idea at first. I've been getting over a nasty cold the last few weeks, had a major sinus headache all day long, and over-tired from not sleeping. Obviously since it's been winter, I have not cut any grass in 5 months now. Well, needless to say I completely forgot about one particularly high tree root in between some pine trees we have. I went over the tree root and JUST as I went over it, I remembered, crap, this is the high one. Being the first mowing with this new machine, I had no idea what my clearance was. Well I found out!

The right most blade on my 54'' deck hit the tree root at full engine speed. It dug in so bad, it actually stalled the tractor. Stalling a diesel engine, with a gear driven deck, takes a LOT of resistance. I sure hope I didn't wreck anything. I did get off and check everything. The blade is not bent, the spindle does not seem bent, but I did not remove the pulley guards to check. The tractor started up again fine, and I mowed for another hour afterwards. So far, it seems fine, but I am worried I bent something or damaged something and I just don't know it yet. The first thing that went through my mind when the tractor stalled was "..great, I just wrecked a brand new $1,500 mower deck"

Have you ever hit a tree root with one of these big gear driven X700 series?

 

[whistlepig]

I wish I had a dollar for every time my wife has done this with our 8163 Gravely. It's a PTO/gear driven deck also. I have had to take a hammer and beat big hunks of wood off of the blades. Don't get me wrong. She is the best wife a man could ever wish for. But she does do some interesting things with power equipment.

 

[TnWV]

You sure did a number on that root!! I did the same thing with my x530 the second time I used it. Once I got off the root, I couldn't find anything bent so I kept mowing. Over 40 hours later, no problems. If nothing looks bent, no vibrations and it still mows fine, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[JDTank]

You sure did a number on that root!! I did the same thing with my x530 the second time I used it. Once I got off the root, I couldn't find anything bent so I kept mowing. Over 40 hours later, no problems. If nothing looks bent, no vibrations and it still mows fine, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I will say, it scared the crap out of me. Not so much the noise scared me, but the thought of destroying this brand new piece of equipment with 5 hours on it, AND potentially costing myself $1,500 because of a "dumb dumb" mistake. Of course now that this happened, I "think" I hear all kinds of weird noises and that something is wrong. Visually, everything looks great, so basically all I can do at this point is keep an eye on it and hope it does not fail.

Considering this is a commercial machine, I would think it could stand up to a few hits like this. After all, these things are designed for commercial landscaping abuse!

 

[aczlan]

Considering this is a commercial machine, I would think it could stand up to a few hits like this. After all, these things are designed for commercial landscaping abuse!

Having done repairs on commercial landscaping equipment, the worst such incident I have seen was one of the guys hitting a 2" steel pipe that was sticking ~2" out of a large chunk of concrete. We ended up torching off the bolt that holds the blades on which ruined the spindle. It was tight enough that 3 strong guys reefing on a 6' cheater bar while a 4th beat on the head of the bolt with a small sledge didn't budge it.

Aaron Z

 

[JDTank]

Having done repairs on commercial landscaping equipment, the worst such incident I have seen was one of the guys hitting a 2" steel pipe that was sticking ~2" out of a large chunk of concrete. We ended up torching off the bolt that holds the blades on which ruined the spindle. It was tight enough that 3 strong guys reefing on a 6' cheater bar while a 4th beat on the head of the bolt with a small sledge didn't budge it.

Aaron Z

Now THAT is definitely beyond landscaping abuse!

I would hope that when John Deere designs a machine like this, aimed at large property owners and commercial landscape users, that they would think to themselves "given where these machines will be used, they will likely hit a tree root every now and again, let's make it strong enough to handle that"

I am not one to ever do this kind of stuff, but I am only human and we all make mistakes. After weeks of being sick, an accident at work that left me injured, sinus headaches, and crappy weather to top it all off, the last thing I was thinking about was where all my tree roots are.

 

[arlen4720]

I've done that a few times, and bent a blade or 2 in the process. After 970 hours, my X748 spindles show no sign of wear or slop. I replaced the belt for the first time last year, put on 1 set of guide wheels, and changed the gearbox oil once.... I think your good.

 

[Gittyup]

If you didn't bend the deck or spindle from the weight/inertia of the tractor going over the stump, you may not have done any harm. If the deck drive line is like my 425's, the belt is designed to slip for the outer 2 blades. Of course the center blade is connected directly to the drive line, and you could have done some damage to the gear box/pto. However, if still running smoothly, you are probably OK. Stalling probably saved you. From the looks of it, at least the stump won't be a problem anymore.

 

[KennedyDiesel]

Cutting grass in March? Still snow and ice here. I wouldn't worry about hurting the deck. Should not be an issue. I have not studied the belt config on the later decks, but I do believe that none of teh baldes is direct drive on any of these decks. They all use belt pulleys.

 

[JDTank]

Cutting grass in March? Still snow and ice here. I wouldn't worry about hurting the deck. Should not be an issue. I have not studied the belt config on the later decks, but I do believe that none of teh baldes is direct drive on any of these decks. They all use belt pulleys.

You are correct. The gearbox itself is not directly connected to a blade, each blade has it's own pulley.

The last 2 days we have had double digit temperatures and it dried out the grass enough for the first cut. Winter average on the west coast of BC is about 4-8 degrees Celsius. The problem is, it rains for days, weeks, sometimes a full month, almost nonstop. So even though it isn't cold here during the winter, or snow on the ground, you can't do anything when everything is soaking wet and the ground is very soft.

In 5 years when ALL of my debt is gone, I plan to buy a compact utility for the heavy work on our property, and when I do, you can bet your boots it will have a cab on it!

 

[sargex595]

A few years ago on the fourth of July weekend, I decided to mow a triangular piece of property owned by the State at a intersection that leads into our Village. The State hadn't mowed it and it lookled like ****. I have since mowed every two or three weeks during the summer. About two years ago I was mowing it and was near where the State had two road signs. All of a sudden my X595 with my 62" deck came to a complete stop and stalled the engine. I almost got knocked off the tractor. After I started the tractor back up, lifted the mower deck and backed up, I noticed that I had hit the end of a metal sign post that was sticking out of the ground. I had never seem it before. I was scared to look under the deck but only had a slight dent in the deck and a small gouge out of one blade. My tractor was a 2001 X595 and had around 1,100 hrs on it. They are really built tough. Have not had any problems since. I did take my Milwaukee cordless grinder and cut the end of the post off below ground level so that won't happen again.
Curt.

 

[Dashe]

I think you are missing an opportunity to use the new machine as a stump grinder. Looks to me that it was born to grind. These X7xx machines are tough. Just cleaned my 54C and squirted a little JD yellow on the bottom and looks as good as it did when I got it.

 

[Gittyup]

You are correct. The gearbox itself is not directly connected to a blade, each blade has it's own pulley.

The last 2 days we have had double digit temperatures and it dried out the grass enough for the first cut. Winter average on the west coast of BC is about 4-8 degrees Celsius. The problem is, it rains for days, weeks, sometimes a full month, almost nonstop. So even though it isn't cold here during the winter, or snow on the ground, you can't do anything when everything is soaking wet and the ground is very soft.

In 5 years when ALL of my debt is gone, I plan to buy a compact utility for the heavy work on our property, and when I do, you can bet your boots it will have a cab on it!

I guess they are different from the 400 series. My 54" deck has a gear box connecting the PTO shaft to the center blade/pulley. This, in turn, powers the other two blades via a belt on the 3 pulleys. I guess you lose some power with all belt drive, but it's safer on the gear box/pto. I'm not sure what would happen to mine if I hit something like that. Not sure if there is a shear pin or something in there to protect it. Though, in the 18+ years of used it I've hit and stalled maybe one time. My wife did run over a piece of wire fence and made a mess around the spindle. But she's still going strong (both the wife and tractor).

 

[JDTank]

I like it better without a blade coming off of the gearbox. If you ever did hit something with that kind of setup, the dollars would be huge. The gearbox for my 54 inch deck is just shy of $700. I would rather replace spindles or blades before a gearbox. I certainly don't notice a power loss with the current setup.

I do notice however that the gearbox must have a good amount of resistance. When you shut off the PTO it only takes about 3 seconds for the blades to come to a complete stop. On a belt driven deck that would probably take twice as long.

 

[aczlan]

I do notice however that the gearbox must have a good amount of resistance. When you shut off the PTO it only takes about 3 seconds for the blades to come to a complete stop. On a belt driven deck that would probably take twice as long.

There is probbaly a brake on the tractor side of the PTO that comes on when the PTO disengages.

Aaron Z

 

[jenkinsph]

There is probbaly a brake on the tractor side of the PTO that comes on when the PTO disengages.

Aaron Z

That is correct.

 

[JDTank]

That is correct.

I did not know that. Learn something new everyday!

 

[arlen4720]

I did not know that. Learn something new everyday!

I always engage and disengage the blades at idle....I figure it saves wear on the clutch/brake.

 

[sixdogs]

You are probably damage free and the fact that the stump broke apart is a good indicator. Had the stump not done that it would have been much more resitance to the machine is my thinking.

 

[JDTank]

You are probably damage free and the fact that the stump broke apart is a good indicator. Had the stump not done that it would have been much more resitance to the machine is my thinking.

Luckily, it was a root from a very soft pine tree. If it was a hard wood, it may have been a different story.

When I hit the root I was crawling on the machine, moving very very slow, so I was lucky. Had I been going fast, the momentum likely would have damaged something.

Like my Dad always used to say to me as a kid when I did something stupid "see...i'll bet you'll never do that again"