I have a cub cadet enforcer 54" and am having several problems and wondered if anyone had any solutions. The first problem comes with longer grass it seems to get bogged down easy and even in some short grass it will just skip over the long sprigs that stand up. Is this a blade problem or what. The second problem is laying down stripes. In shorted grass the cut is good and it lays down adequate stripes, but i need the deep defined stripes as I am doing several commercial deals and apartments complexes.
how to get better stripes out of my cub cadet enforcer
gatorfan903
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I have a cub cadet enforcer 54" and am having several problems and wondered if anyone had any solutions. The first problem comes with longer grass it seems to get bogged down easy and even in some short grass it will just skip over the long sprigs that stand up. Is this a blade problem or what. The second problem is laying down stripes. In shorted grass the cut is good and it lays down adequate stripes, but i need the deep defined stripes as I am doing several commercial deals and apartments complexes.
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I have this exact mower with 150 hrs on it, so far so good. You MUST keep the deck clean and blades sharp, it is an entry level commercial. Do you have the 23hp Kawi? If the blades are sharp and deck is clean have the dealer check your rpm's. Mine has a striping roller which works good but when I was having trouble with turf tear I added a 75 pound plate on the rear frame which helped with the strips as a side effect. If everything checks out you may need to go to medium lift blades which create less drag so in theory it will bog less.
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no i have the kohler engine, and where did you purchase your roller from
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I have a 48 inch Enforcer and have experienced some of the same problems. If the sprigs of grass are really long they just lay over and the suction isn't enough to pull them up to be cut off. Kinda like if you were to be mowing a hay field with it. The long round shafts of the longer grass don't get sucked up to where the blade is.
There was an updated blade that came out for my 48 which is sharpened closer to the center hole and it does better and not leaving stuff behind than the original blade that was only sharpened for the last 4 inches of blade or so. Possibly they came out with a better blade for your 54. After seeing the new blades I used a 4 1/2" grinder to make my old blades look almost like the new ones and they do better.
From my experience, the hard round shafted vegetation is always going to give these mowers a problem. The round shaft just doesn't get sucked up by the vacuum like any flat bladed grass.. I can go from cutting a junky yard that has round shafted weeds that leaves a few sticking up to a nice yard with lush grass and the good grass gets cuts cleanly and looks great on the same blades.
My 48 will bog down some in the heavy grass and it will clump if the grass has a lot of moisture in it. I tend to think it's because of the baffles and the fact that it's a mulching deck. I pay close attention to the change in RPM of the engine when I am in heavy grass and it just makes sense to slow down a little when the RPM drops. The blade tip speed drops too and with enough drop it will start to leave grass standing up so I just slow down. Most yards don't make me have to slow down much or there might be a spot or two that is thick like that and then I can resume a fairly quick speed.
As far as striping, I have finally started to get better results after 2 years. The first thing I finally noticed was that the roller across the rear of the deck can be lowered. There are 2 sets of mounting holes in the 3 brackets on the rear of the deck. So lower those brackets to the lower mounting holes. Then make sure your tires are aired up the same and I use a digital gauge since they are the only thing that you can use to get an accurate measurement with at the low psi in most lawn tires.
Then check the level of your deck. I believe the consensus on here is that the rear of the deck should be 1/4 inch higher than the front of the deck. The rear of the deck on my 48 was much higher than that and by lowering the rear of the deck some it also lowered the roller which helped with the striping. On mine, I do have to pay more attention to scalping when turning after I lowered the rear of the deck.
That's about all I know and if anyone has some suggestions I'm open to them. I do hope to get a wider mower as soon as I can afford to do so but, I would not want to get rid of my 48 inch mower. I have some back yards that I couldn't get into if the deck on my 48 were 1/4" wider and they are not a back yards that I would want to push mow or even walk behind.
I wish I had started trying to sell some jetskis sooner this summer and I could have gotten a bigger ZTR that would lay down some beautiful stripes by now. Now it looks like I'll have to winterize those babies this weekend.
PS. I have seen some pictures of yards mowed by the Tank line of Cub's and some of those mowers lay down beautiful stripes and I wish my Enforcer could do similarly.
There was an updated blade that came out for my 48 which is sharpened closer to the center hole and it does better and not leaving stuff behind than the original blade that was only sharpened for the last 4 inches of blade or so. Possibly they came out with a better blade for your 54. After seeing the new blades I used a 4 1/2" grinder to make my old blades look almost like the new ones and they do better.
From my experience, the hard round shafted vegetation is always going to give these mowers a problem. The round shaft just doesn't get sucked up by the vacuum like any flat bladed grass.. I can go from cutting a junky yard that has round shafted weeds that leaves a few sticking up to a nice yard with lush grass and the good grass gets cuts cleanly and looks great on the same blades.
My 48 will bog down some in the heavy grass and it will clump if the grass has a lot of moisture in it. I tend to think it's because of the baffles and the fact that it's a mulching deck. I pay close attention to the change in RPM of the engine when I am in heavy grass and it just makes sense to slow down a little when the RPM drops. The blade tip speed drops too and with enough drop it will start to leave grass standing up so I just slow down. Most yards don't make me have to slow down much or there might be a spot or two that is thick like that and then I can resume a fairly quick speed.
As far as striping, I have finally started to get better results after 2 years. The first thing I finally noticed was that the roller across the rear of the deck can be lowered. There are 2 sets of mounting holes in the 3 brackets on the rear of the deck. So lower those brackets to the lower mounting holes. Then make sure your tires are aired up the same and I use a digital gauge since they are the only thing that you can use to get an accurate measurement with at the low psi in most lawn tires.
Then check the level of your deck. I believe the consensus on here is that the rear of the deck should be 1/4 inch higher than the front of the deck. The rear of the deck on my 48 was much higher than that and by lowering the rear of the deck some it also lowered the roller which helped with the striping. On mine, I do have to pay more attention to scalping when turning after I lowered the rear of the deck.
That's about all I know and if anyone has some suggestions I'm open to them. I do hope to get a wider mower as soon as I can afford to do so but, I would not want to get rid of my 48 inch mower. I have some back yards that I couldn't get into if the deck on my 48 were 1/4" wider and they are not a back yards that I would want to push mow or even walk behind.
I wish I had started trying to sell some jetskis sooner this summer and I could have gotten a bigger ZTR that would lay down some beautiful stripes by now. Now it looks like I'll have to winterize those babies this weekend.
PS. I have seen some pictures of yards mowed by the Tank line of Cub's and some of those mowers lay down beautiful stripes and I wish my Enforcer could do similarly.
I cut this with the Enforcer I had. I set the deck up correct, lowered the striping roller on the back of the deck and cut it at 3"
![Image]()
This is a different property but actually in worse condition. This one was cut with the Scag I currently have with deck set correct, no striping kit cut at 3"
![Image]()
This one is a nice property. I used the Scag WITH the Tiger Striper kit.
![Image]()
I can only hope that you have better luck with your mower. The Enforcer I bought fell apart on me after 20hrs to include eating 3 belts in the first 10hrs, fuel tank leaking, throttle cable wouldn't stay in the "high position, just to many things to list!
This is a different property but actually in worse condition. This one was cut with the Scag I currently have with deck set correct, no striping kit cut at 3"
This one is a nice property. I used the Scag WITH the Tiger Striper kit.
I can only hope that you have better luck with your mower. The Enforcer I bought fell apart on me after 20hrs to include eating 3 belts in the first 10hrs, fuel tank leaking, throttle cable wouldn't stay in the "high position, just to many things to list!
Trade it in....
not trying to be so harsh. But it is a cub cadet
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Normally I would try to make any mower work that I have and not trade it or anything, but I agree with the other posts, cut your loses now before you have problems with the cub. Some guys have had good luck with their newer cubs, and some have nothing but problems.
MTD sucks, and I don't care what model, commercial or not, they skimp on just about everything to make them as cheap as possible to keep profits up. Go check out their 21 inch snow blowers and you'll see what I mean. They decided to take the metal auger out and just use the paddles to clear snow. Anything around 2 inches and it's worthless. I wonder how much money they save on each blower without the metal.
I so wish cub-cadet was still their own company and not owned by MTD. Cub used to be one of the best mowers, now it's at the bottom.
MTD sucks, and I don't care what model, commercial or not, they skimp on just about everything to make them as cheap as possible to keep profits up. Go check out their 21 inch snow blowers and you'll see what I mean. They decided to take the metal auger out and just use the paddles to clear snow. Anything around 2 inches and it's worthless. I wonder how much money they save on each blower without the metal.
I so wish cub-cadet was still their own company and not owned by MTD. Cub used to be one of the best mowers, now it's at the bottom.
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^^^^ That's most likely why......
I would think that's the reason why but there are people on here saying that they "crash" at 20-30 hours. It's not like I'm cutting perfectly flat areas of grass. The terrain pretty much sucks. Of the 5 acres or so, there are some flat areas but there are ruts, wash-outs, and hills. I know that commercial cutters are using their units everyday though...that does make a difference.
Looking at the newer CC's, they look "cheaper" than the older ones.
I haven't racked up many hours on mine, only 200 or so. No trouble though, thankfully.
I do wish my dealer still carried Hustler though, I'd try one. I'm not planning on leaving this dealer though just for the fact of good service.
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I have the cub enforcer with the striping roller on it and it stripes better than anything around (exmark, scag, dixie chopper) i lowered my rollers all the way down. if you have POS yards dont think its going to make it stripe good first off. i have 600 hrs on mine and NOTHING has happened to it. alot of it is checking over everything right after you buy it from the manufacturer.
You have a point there, check it when you get it. The manufacturer has become very "slack" on assembly. I have noticed this on some of the newer mowers...talking to friends that have newer mowers.
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so is it worth it staying with cub cadet because our dealer has been as helpful and reliable as I could ask for and also i can buy a new walk behind and 72" tank for the same price as just one 72" scag, or dixie chopper
You get what you pay for.
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Currently i have an enforcer, and a 60" classic dixie chopper. I like the cub ALOT better! I am investing in a TANk 60" this winter!
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I had a 2007 cub cadet 27 horse, the $3,300 Home Depot version lawn tractor, to cut 7 of my 18 acres. I hated the thing so much I practically gave it away and bought a new Exmark 60" Lazer Z and love it. My question is, why would anyone buy a cub with all of the "safety inconveniences"? Are the zero turns as much of a piece of crap as the lawn tractors? I still get sick to my stomach thinking about that sorry piece of machinery. No power steering, push a button 1st to go in reverse, blows white smoke cutting inclines, belt comes off at least every 15 minutes, free three year warranty repairman is backed up for 8 months and his shop is 3 hours away, deck chute ripped off after hitting a tire, lots and lots of paint pealed off all over the top of the deck, seat started to tear, white hood turned yellow and oxidized, and on,and on, and on, I could go listing all of the reasons for everyone to buy a nice mower instead of a piece of crap. I keep my mowers showroom clean and new in a heated garage year round in Mississippi and I am 6' 185 lbs. I did not abuse the Crap Cadet if that is what you are thinking. I hope this helps you all out there considering buying one. My best friend owns the John Deere Dealership and told me he would not sell me any JD unless it cost over $6,500 - because even JD makes crap - they all do. If you want a piece of equipment to last you have to buy big. Save yourself all of the headache and save - get a 2nd job for a while - whatever, just buy a JD 883 or bigger, an Exmark 25 horse or better, or anything that costs at least $7 grand. Otherwise, hire your mowing out.
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I have cub enforcer, dizie chopper and rode exmark. I like the cub best of everything and it also stripes better than any of those other i have. I have never changed anything but tighten a ciouple bolts and oil and hydro fluid they are great machines!
I guess it depends on what model or series of CC you get. I had a residential zero turn and it did fine. I wanted something a little heavier so I got the M48 TANK. No problems with it either. It hauls me around just fine and I like too eat...6'2" 270#. I have a GT2554 garden tractor and no problems. So far I'm 3 for 3. Actually 4 for 4 counting the CC I had for for 12 years. I cut plenty of rough areas and plenty of hills. I was going to say something about the cost of the mowers but the residential ZT I had was only $3,600. The GT plows snow just fine too.
A friend of mine has a M60 and likes it...no problems. Another friend has a M54...no problems. My neighbor has a RECON 48...yep, no problems.
7 for 7 so far around this area. I'm not saying CC doesn't have problems but the Exmark dealer up the road has his share of repairs too.(btw, I like Exmarks).
A friend of mine has a M60 and likes it...no problems. Another friend has a M54...no problems. My neighbor has a RECON 48...yep, no problems.
7 for 7 so far around this area. I'm not saying CC doesn't have problems but the Exmark dealer up the road has his share of repairs too.(btw, I like Exmarks).
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