JD 400 All Wheel Steer tears up my grass

[wesleyw]

I have a JD 455 with all wheel steer, 60in mowing deck, PTO, cat 0 three point hitch. First of all, I love this tractor.. I bought it new 8 years ago and it takes everything I throw at it. Worth every one of the 11K I paid for it..

I do have one small gripe.. wonder if anyone has seen a fix for this: The 4 wheel steer is nice.. I put a dollar on the ground and turn right around it... very tight. The problem is the rear wheels on the mowing deck.. when I turn the rear wheel swing to the side.. (only the front wheel is on a caster.. the rear deck wheels are fixed) The rear deck wheels slide to the side and tear up the grass.

For the first sever year I was just mowing the pastures down and rough mowing through the woods.. now that I have a "lawn" this issue of tearing up the turn is a concern.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? I really don't have the money to buy a separate mower.. I have thought about diabling the all wheel steer (turn it back to conventional front wheel only turn).

Help Help,
Wes

[TLS]

Are the deck gauge wheels DESIGNED to support the deck weight?

Most belly mount tractor mowers use the deck gauge wheels set 1/4 to 1/2" ABOVE the ground.

[wesleyw]

I messed up in my original post. The deck wheels are not designed to support the deck (it is a floating deck.. the wheels are to prevent scalping on uneven turf). I have the wheels set one inch below the bottom edge of the deck.. they normally don't touch.

When I cut around the trees(I have about 50 trees to cut around) the turf around the trees is built up.. I turn counter clock wise around the tree and the rear deck wheel on the left side of the mower hit the ground (built up around trees) and it tears up the turf.

Maybe I shoudl raise the wheels one more notch

Thanks,
Wes