X500 cut less than great

[al3]

Unit is 2 years old, sitting at 28hrs. 54 in deck has never cut well. Seems to be a combination of issues but mainly the grass height is grossly uneven across the right (grass chute exit) 50% side of the deck. I致e tried new Deere blades (that I checked on a granite base to insure flatness/parallelism), adjust the deck to both factory settings, also adjusted the deck to get the two outside blade tips to as close to the same height as possible, made sure deck vent holes are clear, underside is clean. Mow at a medium ground speed, full throttle, cut grass at 2.5 inches, and try to cut about 1-1.5 inches off when I mow. Grass is dry.
Deck is angle front to back by about 3/8 of an inch, gage wheels ｽ in clearance (on level concrete floor), tires at 10/14 psi. Pulled the blades off and measured jackshaft runout using a mag base and dial indicator; max of .011 runout horizontally, less than .002 vertically (i.e., the bottom of the shaft remains parallel to the ground. So doesn稚 appear shafts are bent----I致e never hit anything bigger than small sticks as I do my rough mowing with either a 4110 and brush hog or an old craftsman.
The 4110 also has a 54 inch finish deck available and when used cuts great. It痴 set up using the blade tip measurement. Deck on the 4110 has a plastic skirting material around the bottom left half.
Any thoughts?

 

[rekees4300]

I've had X500 with 54" deck for 4 years and the cut has always been excellent. Sounds like you've done everything DIY can expect. Perhaps it's time to call the JD dealer for professional analysis?

 

[oldnslo]

I believe deere offers a kit for the 54" deck that is supposed to reduce the amount of grass being blown out from under the mower and collecting on top of the deck. I am not sure if this helps improve the cut or not. I have the same deck on my X540 and agree the cut is not super impressive for an expensive mower.

I have never tried calculating the blade tip speed on these but just from the sound they seem to run slow. My old JD112 cut better than this and it is 40+ years old.

 

[bubbacuse77]

Same here, I have the same deck on a three year old 749 and I am always upset by the amount of grass blades left cut uneven. I almost feel like there is an issue with the blades not producing enough suction to pull up the grass pushed down from the front tires running it over. I believe that because I put on a set of mulching blades and the reduced suction from those blades made for such a bad cut that I almost had mow the lawn twice

 

[beenthere]

My experience was moving from the 400 series (425, 445, 455) and 54" decks that cut extremely well, to getting the X485 with it's 54" deck that blew grass out and made a poor cut. Was impossible to get good performance when using the powerflow blower on the 519 cart for leaf pickup.

My take is that JD changed the deck to take on a more robust "look" and lost their good air flow performance for grass cutting.

My solution was to pick up a 425 with 54" deck for use on the 519 cart and a 455 with 54" deck for good mowing. Now the leaves are picked up clean in one pass.

Assigned the X485 to non-mowing duties, such as broom and spray system. Should just sell it and get rid of the mower deck that just is stored away. The only factory fix was some metal plates attached to the underside of the deck which had very little effect.

 

[al3]

Thanks for posting your experiences with this tractor/deck combo; in a strange way it’s good to know mine isn’t unique. Bubbacuse, the comment about deck not having enough lift/suction captures what I’m thinking too. Slowing the tractor’s ground speed quite a bit (think S-L-O-W) does improve the cut a bit, but it’s so slow to be impractical for over an acre of grass.
I had the unit back to the dealership 2 weeks after it was purchased for this issue, they lowered the overall height of the deck ¼ inch. No real change. Talked to the service folks (counter and the shop tech who worked on their residential stuff) a few weeks ago when I picked up the new blades and they didn’t have any ideas.
What’s frustrating is some folks report getting great cuts from their X500/54 so there must be some way to set it up that works.

 

[bubbacuse77]

Wish I knew as well, I'll bee keeping an eye on this thread

 

[KEYBEAR]

I would not have a new Mower Deck that did a bad job for two years ?? Your dealer needs it back and fix it or replace it .

 

[Smoothas]

I’d have dealer look at it. Sounds like you have done all the proper “checks” . Deck shouldn’t be doing that( obviously) the JD X500 has been around a long time, big seller for JD- so something is obviously wrong with your tractor