Hi Max, some years ago they tried a tow mower behind this ATV and it was garbage, totally useless so they bought a new John Deere rideon. That seem ok. Before that they had a Massey Ferguson that I got working again last year. I still have to change the oil in the ATV and put a new battery in it and we can give it a try. The Briggs motor is up and running fine and we are using the ATV fuel tank so that is another job out of the way. It should be good and he will never bog this mower. Still thinking about putting at least another half deck on one side so he can get up close to the fences
This has been causing us quite a few issues with the deck height altering. I think we have found the issue with the U bolts on the axle tubes moving, a few mm either way causes a big difference in the deck height and position. We have decided the only way to stop this is to weld the U bolts to the axle tubes. I didn't want to do this but it is the only way to control the deck height and stop it moving. Bit of work to do on the Honda and it should be good to go. The ATV makes the 38 inch deck look small
What about adding some adjustable gauge wheel assemblies. Better would some better gauging wheel that rotates. Or at least that what on tow behind mowers here.
I probably wouldn't have widened the deck to get closer to the fence as the wider it is it's harder to mow around trees .
You can widen the deck if need be but I would just mount the deck more to one side.
I can't see it not moving around even when welding the u bolts onto the axle tubes as it's fitted like a tractor slasher but a small compact Tractor is 2 to 4 tonnes and it still uses at least one wheel at the back of the deck , this bike being a lot lighter than a tractor will move the deck all over the place, especially when turning in my opinion.
It's getting there shouldn't take too much more work , I guess weld the bolts and try it but if it's still moving it's just a little more work to fix.
Hi AVB and Max, Yes it is very springy at the back and unlike a tractor this has suspension so even the axle/diff is rubber mounted. We can only try it and as a last resort I will have to fit a castor wheel out the back. I have moved the deck as far as I can go and we do have another idea to move it further across if we have to but that will involve quite a bit of cutting and shutting work but it is still an option. Another option we have thought about is mounting a wheeled whipper snipper I have here to it so he can drive along the fences and trim them.
Hi Max Yes plenty of hours spent on the little things, the bulk bit of setting up the deck was reasonably quick but it is all the fiddley bits at the end. He is thinking his neighbours are going to be envious of him being able to mow his lawns when they can't because their mowers keep getting bogged. The beck is able to follow the ground contours it picots from the front so the deck can lift up if it has to but the chains stop it from going down if it went over a mound . Belt cover and a coat of paint and it should look a finished product
Mower seems to be working ok, bit of a problem with the swivel wheel at the back not wanting to swivel when going from forward to reverse and vise versa so I will increase the offset and see if that improves things
Bit disappointed with the swivel wheel again, I increased the rake on the wheel from 40mm offset to 60mm offset but the wheel now hits the deck so I have to cut the leg off and move it further outwards. It isn't a problem because at the moment the grass is growing slowly and the way the rain is looking we look like not having a lot of flooding so we should be able to use the zero turn without issues this year. All depends on how the spring rains go this year
The mower looks like it's cutting well, I've found the caster wheels don't want to swivel well in certain circumstances unless the turning shaft has bearings ,like a push bike or motor bike front forks.
I'd probably make a bracket first to lock the wheel straight and see how that goes as the wheel may just skid a little and not effect anything.
From Wikipedia below
Trail or trailing
Caster angle and trail both influence the steering, albeit in different ways: caster tends to add damping, while trail adds "feel" and returnability.
The caster wheel on shopping carts are an extreme case – the system is undamped (unrestricted motion) but stable, as the wheel oscillates around the "correct" path. The construction has relatively high trail, but no caster, which allows changing of direction with minimal force.
In this case the lateral forces at the tire do not act at the center of the contact patch, but at a point behind the center. This distance is called the pneumatic trail and varies with speed, load, steer angle, surface, tire type, tire pressure and time. A good starting point for this is 30 mm behind the center of the contact patch.
I guess you could measure a shopping cart wheel to get the offset then upscale the offset to the wheel size you are using to get the best results.
I've also seen caster wheels change direction more easily when the pivot bearings are out in a wider path , like 2 flat plates at the top of the wheel with the balls in between the 2 plates and with the bearing balls spaced out to a foot.
Hi Max, I used a bit of 40mm Delrin for the bush and the wheel is sitting on the Delrin but you might be right that I have to put a thrust bearing in there. It all gets very technical and I originally didn't want to use a wheel but I ended up having to because with the suspension on the 4x4 everything moves all over the place and even the diff rotates as the the suspension goes up and down. It has made mounting it very difficult be we keep bashing on with it
Hi Max, I finally got to alter the castor wheel on the back of the mower yesterday, I had originally had welded it about centre of the back of the deck, so this time I welded it in line with the centre of the motor and that improved things so it is now mowing as it should. The only downside is the ATV is a bit bulky and its turning circle isn't good. Now all we have to do is wait for the Spring rains to come and see how it handles the really wet ground. The way the weather is looking though we may not have a rain problem this year, probably end up mowing dust
