I have had my Cub Cadet LT1045 since 2007 and have never had any of these problems mowing in central Florida until four years ago and Northern Georgia for the rest of the time. I also mow about half an acre of my own, and two other neighbor lawns, one about the same size as my own. I always mow dry grass; never wet and never get any grass cutting build up under my mower deck but I do sharpen or replace my blades each season with the standard blades for the machine. I also cut at 1/3 throttle at 3" for normal grass and 4" for thick grass. The bottom of my deck has no grass accumulation to speak of. I love my Cub Cadet and put a new short block engine in it about a year ago and have replaced all three spindles about the same time and just recently replaced the deck bolt for the tensioner arm because the self locking nut was slipping. I have replaced the deck belt about three times and the drive belt about a year ago with Kevlar belts. I have no complaints about performance of my mower. They are not for the mechanically challenged, however.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Mower deck gets packed with grass - Cub Cadet XT1 (LT50) - Please help!
- Thread starter baxeckert
- Start date
More options
Export threadbertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
- Threads
- 65
- Messages
- 24,995
People forget that grass is a living thing and as such is not universal
It changes day to day & even hour to hour
Right now the grass is lush & green but the cattle are loosing weight because after the floods the ground is water logged so the water content of the grass is so high that the cows can physically not eat enough by volume to get the nutrition they need so they are being feed molassis as well + a salt lick.
If I try to mow any more than 1" off the top of the grassy verges it clumps & leaves grass turds all over the place because it is just too wet .
Around the house I am using the reel mower because it will handle this type of soft wet grass better than a rotary can .
All of my commercial customers, except the one who mows road verges & median strips carry several sets of different blades and in extreme cases have to change them for every job
FWIW the blades that are least worse for most grasses are the gator style of blade but only when used with an open chute that is big.
I have extended the chute on several Murray 42" decks so the grass clippings can get out other wise they leave windrows .
It changes day to day & even hour to hour
Right now the grass is lush & green but the cattle are loosing weight because after the floods the ground is water logged so the water content of the grass is so high that the cows can physically not eat enough by volume to get the nutrition they need so they are being feed molassis as well + a salt lick.
If I try to mow any more than 1" off the top of the grassy verges it clumps & leaves grass turds all over the place because it is just too wet .
Around the house I am using the reel mower because it will handle this type of soft wet grass better than a rotary can .
All of my commercial customers, except the one who mows road verges & median strips carry several sets of different blades and in extreme cases have to change them for every job
FWIW the blades that are least worse for most grasses are the gator style of blade but only when used with an open chute that is big.
I have extended the chute on several Murray 42" decks so the grass clippings can get out other wise they leave windrows .
I always blow my z-turn off with my 80cc backpack blower. No blade of grass stands a chance against that kind of volume. Even grass under the pulley shrouds. When I change/sharpen my blades, I always remove the deck and scrape it with a putty knife. But I'm rethinking that part after reading Bert's post. I never thought of the fact that dried-up grass could be creating a more advantageous shape underneath and better air movement. I'm going to try leaving it next time.
I would also spray the bottom with fluid film after scraping but started to suspect it was damaging the grass. I recently saw a video by donyboy where he applied old motor oil on the underside with a paint brush. I was wondering what others thought about that.
I would also spray the bottom with fluid film after scraping but started to suspect it was damaging the grass. I recently saw a video by donyboy where he applied old motor oil on the underside with a paint brush. I was wondering what others thought about that.