Go BottomFinishing Mower Creates Furrows
 | Ronnie Franks
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2000-10-10 20488
I have approximately 4 acres of yard in Alabama which I mow with my Bush Hog RDTH72 finishing mower behind my JD 4300 hydro. My problem is that the yard isn't entirely level although it's not terrible by any means and it's very sandy soil. When the mower moves across an uneven section, it allows one of the four wheels to break contact with the ground and the wheel turns sideways on its caster. When the ground levels out again the soil is so soft that instead of the wheel turning on its caster it remains sideways and creates a large furrow. It has the solid rubber tires which are rather flat across the tread instead of the pneumatic tires which are more round (cross section wise). Does anyone have any ideas how to prevent this? Would the pneumatic tires have been a better choice? I don't think it's feasible to have my entire yard as flat as a pool table. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2000-10-11 20509
Here's an idea. Pretty complicated though. It's sort of the reverse of cross-wind landing gears on light airplanes. If the casters had relatively long shafts that extended through the shaft housings and lugs near the top, then the wheels would drop on the shafts when there is no weight on them. The tops of the shaft housings could be fabricated with a ramp for the lugs that centred the wheels when the wheels dropped into the ramps. When weight is back on the wheels, the lugs are pushed off the ramps, and the lugs are released. I'd be surprised if some mowers aren't designed like this.
I thought about small coil springs on the shafts, but springs probably would just end up wound around the shafts.
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| Brent B
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-10-11 20512
My Belly mower has aspring attached to the wheel yoke shaft, If the wheel comes off the ground the spring pulls back to keep the wheel pointed straight. What
does the dealer say? ....
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| Bird Senter
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 962 
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2000-10-11 20513
Ronnie, I have an RDTH60 and have not had that problem, possibly only because of the difference in our soils, but one thought occurred to me. Are you keeping the grease zerks on the caster arms well greased so the wheels can turn freely? ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2000-10-12 20529
Tom, great idea but how do you drop the mower on the numbers when it's behind you like that? LOL ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2000-10-13 20533
Hi Murf. Like the 'Great ideas o Mice n Men,' mine are sometimes more like the mice. I don't think I really considered it realistic to do the fabrication I had in mind. It was sort of like a shaft with a lug, or cross piece, near the top, and a cap, sort of like a funnel with a twist, on top of the shaft housing. When weight is on a wheel the shaft is up in the housing, and the funnel width is wider than the lug, and the shaft could rotate. When the weight is off the wheel, it drops into a narrower part of the housing, and a twist centres the wheel. I'm not sure I've got the twist thing completely thought through, but something along those lines should work. On the other hand, from other responses, it seems like a spring will work, so why worry. However, I still can't figure out why a spring wouldn't just get wound around the shaft during tight maneuvering, unless the mover was raised.
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2000-10-13 20544
The easiest way I have seen is to file or grind the top of the tube the caster wheel sits in into a 'ramp' then put a bolt into the shaft of the wheel, when it lifts the bolt runs down the 'ramp' into the straight-ahead position. Best of luck. ....
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| Tom Fischer
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-10-13 20551
Hopefully, one of the suggestions will help you with your problem.
Some mowers are designed for uneven terrain. One mfg is:
lastec.com
I'm not selling anything, just trying to help. ....
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| Danny Yerks
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-08-02 30603
I have an idea that might work, but it might not work if you back up a lot. If I remember right, the Bush Hog mowers have a pin at the top of the caster shaft that you remove to move the spacers around when adjusting the height. You could try replacing this pin with a long "eye" bolt with a nut on both sides of the caster shaft and adjust the eye bolt so it sticks out a couple of inches. Then, put a bungy cord from the eye bolt to somewhere on the mower so the tension from the bungy cord will keep the caster pointed forward. You might even be able to put the eye bolt on the front casters so it faces back and the eye bolt on the rear casters so it faces forward and then run the bungy cord from the eye bolt on the front caster to the eye bolt on the rear caster for each side. This will only work if the holes in the caster shaft are drilled parallel to the wheel, which is how it is on my LandPride mower, but I’m not sure how it is on yours. I hope this made some sense!
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