OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield 5XL

Norm, what you have to look at is the idler pulley setups on the various cutter belts.

On the 5XL, the cutter belt will be nearly a straight run from the engine pulley to the cutter pulley. So the shafts run in the same direction.

The HD8 runs the cutter belt path through a 90� turn, around two idler pulleys, as the cutter spindle is perpendicular to the engine PTO shaft. The shafts run in the same direction, as with the 5XL.

The Tractor-X and later models have vertical shaft engines, so the cutter and engine PTO shafts are in the same plane.
But running a short direct belt drive wouldn't work at all well, for a few reasons.

So what Greenfield did, is to run the cutter belt path through a 180� turn, via two idler pulleys near the rear of the cutter deck.

This allows the cutter pulley to be moved vertically [as cutter deck height is adjusted] without severe misalignment between the belt and either pulley - which would cause excessive belt wear.

However, the 180� turn also 'reverses' the direction of belt travel at the cutter pulley, and hence the direction of cutter rotation. So Greenfield had to go to LH throw decks on these.

It's not that easy to visualise, so here's a diagram:


As depicted here, the engine pulley rotation is clockwise.