[troberts]

I have a new eXmark Metro 48"/15 Kawi v-twin (S/N: 241624). I purchased it last weekend from a local dealer.

The question or problem:

I start the mower, let it warm up a bit, throttle up, and engage the blades. Everything sounds fine so far. After mowing for 20 minutes, I disengage the blades to move something. When re-engaging the blades, it makes a rather loud screeching noise only for a moment, and then everything sounds fine again.

The mower is brand new with only about 2 hours (all from me).

Is this normal? Can you expain why this is?

NOTE: This is my first commercial mower, so I have nothing to compare it to. I only know it sounds dramatically different when first engaged (cold) than when re-engaged after mowing (warm).

Thanks for the help,

TMR

 

[eXmark]

TMR,

I can only think of two possibilities off the top of my head. The first one is to check the blade belt adjustment. With the weight of 3 blades and all the torque of the Kawasaki v-twin I fairly confident it probably needs adjusted.

The most probable cause to the noise you are hearing is that it is normal. A couple of things are occurring that make it sound worse upon re-engagement than it does when you first star the mower up. What is occurring is that after the belt has been run for a while it gets warm and has more grip on the pulleys. This added grip makes the belt squeal on engagement and can often sound rather severe. Second, ease the blade engagement in slowly. It is also recommended that you engage at a lower rpm.

If you are uncertain you may want to have the unit inspected by your Exmark dealer.

Thanks

Terry

 

[Guest]

My TTHP screeches almost everytime the blades are engaged at low RPM's & nothings broken yet at 450 hrs. BTW instead of disengaging the blades to move something just have an OPC override. That will save some wear & tear.

 

[eXmark]

Casey,

Where do I begin? Bypassing the OPC is not only NOT recommended but it can be dangerous. OPC stands for Operator Presence Control, if there is not operator present to control the mower it is supposed to shut off. If it doesn't bad things can happen. You may want to do a search in the commercial forum under this subject. You might change your opinion on bypassing the OPC's.

Additionally the mower was designed to have the belts engaged and disengaged frequently. You will not significantly effect the life of any components if you are engaging your blades properly. The noises being heard are normal and should be nothing to worry about. You should be more concerned with the PTO belt adjustment. This adjustment is much more critical to belt life than engaging and disengaging the blades.

Thanks

Terry

 

[Guest]

A 20 second blade NOT DRIVE override on the OPC would be a valuable feature on your machines. A switch that would keep the blade engaged for 20 seconds after leaving the machine would save multiple blade engagement wear & tear. No?
As is I bypass blade & drive OPC if I have to move something.

 

[greenml]

Personally i say leave all the saftey features alone.. suppose you start to fall off the mower and your natural reaction is to grab at the mower to keep from falling.. well you bump the switch and now its going to be on for 20 seconds.. well oops you just feel off and here comes 500-1000lbs of mower heading right at you... hope you can crawl fast for 20 seconds... i say leave the saftey features alone.. IM a firefighter/emt and have run many accidents. both homeowners and pro's that have had misc. accidents with mowers. bypassing it just sounds like and accident waiting to happen.. i would rather be inconvienanced than loose a foot or my life.
just my 2 cents.
Nick

 

[eXmark]

Casey,

Thank you for your input however I don't believe a "20 second blade override" fits well with our ideas on operator safety. Additionally I don't believe it would stand up to the ANSI specifications as well.

As always we do appreciate your input and will consider any suggestions you may have.

Thank you

Terry

 

[gogetter]

Casey, couldn't something happen in 10 seconds? ;-)

I agree, it is a pain in the butt to: set the thumb brakes.... put in neutral... throttle down a bit.... then apply blade brake. All to pick up one piece of trash, then: engage blades....throttle back up....put in gear.....release thumb brake and continue. Oops! another piece of trash I missed! Here we go again!

 

[Vibe Ray]

Okay, I have a suggestion......what if you make it so that IF you engage the parking brake, then you can let go of the OPC or get off the seat, whether the blades are engaged or not?

That way if you have to pick up a piece of trash, move an object out of the way then or leave your mower temporarily, all you would have to do is: move handlebars out (or put in neutral), engage parking brake, move object, bring handle bars in (or put in gear) and disengage parking breake. You could even make it so that the unit must be perfectly level in order for this bypass to work via the mercury tilt switch or some modified form of it at least.

Cause there are a lot of steps to go through just to leave the mower for a second if you are in the middle of mowing. This way would just eliminate the added steps of having to throttle down disengage blades, engage blades and throttle up.

Just my Two ¢...........@¿@