Beast 54ZB Commercial ZTR

[Huling]

Originally Posted by GordonwJackson

I have asked GXi Customer Service to contact you. I suspect maybe your engine RPM is a little low, based upon the symptoms you describe. Removing less than 1" of grass the mower should run like a hot knife through butter, even going up hill.

I have attempted to attach a quick video showing a demonstration we just did on the 54" Z-BEAST with the 22 hp Subaru. I was unable to get the video to attach to this message. I will have it posted elsewhere and share the link.

The test we did was on thick, uncut grass and weeds between 5 inches and 7 inches tall. The grass was wet. It rained about 30 minutes prior to this video. No load RPM was 3420 RPM. This mower can meet all specs at 3500 RPM so it can be turned up a bit, however we left it as is and ran it at 3420 RPM for the test.

The ground was flat.

The deck height was set at 2" so the average cut depth was about 4" of thick, wet grass and weeds. The range was from 3" to 5" of cut.

The mower was driven with a forward speed of about 8 mph.

About a 150 RPM drop was observed under this loading. The RPM drop would have been less had the grass been dry.

The resulting cut quality was clean and free of uncut grass.

We would consider the mower to be bogging down if it experienced a 300 to 400 RPM engine speed drop (more than 10% drop).

We were able to bog this mower down at 10 mph, under the above described conditions, when the wet grass height reached 8" and we were cutting it down to 2". If the grass were dry it could cut this depth on flat ground without a problem, but would bog down under similar conditions when going up a hill.

Please call GXi Customer Service and ask for Shawn. He can assist you with throttle adjustment if this is in fact the root cause.

Hey Gordon: Just post it to youtube and it will be available to all.

Cheers

[GMLC]

Ahhh...guess the "beast" has moved to the homeowner section of lawn site. At least someone is willing to give it a test. Far cry from commercial 10 hours a day 6 days a week mowing but Im interested in some reviews and pictures of cut quality please.

[twinturb089]

just got back from the depo ,if i do return the beast, i will go with the 54 inch ariens.i also stopped at the ferris dealer and looked at some pro models,BIG BUCKS! i am not a landscaper, i dont need a $6,000 mower.i am going to give the beast a chance again,i need my grass longer to give it the test. if there is a way to turn it up,tweak it, i DO LIKE, the appearance,the deck is freakin kick ass,the rollbar (i have hills,and sometimes drink too much), the headlights are a great idea.large gas tank (7.5 gallons).did i mention the deck? for the people that said the deck is thin????? that is def not the case,unless you are cutting boulders and railroad spikes off, the deck is waaay more than you will need. I DO NOT LIKE.the engine seems underpowered, this thing should have a 27hp kawi motor,no gas gauge???? whats up with that?,you sit high on this mower,(wouldnt be a bad thing,but my yard has some steep hills).no bagger setup yet.the rear tires are like tires for the rear of a corvette,not a lawn mower.thats about all for the 23hrs i have owned it. i am gonna give it some more time, i have 30 days to return it if i change my mind. if i was to return it, it would only help sales for this thing, it makes every other mower at hd look like a toy.us men want the tim allen ruh ruh ruh factor.also the price is very good. again i will keep you all posted

[twinturb089]

as i said earlier, and i am no marketing major. if gxi wants to sell these things, and wants to sell a lot of them, get one in the stores,so people can look at it,sit on it and wow over it.by the looks alone the manly man will want this thing. even if it does turn out to suck at doing the job is was meant for. it sure will look bad ass driving over to your neighbors with a beer in the cup holder p.s dont forget to top off the gas, as you have no idea how much is in there???????

[GordonwJackson]

Twinturb089,

Shawn and an engineer at GXi spent this afternoon trying to duplicate the symptoms you describe. They have some adjustments to the RPM and governor spring that they suggest. Please call Shawn to discuss. Your mower should run very easily through the conditions you described. I think with a minor adjustment you will be pleased with the mower's performance.

[twinturb089]

i will call him, i am work right now, i was actually looking at the cable that goes to the engine last night that control the throttle, i figured i could adjust that and back out the set screw to get more rpm out of it at full throttle.i figure if all else fails, i ll put a 50 shot of nitrous on it and try that....... haha. i want this thing to perform, i didnt give up yet

[nepatsfan]

Originally Posted by GordonwJackson

I have asked GXi Customer Service to contact you. I suspect maybe your engine RPM is a little low, based upon the symptoms you describe. Removing less than 1" of grass the mower should run like a hot knife through butter, even going up hill.

I have attempted to attach a quick video showing a demonstration we just did on the 54" Z-BEAST with the 22 hp Subaru. I was unable to get the video to attach to this message. I will have it posted elsewhere and share the link.

The test we did was on thick, uncut grass and weeds between 5 inches and 7 inches tall. The grass was wet. It rained about 30 minutes prior to this video. No load RPM was 3420 RPM. This mower can meet all specs at 3500 RPM so it can be turned up a bit, however we left it as is and ran it at 3420 RPM for the test.

The ground was flat.

The deck height was set at 2" so the average cut depth was about 4" of thick, wet grass and weeds. The range was from 3" to 5" of cut.

The mower was driven with a forward speed of about 8 mph.

About a 150 RPM drop was observed under this loading. The RPM drop would have been less had the grass been dry.

The resulting cut quality was clean and free of uncut grass.

We would consider the mower to be bogging down if it experienced a 300 to 400 RPM engine speed drop (more than 10% drop).

We were able to bog this mower down at 10 mph, under the above described conditions, when the wet grass height reached 8" and we were cutting it down to 2". If the grass were dry it could cut this depth on flat ground without a problem, but would bog down under similar conditions when going up a hill.

Please call GXi Customer Service and ask for Shawn. He can assist you with throttle adjustment if this is in fact the root cause.

Why don't you post the video you claim to have of the beast beating out the toro. I really want to see this. I would think that if you actually had this you would really want to post it. If you did it would give the beast instant credibility. I am beginning to think you were blowing smoke though or you would have already posted it. Your original reason was that you weren't a sponsor. Several of us have asked you several times to post it, originally you said you would, and now requests just go ignored. I really want to believe it but after reading real life accounts of the mower and your failure to produce the video you claim to have is starting to make me skeptical. In any event it is good to see you on top of everything else....you can tell you are passionate about it.

[GMLC]

So far we have two deliveries, one was dropped out of the truck and the other here has no power. Another person went to HD to try one out and the "beast" wouldnt start and had multiple problems from sitting. Not lookin good so far....sorry. Must be the curse of china

[samendolaro]

Can't fault them for a carrier dropping it off a forklift. Also can't blame them for the HD no start issue.. afterall you try to keep a battery charged on a mower with headlights . Heck, if I was a kid I'd be over there putting the lights on as well.

The one real issue is the power issue on the 54". This is the second report of this so there is definetly a problem. Even if this is nothing more then a throttle adjustment , these mowers were supposeably torqued to specs and the throttle adjusted at the factory . So what would make it move from the factory to the curb ? If it is a spring issue ios this going to continue to happen ? At the same time how is someone suppose to know if it trully is a low rpm issue? I sure as hell wouldn't just turn the throttle till it works without having a tach or some other way to check the RPM's. I'd drop it off at HD and order another.. I'd keep ordering them until I got one set correctly. No excuse to go through this with a new mower. And if you have idle screws moving from transit well.... no comment

Originally Posted by GMLC

So far we have two deliveries, one was dropped out of the truck and the other here has no power. Another person went to HD to try one out and the "beast" wouldnt start and had multiple problems from sitting. Not lookin good so far....sorry. Must be the curse of china

[GMLC]

I guess a homeowner can just keep returning them till they get a good one. But as a business owner time is money. I can't help but think if these were sold through a dealer a lot of these problems would be avoided. Still uncertain of cut quality and over all quality. Pics please!!! Video please!!!
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