JD 36" WB speed adjustment

[lawngator]

I have a John Deere 36" belt WB. I use a velke about half the time, but I feel like it strains an aweful lot and doesn't cut as well so I walk when I can. My problem is this...2nd gear is too slow and 3rd gear is too fast. I have no idea why there is such a gap, but it's ridiculously far apart. I have heard you can change the pulley and belt size to adjust this. Does that make sense? What else can I do? Any suggestions would be appreciated. By the way, it has a 13hp kohler engine.

[yorkpaddy]

well if your having trouble using third. I would go for a bigger pulley on the transmission shaft, and a smaller one on the engine shaft. That would slow down the transimsission so you could use 4th and 5th maybee to do some work.

[ohiolawnguy]

replacing pulleys is one option, but you could also just not run engine at full throttle to obtain desired speed. sure this slows the blade speed down some, but usually not enough to affect cutting performance.

[yorkpaddy]

thats a bad idea because the engine isn't cooling itself optimally and it does affect your quality of cut.

[lawngator]

Yorkpaddy,
That's what I was referring to. If this will in fact slow it down, that would be what I'm trying to do. Same concept as lower gears on a vehicle. I'm going to pursue this. Thanks