Finally demoed a SCAG Cheetah today......REVIEW

[Ridin' Green]

Originally Posted by MJB

RG, I'm jealous , I've wanted a 900 series Deer for quite a while, but as I get older I find myself being more frugal with $10000. being my ceiling. Maybe I'll look at a 700 series next time. I've done well with my Exmarks over the years, and have a very good reputation in my area for doing quality work. I'd like to switch to Green, or at least put it on top of the list for next year.

As far as the slope thing I would chalk it up to overexuberance, excitement, exaggeration, and a new mower! We've all done it at some time.

Thanks. So far, I'm really loving this thing. It really needs some sort of suspension seat (Deere being cheap bastages and all ), but other than that, it is great. I sorta worked (or parlayed) my way up to this one. I don't like to finance them, so I bought what I could here and there and slowly worked up to it buying and selling many different machines (not just mowers), until I could pay for it without strain.


Yea, I think you're right about the slope degree thing. Hard not to overdo it when you get something you reallly like. Been there done that too.

[StihlBR600]

Originally Posted by Ridin' Green

As a guy who made his main living as a rough carpenter for his entire career, I can tell you this, a 7/12 pitch roof is 30 degrees, and no one in his right mind could ever ride a mower across an angle that steep and have it hold for long before sliding down all the way to the bottom.

BR600, -
exactly how did you measure this hill to determine the angle? Not trying to give you a hard time, but that's a really steep hill for a Z, and I don't believe any Z including the TT, the Cheetah, my Z950 or any other brand would hold it.

I laid a 2 X 4 down the hill to get a flat surface and put an angle finder on it, and it read 32 degrees

[StihlBR600]

Ok after a full day of mowing i found something that i absolutely hate about the Cheetah and really really pissed me off. If your cutting at anything above 4.25 inches the deck will bounce just enough to catch in the fully raised position. I know what everyones ones going to say. "your going to fast" I was going super slow and it still did it. I couldnt find a way to somehow tie the deck release lever down on the job so i had to hold it while cutting a 2 acre yard! Also another thing that pisses me off is Lawnsite Sh!tty photo upload process. It never works!

Does anyone know about the Velocity decks adjustable baffle and what it does? yesterday i found out that the Velocity deck doesnt mulch grass very well at all.

Oh yeah and i Change my previous rating of the Vanguard 32 HP from an A- to an A+ because i realized it has all the power in the world fr cutting grass.

[StihlBR600]

Heres a picture of the amazing stripes the Cheetah lays

[mtmower]

Originally Posted by StihlBR600

Ok after a full day of mowing i found something that i absolutely hate about the Cheetah and really really pissed me off. If your cutting at anything above 4.25 inches the deck will bounce just enough to catch in the fully raised position. I know what everyones ones going to say. "your going to fast" I was going super slow and it still did it. I couldnt find a way to somehow tie the deck release lever down on the job so i had to hold it while cutting a 2 acre yard! Also another thing that pisses me off is Lawnsite Sh!tty photo upload process. It never works!

Does anyone know about the Velocity decks adjustable baffle and what it does? yesterday i found out that the Velocity deck doesnt mulch grass very well at all.

Oh yeah and i Change my previous rating of the Vanguard 32 HP from an A- to an A+ because i realized it has all the power in the world fr cutting grass.

Thanks for the honest and great info. Great pics. There's a bunch of very good machines out there but if you spend enough time on one and depending on your grass type and lay of your land your always going to find a negative or two. Or maybe it's just me being too picky. I just bought a Gravely 460 and one of the things that I do like is the deck lift has a setting which locks out the transfer latch so it will never latch no matter how high it's moved by bounce or operator.

[orangemower]

Originally Posted by StihlBR600

Ok after a full day of mowing i found something that i absolutely hate about the Cheetah and really really pissed me off. If your cutting at anything above 4.25 inches the deck will bounce just enough to catch in the fully raised position. I know what everyones ones going to say. "your going to fast" I was going super slow and it still did it. I couldnt find a way to somehow tie the deck release lever down on the job so i had to hold it while cutting a 2 acre yard! Also another thing that pisses me off is Lawnsite Sh!tty photo upload process. It never works!

Does anyone know about the Velocity decks adjustable baffle and what it does? yesterday i found out that the Velocity deck doesnt mulch grass very well at all.

Oh yeah and i Change my previous rating of the Vanguard 32 HP from an A- to an A+ because i realized it has all the power in the world fr cutting grass.

Did you install the full baffle kit from Scag along with the correct blades? If not, then you can't say it doesn't mulch well. Those stripes look nice.

[reath1]

Originally Posted by StihlBR600

Ok after a full day of mowing i found something that i absolutely hate about the Cheetah and really really pissed me off. If your cutting at anything above 4.25 inches the deck will bounce just enough to catch in the fully raised position. I know what everyones ones going to say. "your going to fast" I was going super slow and it still did it. I couldnt find a way to somehow tie the deck release lever down on the job so i had to hold it while cutting a 2 acre yard! Also another thing that pisses me off is Lawnsite Sh!tty photo upload process. It never works!

Does anyone know about the Velocity decks adjustable baffle and what it does? yesterday i found out that the Velocity deck doesnt mulch grass very well at all.

Oh yeah and i Change my previous rating of the Vanguard 32 HP from an A- to an A+ because i realized it has all the power in the world fr cutting grass.

BR, it's really hard for me to tell from the pic of the side but check the deck lift assist springs. It looks like the one I see is in the lower hole but it's really hard to see. Where they bolt onto the deck, if they are in the lower hole, it will take more weight off of the deck. If this is the case you can move them to the upper hole and it will add quite a bit more weight to the deck and should help the bouncing situation but will be slightly harder to lift with the pedal. If you want to experiment try moving one at a time to find a happy medium between effort to raise and bouncing.

[weeze]

why cut at 4.25 inches? that seems really high to me but i'm from the south. i cut at 2". maybe try cutting at 3 1/2 inches and it should fix the problem of the bouncing deck.

[Ridin' Green]

Originally Posted by StihlBR600

I laid a 2 X 4 down the hill to get a flat surface and put an angle finder on it, and it read 32 degrees

Wow. Well then, you ought to post up a couple pics of the board and protractor showing the degree of the hill, and one of you on your new Cheetah going across it. That'd convince a lot of guys on here that it is possible to mow those steep banks with a Z instead of a WB.

It would make a good advertisement for Scag too.

[StihlBR600]

Haha ill go ahead and take a pic of the angle finder and ill park the Cheetah next to it. Today i cut this cazy steep hill and it held it better than my old Toro Z master. I was little disappointed about the ride quality and cut quality. so this morning i checked the air pressure in the rear tires and they were at 25 psi! i was pissed because the dealer said they went over everything before i took it home. Theyre supposed to be at 12 psi. After i adjusted the air pressure it made all the difference in the world.