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Cub Cadet LT 42 lawn tractor. Only 7 hours on the unit. Belt keeps coming off the mower deck. All springs in place. Everything appears to be working. However I can't seem to cut the whole lawn without having to put the belt back on. No easy task as I have to remove the belt cover to do this. Cub Cadet takes many days to answer an email. Apparently my closest service center is in another state over 50 miles away. I did a lot of research before selecting a Cub, did I make a mistake?

Gator325 said:

Cub Cadet LT 42 lawn tractor. Only 7 hours on the unit. Belt keeps coming off the mower deck. All springs in place. Everything appears to be working. However I can't seem to cut the whole lawn without having to put the belt back on. No easy task as I have to remove the belt cover to do this. Cub Cadet takes many days to answer an email. Apparently my closest service center is in another state over 50 miles away. I did a lot of research before selecting a Cub, did I make a mistake?

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Sounds like your 1st mistake was buying from a box store....did you? Box stores do not repair them, most of the time and just try to send you on down the road!

leave the belt cover off while some one engages & dissengages the blades while also changing the deck height
Watch FROM THE LEFT SIDE to see if you can identify where the belt is jumping off the pulleys .

Some time ago there were a bad batch of decks and the fix was to change one of the idler pulleys.
Search the cub forum for "deck belt problems" it should come up
or " Deck fix "

Once a belt has thrown a few times it becomes damaged internally so will never stay on.

And i will double up on what King has just said you may have saved $100 on the new price but you now have $ 300 worth of headaches.

mower king said:

Sounds like your 1st mistake was buying from a box store....did you? Box stores do not repair them, most of the time and just try to send you on down the road!

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I did a search for a Cub dealer, Home Depot was close. The next dealer was 40 miles away or in another state. Live and learn.

I would check to see that when the deck is engaged and the belt is pulled tight, the belt is not pulled up against the lower or upper part of the pulleys. One little "hiccup" and the belt is off. This could be caused by a weak pulley bearing or phlange, allowing the pulley to become cocked. That new of a machine shouldn't be worn like that, but "shouldn't" doesn't mean "isn't". Belt could also be wrong size, routed wrong, chewed up, or stretched. Good luck, Friend. It's frustrating enough on an older machine, but practically new brings out the temper tantrums, for sure.

Gearjammer said:

I would check to see that when the deck is engaged and the belt is pulled tight, the belt is not pulled up against the lower or upper part of the pulleys. One little "hiccup" and the belt is off. This could be caused by a weak pulley bearing or phlange, allowing the pulley to become cocked. That new of a machine shouldn't be worn like that, but "shouldn't" doesn't mean "isn't". Belt could also be wrong size, routed wrong, chewed up, or stretched. Good luck, Friend. It's frustrating enough on an older machine, but practically new brings out the temper tantrums, for sure.

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Thanks, I have delivered the unit to another repair center. I advised them the first one recommended by the dealer said nothing was wrong with it. You are right about the frustration.