[brucec32]

Mowing today I again noticed my anti-scalp wheels gouging a bit on the drought-stressed thinner turf when making sharp turns. They all do on all brands. That reminded me to ask Santa Claus for castering anti-scalp wheels on the outside of Decks (ala Kubota mowers). Also make sure the elves put quick adjust height pins on them so they can be used on a variety of turf types.

I've done some pretty impressive gouging when turning into hills or slight rises. The net effect is that I suspect that most users rarely set them down as far as they otherwise would, which negates much of their value. Seems like a low-cost improvement that would be a good selling point.

 

[eXmark]

bruce32,

We've looked at the caster type rollers and almost without exception the manufacturers that have offered this type of roller for an extended period of time have eliminated it.

From what we've seen they often are so loose that they bounce and pivot around so that when they do make contact with the ground the tear the turf before they can right themselves. This causes more turf damage when mowing in a straight line and the same amount when turning. The other problem often seen is that they corrode and then are even slower to right themselves when they make contact with the ground.

Some things you can do. You may want to raise them one hole. If you don't get any scalping and the rollers are doing any damage then there's no reason to lower them more. You can also rotate the rollers. Generally the front corner rollers do most of the damage when turning. These are also the two that wear the fastest, followed by the front centers and the rear rollers last the longest. Simply swap the rear rollers with the front corner rollers. The newer the roller the less damage it will do in turns.

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Thanks

Terry

 

[brucec32]

good idea on swapping them. I'll try it when needed. I figured there was some technical obstacle to getting them to work well.

I alread do have mine raised a level higher than normal, to avoid it. But it'd be nice to really contour to some lawns with them set low w/o fear of tearing in turns. With the lazer i can solve this by raising the deck with the pedal slightly in turns, but with wb's that wouldn't be possible

Perhaps some sort of weighted system to keep them pointed up front except when contacting the ground would avoid one of the problems you mentioned. Or even,(talk about corrosion) a spring loaded system so that they wouldn't spiral around and cause problems when they hit going the wrong way.

 

[eXmark]

Bruce,

We looked at some tensioning systems for this type of set up but in the end they were too expensive and only marginally improved on the issues your seeing but we'll keep looking at it.

Thanks

Terry

 

[ffemt1271]

mine gouges too. it is when turning a sharp corner, and the lip of the anti scalp wheel tears the turf. what is needed is a dome shaped "hub cap" for the anti scalp wheels to make it round on the side so it doesnt gouge the turf

 

[Runner]

I'm sort of confused, here, because I've NEVER experienced any kind of turf damage with these rollers. Mine are set on the second from bottom. I had to put them that low so I wouldn't get the lower cut on the outside edge when making fast sweeping turns. The only place I gues I HAVE experienced any kind of gouging is once in awhile while climbing backwards diagonally from one side of the ditch to another.