I recently got a couple of old but working (somewhat) Victa Professional 550 SP mowers. I got them for our acre of Kikuyu.
Had a quick one in between the downpours yesterday and while it worked well even on the highest cut height setting (10) - it cut far too low for my liking, taking the kikuyu down to reveal the white sections - which to keep weeds at bay is too much for me.
I figure atleast another 10mm in cut height is needed.
I don't think I can raise the carrier disc so the only thing I can think of to achieve this is to add spacers in between the engine and where it mounts/is bolted into the deck.
Would this be the recommended path of action folks here would advocate? The only complication I can forsee is that it might slightly alter the angle of the drive belt to the rear SP section but being that it's a flexible belt and 10mm or so shouldn't be a huge angle change I hope this isn't an issue.
Figure I can use either multiple washers, an oversized nut or even some holesaw cut sections of formply that are painted with a hole in the middle as spacers.
Thank you in advance for your feedback and guidance. :-)
Hi Nick, My advice would be to sell the 550's and chase down a 24 inch/600 with a 2 stroke fitted, they are miles ahead anything else even though they are not self propelled
I appreciate your reply and take onboard what you say but alas whimp I am, I need it to be SP - otherwise I'd hang in with the Honda HUT216.
I thought the 550 Pro's were well regarded as I read nothing but good stuff on them wherever they came up.
That aside I have to stick with them and atleast give them a try - I drove a 10hr return trip for them - so if you've any idea on the best way to increase the cut height, via spacers under the engine or otherwise I'd greatly welcome it.
Appreciate the advise but if I sold these without even really trying them I'd never get any cred back with the wife. :-/
Hi Nick, the 550's are good, it is just the 24's are so much better, bigger wheels make them much easier to push/manouver around. Lifting the motor doesn't help that much because it still leaves the skirt dragging on the grass, increasing the diameter of the rear wheels will lift it, I'm still trying to work out how that could be done. Bigger front wheels fairly simple. Only other way is to cut and weld the arms the axle is on and lift it that way but that is quite difficult. Anything can be done it depends on how much time you are prepared to put into it. This question of what to use in this situation you have is not new it is a problem we have discussed here before, if there was a machine that would do it we would be all over it.
100% get where you're coming from - and of course as they say hindsight is a beautiful thing and perhaps had I known about the 24"s advantages I might have given them more consideration - which is only to say I have to give the current 550's a bit of a crack, if no good I'll cut my losses and perhaps consider a 24" as part of the platoon approach to solving the issues here.
I get what you're saying about lifting the motor still leaving the skirt on the grass - that said I didn't find this a problem too much and the grass was (due to the combination of loads of rain, very hot days and an inability to mow it due to the first 2 factors) longer than it's been in the near 4yrs we've been here. But I agree that raising the motor isn't perhaps the easiest path- unless I raised it a lot I doubt the angle change would cause issues with the drive belt angle/array?
But you're (again) 100% right in that increasing the size of the front wheels as first thing to try....haha to give myself a little credit, I did realise this earlier today before I saw your reply.
The 550's I received seems to run smaller wheels on the front than on the rear - and changing this over to similar sized wheels could be about the 10mm height increase that would likely be ideal.
First thing I tried was taking the front wheels off the Mastercut 460 I had just used to cut the chicken coop's grass. Alas no luck as the thickness of the arms(unsure if right term?) the wheels slide onto were thicker on the 460 than the 550. Not to be stopped I changed the bearings out of the wheel ouoters - they went on then BUT the 460's wheels were too wide and I couldn't get the fastening pin/thingy back on to hold them in place.
So then I had a pair of old Rover rear wheels from a SP mower - not ideal as have extra weight in them BUT went on one side fine but on the side with the sideshoot the larger wheel wouldn't go on as it then rubbed against the chassis/deck. So I'd have to cut atleast a small piece of the deck out or perhaps if very lucky just grind some off.
So will have to reassess best path but alas just changing to bigger wheels seems tricky as well....real Murphy's law scenario.
Oh yes, rest assured given the plethora of mowers I've been through and continue to do so I am not doubting that there's no single best machine - so I know I will need several different ones - am committed to staying with the Honda HUT216 (as it's amazingly good when I have the energy to push cut everything), the Mastercut 460 (as it's superlight and can go where the bigger mowers can't)......other than that the 19" Honda, 21" Masport and these 550's are on trial periods and will be shipped off if no marginal benefit. :-)
Cutting and welding the axle arms sounds a bit of a worry - I've only got an old ARC welder and I'm very bodgy on it - I'd worry that any welding might do as much or more harm than good with how rough things are here and the bashing they'd take.
Thanks again - let me know if you have anymore ideas. :-)
Hi Nick, As you have found out Victa are the only mower that uses a 9/16th axle the others use 1/2 inch, always makes things hard. A self propelled 24 would be the ultimate machine but nobody ever though about building one. One other thing with them they have a much better balance point than the 550's so the are very easy to operate with the front wheels up in the air, they balance easily on the rear wheels and because the wheels are bigger are easy to push. I know how heavy those Hondas are that aren't self propelled and the 216 when the transmission fails are near impossible to push around
I think you could Araldite some 10 mm rubber that would be wrapped to the treads on the back wheels,the only problem would be the drive speed would be increased. Then fit bigger front wheels.
Yes Max I had thought of increasing the rear wheel diameter, didn't really want to go that direction because from my experience they already go a bit fast for me to keep up
Hi Nick, As you have found out Victa are the only mower that uses a 9/16th axle the others use 1/2 inch, always makes things hard.. I know how heavy those Hondas are that aren't self propelled and the 216 when the transmission fails are near impossible to push around
Hi Norm,
Yes,the odd thing was the old Victa and newer one had different axle sizes - the 550 being smaller. Oh yes I'd not be able to push a 50-60kg mower around, the ~35kg HUT216 is enough to keep me clinging onto some vague cardio health.
Originally Posted by maxwestern
Hi Nick and Norm I think you could Araldite some 10 mm rubber that would be wrapped to the treads on the back wheels,the only problem would be the drive speed would be increased. Then fit bigger front wheels. Cheers Max.
Hi Max, good idea - I did consider this but actually so that the rear wheels (which obviously drive it) would give a bit more grip, as I noticed they spun a bit in the wet grass when i briefly trialed. I have done this before, cut up a spare or old bike tyre with a similar width and use the 'tread' section - worked quite well.
I'll see I did use a grinding disc to just thin the chassis a little as it's old school quality and almost 10mm thick around it's bottom edge, so by taking this off very careful I was able to fit one of the larger spare wheels I had on, looks like i will have enough room to put a few washers behind it and also the securing clip on it, which is ideal. Good thing is the wheel actually hides the thinning of the chassis marks so no way to see that - not that I'm worried about aesthetics just yet. SO I will try and get those on today and see if thats usable.
If I may be so bold and ask a quick quezzie to save a new thread.....I removed the rear wheels and greased the inner parts, the plastic 'dogs' (sorry you can tell I'm a rank amateur!) but that was completely dry so blew out any debris and ensured it had grease in it. Haha I assume this is ok?
Also are there any particular lube points on the 550 Pro I should tend to? I know they have a sealed gearbox on the rear, I assume opening this and regreasing would be a good practice?
It's already had a carb rebuild, new filter and cleaned and gapped the plug - seems to run strongly.
Thank you again ever so much. Have to go mow front yard now while it's still cool, 19" push mower. :-/
I've seen the drive gears lubricated with grease before but I personally would not grease the outer drive gears,I know the wheels have dust seals but dirt and debris eventually works it's way in and will stick to the grease if the gears are lubricated.
YouTube Video showing lubrication of the inner drive gear and I would grease the wheel bearings and / or bushes.
A couple of pics below mentioning the drive gearbox assembly grease specification and lithium spray can be used on axles or grease.
Not sure of other other people's views about using grease on the drive gears but I think if you use grease the debris sticks to the grease and if no grease is used the debris can find it's own way out past the dust seal.
Much thanks for your excellent reply - hmmmm I completely see your logic - I'll have to monitor it and see if debris is getting in there, if so I'll remove the grease.
Thank you also for highlighting on the 550's drive shaft and gearbox assemby sheet that info on the box.....I did see that as after I posted this I went looking for a workshop manual.
I am figuring it's likely overdue for it's 'major service' so I might try and see if there's an easy way atleast to check on the quality of the grease thats in there already. I'm unsure if it's easy to access the gearbox or open, I couldn't see any obvious ways to do this but will have a poke around.
Much thanks again for excellent info and taking the time to reply - it is appreciated.
Yes it's always good when gear assemblies are easily greased without disassembling gear housings , example Austin Seven steering boxes were fitted with a grease nipple.
Some factory recommendations about lubricating axle shafts for wheel bushes and lubricating the drive gears was to leave them dry because lubricating them in a dirty environment will accelerate wear.
Much thanks for sharing - thats very interesting to know and of course does make a lot of sense. I think next time I'll check here before jumping in and assuming whats best. :-)
