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I own an Ariens 1028 RER . I have a pretty small lawn (.28 acre) which slopes gently and steadily away. I have two completely different grasses , but both types are thick and hearty even in dryer times of the year.

I am finding myself mowing this lawn almost twice every time I try to mow. There's leave behinds, stepping and just flat out missed rows . Today I walked off two twelve foot and one 20 foot length that I had just gone over but where the lawn was essentially uncut. It was a tiny bit damp from the cooler evening temps, but nowhere near being too wet to cut. If I run over it again, it cuts it.

It has recently sharpened blades on it, new belts, and I've recently revisited and adjusted tensioners and the deck itself. I'm running out of things to try to adjust to improve the output of what is seemingly a perfectly working mower.

This replaced a low-end toro recycler push mower that I was using up until two years ago. I have some tight spaces in between fences and garden beds, which is the main reason I bought the 28-inch wide rider - convenience. But this poor mowing has me thinking about making another change.

I'm at the point where I'm feeling the need to ask; are these small rear engine riders really for someone else? Am I just asking too much from this? Are these for tiny, flat yards with no bumps and few sharp turns?

Frustrated.

Edit:
Next door neighbor 1: has 34-inch Deere RER, outperforms mine but leaves lots of stepping on turns. I'm convinced if he slowed down he'd be fine. I, however, am mowing in speeds 1 and 2. He hates going slower than 4.

Neighbor 2: 'varna zero turn. Not a blade of grass missed.

Neighbor 3: 42" craftsman LT1000 - perfect mow on an almost car on copy lawn.

In the past I've never had an issue with: 42-inch or 36-inch mowers at my parents place. Also a flawless cut from a 48" deck over all sorts of terrain at my in-laws place, using an ancient beater of a tractor.

These are the things which make me frustrated at my current situation.

Is the deck rigged correctly? Level left to right, and slightly lower in the front than the rear? Tire pressures set to spec? (check this first)

Besides checking the deck for levelness as stated, is your engine running at full speed? 3200-3400 RPM's. Second, are you sure that the brakes on the spindle are releasing, allowing the blades to turn as fast as possible? Finally, I don't want to be a smart &$, but is the blade installed correctly? Every season I will have a least one unit with the blades installed upside down.

Rivets said:

Besides checking the deck for levelness as stated, is your engine running at full speed? 3200-3400 RPM's. Second, are you sure that the brakes on the spindle are releasing, allowing the blades to turn as fast as possible? Finally, I don't want to be a smart &$, but is the blade installed correctly? Every season I will have a least one unit with the blades installed upside down.

Click to expand...

Gees & I thought that only ever happened to me.

So yes you need the right blades, cutting at the right angles, in good condition , at the right speed.
Very common to have a customer complain of a bad cut only to find no flute ( the upturned bit ) left on their blades and then it is mission impossible to convince them they need replacing because "there is plenty of cutting edge left".

You might need to fit some higher lift blades to work with your particular grass.
The right lift can make an immense difference.

cpurvis said:

Is the deck rigged correctly? Level left to right, and slightly lower in the front than the rear? Tire pressures set to spec? (check this first)

Click to expand...

I have checked the deck. I am level side to side, and I adjusted my pan so that it is just shy of the maximum 1/4" spec in difference between the front and the back.

Tires are supposed to be at 14 psi all around. 3 of four are rock solid and every time I check them they are on target. My left front has a slow leak in it which requires me to fill it from about 9 up to 14 every time I want to mow.

Rivets said:

Besides checking the deck for levelness as stated, is your engine running at full speed? 3200-3400 RPM's. Second, are you sure that the brakes on the spindle are releasing, allowing the blades to turn as fast as possible? Finally, I don't want to be a smart &$, but is the blade installed correctly? Every season I will have a least one unit with the blades installed upside down.

Click to expand...

How could I verify that this little 10hp b&S engine is running at desired RPM? It sure sounds steady and fast, but I can't hear it as clearly when I'm moving and mowing. I don't believe that I'm hearing any rpm drops that coincide with seeing poor grass cutting.

The 28" mower that I own does not have a brake or an idler with a brake on the spindle. The only things I can check there are the belt and the tension on it, plus the belt finger to make sure it is in the right place, and both of those things have been checked out.

I definitely have the blade installed properly. It is a blade specifically for the installed mulching kit, too. There is no spec for the lifts in terms of size. Service manual just talkes replacement after lifts 'become eroded'. I'll check them out again, but I don't recall noticing the lifts not being still like new.

I do have a brand new blade for it to compare to or to replace it with and just see if there is a difference.

The Ariens RER works best with the factory original blade belt. I have seen some aftermarket replacement belts used on the Ariens RER that weren't wide enough in the pulleys and caused the blade belt to slip. The blade belt should fully engage about 1/2 to 3/4 travel on the blade engagement lever. The adjustment is a bolt near the front axel. By tightening the bolt, it pulls the deck forward and tightens the belt. Also make sure that the cutting edge of the blade is facing the grass discharge on the deck. I used to sell Ariens and always found them to cut about as good as any mower on the market and if it's not cutting right, I'm thinking there is something going on with the pulleys or the belt or blade not being right?

How often do you cut?
How tall is the grass?
Are you cutting more then 2 inches off the top?

Level the deck from the blades not the edge of the deck.
Try healing the deck. setting the back of the deck a 1/4 inch lower then the front. I have found that on MOST mowers healing the deck gives a much better cut.

Does it leave uncut grass when cutting both types of grass?

cashman said:

The Ariens RER works best with the factory original blade belt. I have seen some aftermarket replacement belts used on the Ariens RER that weren't wide enough in the pulleys and caused the blade belt to slip. The blade belt should fully engage about 1/2 to 3/4 travel on the blade engagement lever. The adjustment is a bolt near the front axel. By tightening the bolt, it pulls the deck forward and tightens the belt. Also make sure that the cutting edge of the blade is facing the grass discharge on the deck. I used to sell Ariens and always found them to cut about as good as any mower on the market and if it's not cutting right, I'm thinking there is something going on with the pulleys or the belt or blade not being right?

Click to expand...

The problem was happening for a while, when I finally decided to go all-in and just change the belt and adjust the deck at the same time. I already had to replace my drive disc, so I was underneath - why not knock out several issues at the same time. I bought a stens true blue replacement belt. It came in noticeably thicker, but the right length. I did adjust the tensioner right to the service manual spec (I forget to which lever notch specifically at this point.)

Problem persists.

Pulleys were moving nicely, but I guess I can't specifically rule out something binding up intermittently. Didn't look much at the spindle, other than noticing it was a lot cleaner than I expected it to be.

Carscw said:

How often do you cut?
How tall is the grass?
Are you cutting more then 2 inches off the top?

Level the deck from the blades not the edge of the deck.
Try healing the deck. setting the back of the deck a 1/4 inch lower then the front. I have found that on MOST mowers healing the deck gives a much better cut.

Does it leave uncut grass when cutting both types of grass?

Click to expand...

I cut more than once a week, as an average. Typically this will mean 3.5" grass being cut down to 2.5" height unless I was out of town for a period of time. But I'm expecting a worse cut if it's wet or extra tall. My coming here is a product of getting the crappy cuts when I'm well within a normal/reasonable scenario. Maybe putting it another way, I rarely if ever have any visible clippings laying on the lawn when I'm done. I just won't cut that much off because of it is tall I'll raise the cutting height to compensate.

my blade is level to the deck pan bottom lip on each side, and my deck pan lip is level to the flat garage floor (left/right). So for me that's good to call a level blade.

Thought I should add... I don't really get the purpose of the vents on the deck pan (4 slots surrounding the spindle) but they are opened at the factory according to the manual ... To help with bagging. This has the mulch kit installed though. Maybe this isn't a big deal, but it has always made me wonder about whether or not those should be fully open.

You did not mention that you were mulching, and that puts a totally different angle on things.
Mulching with a standard or universal deck ( does everything poorly ) is always a hit & miss affair.
The height of the grass after mowing and the actual length of the cut grass can make a drastic difference.
As will the temperature, he dampness of the grass and the type of grass you are cutting.
The airflow under a deck is a very complicated thing, which I for one have little understanding.
However it does require a lot more power to keep all the cuttings swirling around getting recut & recut.
So your original premice might be correct, a 10Hp engine will be working hard to do a good 28" mulch.
8/24's and 10/30's are an excellent size mower for blocks up to 1 acre if throwing or bagging but mulching might just be asking too much.
I run a lot of very old mowers 1960's & 1970's all around the 8/30 format .
I use these as loan out mowers at times like this when I have 9 mowers in the shop waiting for parts.
None of these will mulch. They all cut, throw and even bag quite well but none will mulch, the decks are just not deep enough.

About the only small RER that does a really good job of mulching I have come across was the 30" Toro Recycler and that has a 14Hp engine and a deck specifically designed for mulching.
Now my exposure to RER's is quite limited, they are not big sellers down here.
However those I own and service , that were not originally mulching, just do not mulch.

From what you have written it appears that you have done everything you can properly.
Dose it cut well without the mulch plug in place ?

KrazzyB said:

Thought I should add... I don't really get the purpose of the vents on the deck pan (4 slots surrounding the spindle) but they are opened at the factory according to the manual ... To help with bagging. This has the mulch kit installed though. Maybe this isn't a big deal, but it has always made me wonder about whether or not those should be fully open.

Click to expand...

The holes (vents) around the spindle is to help keep the spindle cool. You need to keep these open and free of grass.

Why would you install a mulch kit if you are bagging?

When you bag you do not want a mulch kit. And you want you use high lift blades not mulching blades.

Carscw said:

The holes (vents) around the spindle is to help keep the spindle cool. You need to keep these open and free of grass.

Why would you install a mulch kit if you are bagging?

When you bag you do not want a mulch kit. And you want you use high lift blades not mulching blades.

Click to expand...

No no... I'm not bagging. The service manual for the mower says:

" The vents are opened at the factory to increase airflow into deck for bagging purposes. To open, align the vents on deck with spindle housing holes (Figure 12)."

... Well they are indeed already open. So I have yet to adjust anything there. I am not bagging any clippings. I just raise the deck higher if the cut is ever more than an inch and a half or so.

bertsmobile1 said:

You did not mention that you were mulching, and that puts a totally different angle on things.
Mulching with a standard or universal deck ( does everything poorly ) is always a hit & miss affair.
The height of the grass after mowing and the actual length of the cut grass can make a drastic difference.
As will the temperature, he dampness of the grass and the type of grass you are cutting.
The airflow under a deck is a very complicated thing, which I for one have little understanding.
However it does require a lot more power to keep all the cuttings swirling around getting recut & recut.
So your original premice might be correct, a 10Hp engine will be working hard to do a good 28" mulch.
8/24's and 10/30's are an excellent size mower for blocks up to 1 acre if throwing or bagging but mulching might just be asking too much.
I run a lot of very old mowers 1960's & 1970's all around the 8/30 format .
I use these as loan out mowers at times like this when I have 9 mowers in the shop waiting for parts.
None of these will mulch. They all cut, throw and even bag quite well but none will mulch, the decks are just not deep enough.

About the only small RER that does a really good job of mulching I have come across was the 30" Toro Recycler and that has a 14Hp engine and a deck specifically designed for mulching.
Now my exposure to RER's is quite limited, they are not big sellers down here.
However those I own and service , that were not originally mulching, just do not mulch.

From what you have written it appears that you have done everything you can properly.
Dose it cut well without the mulch plug in place ?

Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't make that clearer (or include it in my original post at all, really) ... That it's set up to mulch right now. Yeah; might have been important.

I like your insight and yeah some of that was filtering into what I was wondering. I have not yet removed the plug and tried mowing. I think I'm going to do that this weekend and see what I get. First I'll check the blade lifts again just to see. I'll compare with my new blade (both of which are the ariens mulching kit blade part numbers). If there's no difference I'll just remove the plug and mow to see what I get.

10hp may just be too limited for mulching with this pan. This pan, by the way, is very shallow. It's like a saucer compared to some others. Not to mention... I'm 215 lbs, plus the mower itself, plus the turf, plus...

Thought that may be the case.
You really need a good 3" to 4" of space above the blades for mulching to work.
Problem comes because the same spindle is used in a multitude of mowers and so while the 28" mulching blade will fit in your deck, it might not necessarily work in your deck