54" Raptor SD Hills help? Turf tires?

I can put my SD 54 on at least 30 degree slopes,,as long as its a strait slope its pretty good,if the slope drops off one way or the other the high side tire breaks loose first,then you go for a little ride down the hill hoping nothing is in the way :)
 
I have a new Raptor SD 54 and also have some problems with sliding going down a hill. I only mow when it is dry and going up works fine. I was thinking of replacing the stock OTR Grassmaster 20x12-10 with Carlisle AT101 21x11-10 but it appears that they wont clear the fender. The Grassmaster appears to 18 7/8" high x 10.4 wide and this only gives me about 1 3/8" clearance on the fender. Has anyone tried any other tires for traction on the SD 54?
John
 
I ended up sipping or grooving my tires using an angle grinder and cut off wheel..I grooved them in both directions,helped very much...the machine i such a light machine it will slide down hills and so forth once in a while..thats just the way it is.
 
577jersey you said "I grooved them in both directions" but I am unclear as to what you mean by both directions. I had previously put 3 circular grooves around the tire toward the outside 1/3 tread of each tire which seemed to have some minimal improvement mowing side ways when it is not real steep but I am chicken so far trying to go sideways on steeper areas.
John
 
Siping a tire means cutting grooves from one side to the other in a desired pattern for whatever terrain you're wanting to traverse. It is used in Dirt Track Racing to grab the damp clay of the track.

Siped Tires.jpg

You do not have to have a siping machine. You can use a circle saw by setting the depth to about 1/8" to 3/16" depending upon how much available rubber sitting above the carcass of your tires.

You can grind the grooves in, however, you won't usually get quite as square a sipe wall as a cut sipe.

Good luck,

Max
 
577jersey said:
I can put my SD 54 on at least 30 degree slopes,,as long as its a strait slope its pretty good,if the slope drops off one way or the other the high side tire breaks loose first,then you go for a little ride down the hill hoping nothing is in the way :)
Click to expand...

The ole lady with 3 hours of seat time. This was her first encounter with a hill. That ditch is about 6-8 ft deep. Lucky and blessed -only got some bruises. She won't go near the ditch now.... highly suggest that all be trained on hills before use.
 

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coxey2 said:
The ole lady with 3 hours of seat time. This was her first encounter with a hill. That ditch is about 6-8 ft deep. Lucky and blessed -only got some bruises. She won't go near the ditch now.... highly suggest that all be trained on hills before use.
Click to expand...

Nice new transmission brace. That sure is one way to inspect it.
 
Would be a good time to install the muffler heat shield before you resume mowing. lol

Don't forget to pull the plugs and spin it over before you try to start it.
 
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