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Any idea why a walk behind mower would make this sound?

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Discussion starter · #22 ·
GSO LAWNEN4CER said:
Bearings in pulley are shot. It we be loud then get a tick louder. Then it will go quiet. When it goes quiet,the bearings and the complete inside of the pulley is gone.
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seems to be the general consensus... have you had a mower do that before?
 
#25 ·
Turf Chopper said:
how old was the machine? and how long after you started noticing the sound did the bearings go?
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It’s not necessary a age thing. Sometimes you just get a chitty pulley with bad bearings in it. Length of time before the inside of the pulley has disintegrated? It’s a coin toss. Could be a month,could be a week. Could be before you finish the property you’re on.😂
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
TPendagast said:
Sounds like gator or high lift blades to me
That’s a wind/turbine noise

I’ve heard lots of scags (and clones like lesco) sound like that over the years and nothing “wrong“ with them
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interesting, but ive never heard those blades make that kind of noise before
 
#28 ·
Bale twine around the blades?
 
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#30 ·
Turf Chopper said:
interesting, but ive never heard those blades make that kind of noise before
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What I’m saying is I have
A lot
And for extended periods of time
Without a major break or failure

could be combination of baffles and blades
But the turbine noise reminds of what a leaf sucker sounds like sometimes.

some mowers have a lower more hummmmm noise
These ones it’s semi common to hear the whine
I’ve heard it in demos when new
So much so , I didn’t really think much about it

the Walker makes a similar but different noise but it’s also pto driven and not belt
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
TPendagast said:
What I’m saying is I have
A lot
And for extended periods of time
Without a major break or failure

could be combination of baffles and blades
But the turbine noise reminds of what a leaf sucker sounds like sometimes.

some mowers have a lower more hummmmm noise
These ones it’s semi common to hear the whine
I’ve heard it in demos when new
So much so , I didn’t really think much about it

the Walker makes a similar but different noise but it’s also pto driven and not belt
Click to expand...
Makes sense to me- out of curiosity what mowers have you demoed? maybe i can find a correlation in design between some of them.
 
#32 ·
I can tell you thsat when the guy in the video shuts down the mower, you can hear the strange wining sound and that is NOT from any sort of gator style blades. I have ran Gators for quite a few years under several mowers, both belt and shaft driven (I own both types right now actually and have owned both types at the same time in the past as well). They do not sound like that at shut down when the blades are slowing to a halt. I run them under both flat top decks like most commercial mowers have, as well as under tunnel decks, both resi and commercial. That sound is coming from somewhere in the deck's drive system.
 
#33 ·
Turf Chopper said:
Makes sense to me- out of curiosity what mowers have you demoed? maybe i can find a correlation in design between some of them.
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It might be easier to say what mowers I haven’t used.

bad boys , and wasn’t there another like big dog?
Swisher , woods mow n
Machine
Trying hard to think of something I haven’t at least you’re with
Very limited with the snappers but I think they disappeared
Diablo
What’s that one with the tank track altoz?
There’s a blue one can’t remember off hand I think that began with a D

That’s about it
I’ve been on , run , owned or operated just about anything else

Dixie chopper used to have some unique noise to it as well

as far as an old lesco goes
If it runs and cuts clean don’t worry
 
#34 ·
Ridin' Green said:
I can tell you thsat when the guy in the video shuts down the mower, you can hear the strange wining sound and that is NOT from any sort of gator style blades. I have ran Gators for quite a few years under several mowers, both belt and shaft driven (I own both types right now actually and have owned both types at the same time in the past as well). They do not sound like that at shut down when the blades are slowing to a halt. I run them under both flat top decks like most commercial mowers have, as well as under tunnel decks, both resi and commercial. That sound is coming from somewhere in the deck's drive system.
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It’s the same type of noise snow blowers make as well as leaf suckers
If it was a bearing then eventually there would be a catastrophic failure
Followed by a repair
Followed by a new part and no more noise
Since that hasn’t happened in the 30 plus years I’ve been doing this
It’s highly unlikely that noise is a bearing or the above sequence would have happened multiple times by now

bearings like that screech not whine and they wobble/vibrate and come loose or seize
 
#35 ·
I know what bearings sound like when they go bad. I have been running mowers for every bit as long as you T, whether as a full time job or part timer. I know the sounds they can make. I have had sealed bearings that were bad for a long time (and I do mean long time) that never actually totally failed. I know what they sound like too. This sound in the video linked here isn't the same, but it for sure isn't gator blades making it. Like I said above, it is in the drive system of the mower deck somewhere.
 
#38 ·
Ridin' Green said:
I know what bearings sound like when they go bad. I have been running mowers for every bit as long as you T, whether as a full time job or part timer. I know the sounds they can make. I have had sealed bearings that were bad for a long time (and I do mean long time) that never actually totally failed. I know what they sound like too. This sound in the video linked here isn't the same, but it for sure isn't gator blades making it. Like I said above, it is in the drive system of the mower deck somewhere.
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Well it’s gotta be super common
I’ve heard turf tigers sound like that too
The tiger and the swz have completely different deck drive systems
 
#40 ·
Ridin' Green said:
By deck drtive system, I am referring to not just the actual drive but the entire thing- the belt, pulleys, idlers etc as well as bearings under and on top of the deck.
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Yea I hear ya

I’ve just heard that sound a lot
Including new mowers

pretty sure that year scag in the video had greaseless spindles too
They dropped the grease zirks by over half in the mid 2000s-2010s time frame

that buzzy whine noise isn’t on exmark for example (at least I’ve never heard it) so I wonder what the differences are?
 
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