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Hi folks, new member here. I very recently bought a new John Deere X570 lawn tractor with the 48" mowing deck. With the deck height dial set at 4" it actually cuts the grass down to just over 3". My lawn is pretty new, bluegrass sod was put down 2 years ago. Cutting the grass this low makes it turn yellow and brown. Even the company that treats our lawn said not to cut it under 4"and it definitely seems it's the right information.

I have the 7 year "bumper to bumper" warranty on it so the dealer is sending somebody over next week to look at it but they said they couldn't promise they could get it to cut at 4". They even said at first that the numbers on the dial are not inches. I then explained that the John Deere website I selected the tractor from says you can cut your lawn from 1-4 inches, in 1/4 inch increments.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if it was resolved satisfactorily. I didn't find any other complaints on the internet about this so my hope remains high that I can cut my lawn in the future without stressing it.

Comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated, for good or for bad.

Thank you,
Todd K Stearns

HEight of cut is nominal and measured from the CONCRETE floor of the workshop to the tip of the blades
In reality they will always be lower on the grass and depending upon how soft your soil is it can easily go to a full inch
If you want to cut at 4" you really need to look at one of the commercial mowers that cut 2-6" or 1.5 - 5 "

Thank you for the reply.
It's funny, I was just reading what you said in another similar post at:

As I said though I just bought this tractor so a new one is out of the question. Are larger tires available that would fit the X570 rims?
Any other solutions other than a new unit?

On the plus side, I have read nothing bad about the X570 whatsoever other than some consider the headlights not to be bright enough. That is not an issue for me as I use it in the daytime. Other than the cut height, I LOVE the way it cuts the grass. It's so uniform it looks twice as thick as it used to.

I have just went through the first 16 pages or so of the John Deere threads here and I don't see a single thread for the X570. I guess that is a good thing.

Clearance issue might the problem with going larger tires especially between the tires and the deck. The next size with turf thread is 26x12.00-12 for the rear and 16x6.50-8 for the front. This base on looking the mower's current tire according ipl and the available tires. Currently the ipl shows 24x12-12 rears and 15x6.50-8 (kinda of an oddball size). If they are already 16x6.50-8 then the next size is 18x6.50-8. Anyway these will take up one inch or more clearance on the front and rear and only raise the mower 1/2-1 inch.

I'm afraid to look at the Carlisle prices as they probably gone through the roof like everything else has lately.

If your sod is like the ones I walked on it is spongy soft so the heavy mower will sink into it.

You have your facts correct as these are the tire sizes the tractor came with, per the John Deere website and the tire sidewalls:


If I could get another 1/2 inch it probably would be satisfactory as far as not damaging my lawn when I mow it.
I tried to check the tire pressure to see if it's good but my gauge starts at 20 psi. They look okay though.

I know what you're saying about the sod being spongy. It was like that last year after it was put in but it's pretty firm now. As a matter of fact, I'm very impressed with the minimal tire tracks the X570 leaves when mowing. Though it's at least twice as heavy as my last rider, the effect is almost invisible. My last one left wheel marks for weeks because of it's much narrower tires.

Get a tire gauge that reads lower pressure. I have ones for truck and others for GT. Go 2-3 pounds above owners manual. Can't tell pressure by looking unless very low. I can see tractor raise as I add pressure. I mow at 3.5". My grass will lay over higher than that.

gotomow said:

Mowing grass too high

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to be rude, but did you read the original post in this thread?

Raisin, thanks for the reply. I did find a gauge that goes down to less than 10 psi but it's junk. I checked it against one I trust on my bicycle tire. There was a 14 psi difference at 60 psi! Finding a tire gauge is easy. Finding an accurate one is nearly impossible. Can you recommend a brand?

I hear ya on the grass laying over. Mine will do that over 4 inches. I have to mow twice a week to keep it at 4 inches. This is all what I'm told to do by our professional lawn service. They do the treatments and I do the cutting. We don't use Chemlawn or anything like that. It's a small, private locally owned company. Anybody they hire has to have a minimum 2 year degree.

Bluegrass is a real pain in the butt when it's new, but after a few years it's very durable and looks very nice. I just have to get it there.

IT does not need to be all that accurate
Good ones will come from tractor shops cause a lot of those run in the 10 to 20 psi range
You find an indicated pressure that works for you and then just use that number
A 0 to 20 psi gauge will not be very far out at 15 psi , even an ebay cheapie

Thanks Bert. I bought the following on Amazon:

WYNNsky Low Pressure Pencil Tire Gauge 1-20 PSI for Golf Carts, ATV'S and Air Springs​

It had good reviews on other sites and it will be here in a few days.

People get hung up on numbers.
If the tyre is 10 psi at 6 am in the shed then it will be 12 psi after being left in the sun for a couple of hours and perhaps right up to 15 or more in the heat of the afternoon.
SO you find a pressure that works for you measured at say 9 am in your shed and then always measure it at 9 am in your shed.
Like valve lash , to be reliably repeated it has to be done cold.

Not sure how your deck is mounted, but if you have an adjustable front drag link and there are no obstructions where you mow, you can also heel the deck.
That means raising the front 1/2 " higher than the back .
Down side is the mower will hang on any tree root etc it comes across and you will have to mow slower to avoid overwhelming the deck.
Good side is you tend to get a nicer cut when heeling because each blade of grass, except those right at the edge gets cut twice
Once by the front & again by the back.
That just might get you that extra 1/2" you are looking for.
If the deck has adusters on both sides then raise them both to the highest setting while keeping the deck level left - right then use the front drag link to adjust back to front.
Before you mow make sure that if you push the deck up to the limit of it's travel the deck pulleys do not foul on the underside of the mower or drive belt .
If only one side has an adjuster see if you can fit another one to the other side

Well I know nothing is perfect but I want some semblance of accuracy. It's over $300 to replace just the rear tires so I don't want to ruin them by over-inflating them too much. If you haven't noticed, I'm rather new at this stuff with lawn tractors. I'm erring on the side of caution when I can because of that and I spent a lot on this machine. I really appreciate everyone's input.

I don't have any tree roots but I do have a slope that's rather short but steep. When the deck height is anything less than max height it gets scalped pretty good. I know, fix the slope. Thing is I already made it a lot better than it was. There USED to be tree roots there but when I laid the sod I covered the roots with soil and leveled it out somewhat better. I'll improve it further one day. We'll see what the service tech says when he looks at in this Wednesday. I'll be sure to post on here what transpires so that it may help others too.

Here I inflate the front tire to 15 psi (cold) and the rear tires to 10-12 psi (cold). You do both left and right sides near the same pressure for level cutting side to side. Anyting above 12 psi will give a much rougher ride and my back don't like that.

Any tree surface roots should be removed most are just feeder roots. Personally I don't like removing them but it is necessary. I get a lot deck in with impact damage from roots. It can be costly to fix; just depends how bad od lick it took. I had one customer to completely hang up his mower and I had remove the deck and then cut and dig up root his blade was lodge into before I could move the deck.. He was worrried I was going to damage the deck. I informed him it is already damaged just how bad I had find out once I could get a look at it.

Good tire pressure gages are made by Milton Industries. Amazon carries a wide range.
Your operators manual states 14psi for the front tires and 12psi for the rear.
Have you adjusted the deck according to the instructions in your operators manual?
Get your tire pressure correct and adjust the deck as described in the manual.
Many times, the deck isn’t adjusted properly when a unit is purchased. Many times the tire pressure isn’t correct either.
Every riding mower that I’ve purchased came with too much air in the tires and the deck out of adjustment.

Dropping a tire gauge can change its reading. Good to have a couple. Maybe pencil and dial with pressure hold button. I agree Milton is good, sells hoses couplers etc. Farm stores sell it all.

Thanks guys. Yes, Milton was a top rated one from what I read up on today. I'll probably get one of those too. Right now I had to get what I could without too much delay.

The deck should have been adjusted and leveled when they were getting ready to deliver it. I specifically asked them about that. If they didn't do that then the guy that comes Wednesday can do it. My warranty covers at home service.

BTW, I just double checked the manual. 14 psi in the front tires, 10 in the back. This is for the X570. I don't want to spread disinformation. The internet has enough of that. I know you mean well though and I appreciate it.

Best tire gauge is one with no batteries.

slomo

I agree. Any instrument that is battery powered may still work when the battery is not at full charge but the reading will probably not be accurate.

You should have 14# of air in the front tires , and 10# in the rears . Make sure you have this , as tire pressures are critical to mower performance !

Have you explored using different blades? Many blades dip down at the ends. On my Jacobsen I installed Gator blades that don't dip down and changed the cut depth by 5/8" ....Mike.

toddsyr said:

Hi folks, new member here. I very recently bought a new John Deere X570 lawn tractor with the 48" mowing deck. With the deck height dial set at 4" it actually cuts the grass down to just over 3". My lawn is pretty new, bluegrass sod was put down 2 years ago. Cutting the grass this low makes it turn yellow and brown. Even the company that treats our lawn said not to cut it under 4"and it definitely seems it's the right information.

I have the 7 year "bumper to bumper" warranty on it so the dealer is sending somebody over next week to look at it but they said they couldn't promise they could get it to cut at 4". They even said at first that the numbers on the dial are not inches. I then explained that the John Deere website I selected the tractor from says you can cut your lawn from 1-4 inches, in 1/4 inch increments.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if it was resolved satisfactorily. I didn't find any other complaints on the internet about this so my hope remains high that I can cut my lawn in the future without stressing it.

Comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated, for good or for bad.

Thank you,
Todd K Stearns

Click to expand...

check you mower deck by measuring from cement to blade, from my experience these gauges are not correct. So set you gauge at say 3 inches then make adjustments with your mower deck however that is done, manual or check on you tube how to adjust it. set it up at a height on your gauge then move the mower deck to that height .

Mow at wide open throttle to raise grass to cut as per manual. I have not seen commercial mowers cutting as high as 4" here in S. Michigan. That's in my area.

I had a similar ( short cutting) issue so I bought a 4" pipe ( 3/4" x 4" pipe nipple at Home Depot), then set my HOC to 4" on the tractor. Then I used the pipe nipple to measure at the blade tips and adjusted the leveling screws with the JD T-wrench. This way I get the blades level and set at the normal 4" heigh I like to mow at. Double check that air pressure, it makes a BIG difference.

gotomow said:

Mowing grass too high

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with you. I don't know of a grass type that needs 4". I'd mow it at the top n come back a couple days later and mow it one notch shorter. Then mow as usual at top height. I've checked with our state ag extension office and don't see any grass type that requires 4" mowing. That said, mowing high intially will help establish deeper root growth, but the sod is 2 years old now and establishing roots happened within the first few months of installation and for sure the second season.

toddsyr said:

Hi folks, new member here. I very recently bought a new John Deere X570 lawn tractor with the 48" mowing deck. With the deck height dial set at 4" it actually cuts the grass down to just over 3". My lawn is pretty new, bluegrass sod was put down 2 years ago. Cutting the grass this low makes it turn yellow and brown. Even the company that treats our lawn said not to cut it under 4"and it definitely seems it's the right information.

I have the 7 year "bumper to bumper" warranty on it so the dealer is sending somebody over next week to look at it but they said they couldn't promise they could get it to cut at 4". They even said at first that the numbers on the dial are not inches. I then explained that the John Deere website I selected the tractor from says you can cut your lawn from 1-4 inches, in 1/4 inch increments.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if it was resolved satisfactorily. I didn't find any other complaints on the internet about this so my hope remains high that I can cut my lawn in the future without stressing it.

Comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated, for good or for bad.

Thank you,
Todd K Stearns

Click to expand...

Admittedly, my John Deere is a much older model and things may have changed, but my owners manual tells you how to make manual adjustments to the cutting height to make it match the height adjustor knob. Goes something like this.....make sure that tire pressures are correct and equal, go beneath the tractor between the frame and the deck to locate adjusters. Turn the blades parallel to the wheels and measure from the blade tips down to the concrete and use the adjusters between the frame and deck to make each side of the deck equal to the height on the adjustment knob. Then turn the blades perpendicular to the wheels and using another adjuster between the front wheels, adjust so that the front blade tip is 1/4 inch lower than rear blade tip.

If my instructions seem unclear, search for John Deere 345 owners manual online.

toddsyr said:

Hi folks, new member here. I very recently bought a new John Deere X570 lawn tractor with the 48" mowing deck. With the deck height dial set at 4" it actually cuts the grass down to just over 3". My lawn is pretty new, bluegrass sod was put down 2 years ago. Cutting the grass this low makes it turn yellow and brown. Even the company that treats our lawn said not to cut it under 4"and it definitely seems it's the right information.

I have the 7 year "bumper to bumper" warranty on it so the dealer is sending somebody over next week to look at it but they said they couldn't promise they could get it to cut at 4". They even said at first that the numbers on the dial are not inches. I then explained that the John Deere website I selected the tractor from says you can cut your lawn from 1-4 inches, in 1/4 inch increments.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if it was resolved satisfactorily. I didn't find any other complaints on the internet about this so my hope remains high that I can cut my lawn in the future without stressing it.

Comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated, for good or for bad.

Thank you,
Todd K Stearns

Click to expand...

Most of these decks are hung by 3 threaded rods, one on each side and one in front. If you can raise the nuts 1 inch, you can raise the deck 1 inch. Check to see if they will go higher.

I have an X320 and I love the way it cuts. 4" is way too high for me in Southern ON. I have it set so the bogey wheels barely touch/rotate. You might look and under deck adjustments to Deck Hangers.

Back up and punt.
1: Inflate your tires to the proper pressure.
2: Get your mower on a level surface and adjust according to the operators manual.
3: Mow you a test strip and measure the actual height of grass that has been cut. You now have a baseline.
4: Adjust your cutting height dial until you match your actual desired cutting height of the grass.
NOTE: Rarely if ever does the cutting height settings match the actual height of grass that is cut.
5: Your blades need to be sharp and you should mow with the throttle wide open.
Here is a guide for mowing Kentucky Bluegrass.

toddsyr said:

I'm not trying to be rude, but did you read the original post in this thread?

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with toddsyr. I don't know of a cool season grass that needs a 4" cut. Granted, you cut it higher when you first install the sod as that will help root development, but it's been 2 years now and roots should already be established. I've got a customer who needs 'walker' to help her get around and she likes to be out in her yard. Long story short, she MADE me almost scalp her yard (against my wishes and better judgement) .....so I did. Customer is ALWAYS right. Yes? Yes. And it's turned out just fine. (I 'cheat' a little in warm weather) Your bluegrass is a spreading grass (if it's kentucky blue) so you've had 2 years to develop root growth. I don't know what part of the country you're in, but where I'm at, it gets hot, but we're mainly a cool season grass region where bermuda is a PITA. So, what I'd do is cut your grass at you're highest, come back 2 days later and mow a notch or two lower and then mow normally. Does that 'brown/dead' look go away for you now? I bet it does. And, there's been 2 times where I've accidentally 'dropped' my deck to the ground.......both times that grass has come back. That lawn sevice MAY just be doing a CYA! Cool season grass height should be 3.5" in hot, shorter in cooler weather.

Lemme guess, if you were to wait a week between mowings......you'd be mowing 7-8" tall grass. Yes? I fired a customer for not letting me mow, for free, 3 days after scheduled mowing and then mow on normal schedule. Reason I wanted to do that? Because you're not supposed to cut more than 1/3 of the blade and I was double and triple cutting when only getting to mow once a week. Hard to do with most customers, but it was more a PITA for me to mow a green 'wheat field' once a week than to mow 'normal' grass twice a week.

WOW! A lot of responses today! I am glad to read each and every one of them. There's a lot of good info being presented here for me and others who may read this thread in the future.

Let me try and address the current situation, my mowing habits, region I live in etc.

Today they sent a service tech out to check the deck height and tire pressure. He agreed the deck was never properly adjusted even though I was told it would be before it was delivered a few weeks ago. He did some tweaking and got the cut height to just a fraction of an inch under 4". The blades are almost 1 inch higher than they were. BTW, I had Mulch Blades installed on the mower when I purchased it. These are John Deere Mulch Blades, part no. UC25185. The tires checked out fine. Thanks to folks on here, I know I can add a couple pounds more if I want just a bit more cutting height. I'll have to wait till the next mowing to see which will be in a couple of days. Yes, I probably could have learned to adjust the deck myself and I eventually will when I have the time. But, this should have been done by the dealer before delivery. Also, it's covered under the warranty. The dial for the deck height now goes all the way to the 4" inch mark. Before it only almost made it to there. I had guessed maybe the sticker was off a bit but I think not now.

I live in what's called Central NY by us folks. It's very near Syracuse in the middle of the state. Typical Northeast weather with some added rain and a helluva lot of added snow thanks to Lake Effect. I normally mowed my lawn with my last mower down to a height of about 3.5". That's as high as it would cut. It didn't seem to hurt the lawn at all. My lawn treatment guy said not to cut it lower than that at all. He suggested 4" but I told him I couldn't with the old mower. At 3.5" I have to mow twice a week to keep it from getting over 4" and leaning over on itself. This new mower was cutting at about 3-3.25 inches at the most. I was getting yellowing from that and some of that would brown unless I watered it the next day or it rained. Not good.

We paid to have the front and one side yard sodded 2 years ago. That involved removing large and small tree roots from almost every square foot of the yard and about 8 inches of new topsoil put down afterwards. The backyard and the other side yard I did myself last year. This was easier as there were no roots to remove. We do have a large pine tree out back but I was able to cover the roots for that when I did the back yard. First, I removed the old crappy grass/weed mixture by cutting it lower and lower to the ground. I then used a weed eater to get to the bare dirt. After running an aerator around to help loosen the hard soil, I spread about 1/2 inch of bagged Scott's Lawn Soil with Starter Fertilizer. I figured this would help the sod develop better roots faster and it helped level some uneven spots. I laid out over 7000 sq feet of sod in all, myself. It took a while and cost about 13 grand for everything, front, back, sides etc. so I REALLY want to protect my investment with a good mower/tractor because I'm NEVER doing sod again, LOL! Hence the John Deere X750 purchase.

I won't know for sure how my X750 is going to do until a couple of days from now, depending on the rainfall but I think there is going to be vast improvement. I hope I have addressed everyone's comments here as they all deserve a response. I will definitely report back after the next mowing. Again, I hope in the future this thread helps others as well.

Todd K Stearns

@toddsyr
Just remember, the setting on your mower may not reflect your actual cutting height. Cut a test strip and measure the length of the grass blades. Just stick a yardstick or measuring tape until it makes contact with the ground and observe where the grass tips hit. Adjust your dial settings until you reach your desired cutting height. You may have to do this again if and when you change types or brands of blades.

From the grasses point of view, taller is better
I live the the Blue Mountains at 1200' and I mow at 4" all year round
The workshop is at 130' on a flood plain and again I mow at 4"
We mow the pasture paddocks at 6" .
Long soft grass is nice under foot and smothers out weeds.
When we go into drought all sorts of trash comes to life once the grass dies back a bit

Yes Mr. Parr that is exactly how I measure the grass. Thanks for posting it for the benefit of other newbies too.

Bert, you are doing exactly what my lawn treatment guy says to do and why. Tall grass equals no weeds. Nice under foot? I've actually had compliments from people who say it's a pleasure to walk on my lawn. That's when it was being cut at 3.5 inches with the old mower.

It's raining pretty good here this evening. I bet I will get to mow the lawn tomorrow after work! Does anybody else here get excited when they have to cut the grass?????

Life is good.

Do I get excited when I have to mow? Not really but, it is relaxing. I mow 3 acres every week and it’s pretty bumpy. I have a mix of Bermuda, St. Augustine, Centipede and Bahia. Our property was once Pecan orchard and pasture. We’ve had 2.5 inches of rain since I last mowed.

Well, I was being just a bit silly, but.... with a new tractor and all...

I did mow today though the grass only measured just over 3 inches before and after I cut it. Even with the rain it didn't really grow. I did even it up pretty good though and it has most of it's color back so it should recover nicely from the short mowings. I might be back at it again Sunday, we'll see.

I have a john Deere 648r stand on and a Z930m. Both come multiple 1/4" washers between the blade and the spindle. You take away or add to these to adjust your blade height to match your dial settings. You would think that JD would do this at the factory, but was told by the sales person to check your blade height from a concrete floor to the blade and adjust the washers accordingly. Both of my mowers have the tweels on them and the bottoms flatten out more than regular tires. With pneumatic tires, your tire pressure can affect your cut height as well.

It would be nice if the factory did that, but.... why do that when they can save labor cost by passing the job on to the dealer?

It would also be nice if the dealer adjusted it before delivery too, like they said they were going to, but... why do that when they can save labor cost by waiting until after it's delivered and the customer complains. Then it's covered under warranty and the dealer doesn't eat the cost of the time.

I do appreciate your post. Those washers are worth taking a look at. I think I need some ramps now!

bertsmobile1 said:

IT does not need to be all that accurate
Good ones will come from tractor shops cause a lot of those run in the 10 to 20 psi range
You find an indicated pressure that works for you and then just use that number
A 0 to 20 psi gauge will not be very far out at 15 psi , even an ebay cheapie

Click to expand...

I use my “foot gauge” for the rear tires in my tractor. For the front, I use the bike pump gauge. It’s great for footballs too. I wish I had the name and model number. But it’s what all the bikers recommend.

I would like to close this thread out with a big thanks to everyone who chimed in.

I was able to let the grass grow to about 4 1/8 inches high with the recent rainfall. After mowing it measured about 3 3/4 inches high. This was accomplished by the dealer's service dept doing their house call and adjusting the deck properly. 3 3/4 inches is more than enough to keep the lawn from yellowing so I'm quite happy with it. I will try an extra 2 pounds of air in each tire just to see what difference it makes.

Again, thanks to everyone for all the help. Great bunch of folks on here!

Todd K Stearns