tire pressure

[awm]

this is for any new cutters who are running spec pressure in your tires and feeling it in the back ,at the days end. drop your pressure all around abou 2 lbs . this will soften your ride.
just take the turns slower as it may lean a little. also cut at the next higher setting on all your jobs. this may vary as im using a lazer.

[Lawn-Scapes]

I'm glad this came up... First my little story -

Started to cut my first (of the day) account this morning and not 5 minutes into it I had a rear flat tire. Already backed up from yesterdays rain I was pissed. Went to the gas station to fill it up and try and figure where the hole was. Well an entire piece of tread was sliced through to the belts. I says to myself WTF? So on to the dealer I went. The tech took off the tire and found a piece of rock (shale) inside. Say to myself.. SOB! A flat from a freakin' rock... Oh well.

Okay, the reason for the post... The tech filled it to 13psi. He said all the tires should be 13. I thought that was a little too low. I was using 18. He said Exmark said that from thier studies 13 is ideal.

I agree with you... The lawns in my area are very bumpy. I wouldn't be able to take full tire pressure. I usually come home with a sore neck :(

You think 13 is too low?

[khouse]

I have found that 12psi front and rear works great on my 260Z Gravely. Running lower tire pressures will reduce the front caster wear and tear, not to mention your lower back.

[HOMER]

I bumped mine on my Chopper up to 10 in the rear and 20 in the frt....................ouch! Think I'll drop em back to 6psi.

Whatever you do just make sure they are the same.............I see some around here that need a lesson on air pressure. Picked up a yard the other day because somebody thought it was ok to run one side low and the other high! Cut it for the second time yesterday and the streaks have finally grown out of it.

[awm]

i went from 13 all around to 11 lbs. i guess the main thing as far
as front versus back is that the deck pitch remain close to 1/4
inch lower in front. homer sounds like you got some easy competition. some o that around here too.
ps i might add that the book says dont go to low as its suppose to be hard on the tire.ive never seen it hurt one though.
later now

[HOMER]

Real easy.....................they don't know about Lawnsite;)

[cp]

My dealer told me after I had ran my Z for a couple of weeks that I could drop the pressure down to 8lbs in the rears but never mentiond the front tires. Another thought is if the max rating for the caster is 20 and the rear is say 13 and you drop the rear to 10 would you drop the caster to 17 or lower??????:confused:

[Eric ELM]

This all depends on what mower you have, what tire pressure you should use.

An Exmark doesn't have the same tires as a Chopper, so the tire pressure will probably be much different. On a Chopper, you should run around 6 lbs in the back when the ground is hard and 8 when it's soft. I run 18 to 20 in the front tires.

If you run 6 lbs in an Exmark or some of the others that use that type of tire, that tire would probably look flat. Most manuals say what pressure to use in your tires.

[awm]

cp you would determine front caster pressure by what ever keeps the pitch correct.

[Nick]

Eric,

I thought you were only supposed to put 10-14 psi in the front tire on a chopper.

[Eric ELM]

This might be what the manual says, but if you run them that low in air pressure, you run into more times of having your tire bead breaking loose from the rims and having flats.

I've had several guys email me about having this problem. I tell them to try 18 to 20 psi in the front and this usually cures that problem.

Anyone getting a new ZTR, make sure that the dealers have set them up right. A lot of mfg will ship them with around 30 psi in each tire front and back. It will ride like a lumber wagon until you get the right pressure in the tires. I've tested a demo that was like this. The first round about shook me apart. :(