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I have a new Craftsman Pro-series 42" mower. I understand that the mowing deck is the cub-cadet unit. It spews debris out from under the mowing deck in all directions, even when connected to the Chip n'vac unit (Craftsman version of the Agri-Fab). I checked the blades and they have the rear corner folded upward in the fashion of a mulching blade. My thoughts at this time are that the deck itself is too small and the debris is coming off of the blades at a high speed, hitting the deck wall, and then bouncing down and out from underneath the deck without being captured by the airflow. You would think that with the Chip N'Vac connected that you wouldn't lose any material from underneath. My last riding mower was a Craftsman LT100. It did not throw material out like the new one does with or without the Chip N'Vac. Is this something that anyone else has experienced? I thought about raising the spindle bearing housings to see if that would help. I also wondered if a different blade would matter. The amount of debris thrown out is considerable. The yard definitely did not look clean after I finished. I recalled afterwards that I didn't operate it at max motor rpm which could make a difference but towing the Chip N'Vac at full speed isn't too practical. comments welcomed.

granpa49 said:

I have a new Craftsman Pro-series 42" mower. I understand that the mowing deck is the cub-cadet unit. It spews debris out from under the mowing deck in all directions, even when connected to the Chip n'vac unit (Craftsman version of the Agri-Fab). I checked the blades and they have the rear corner folded upward in the fashion of a mulching blade. My thoughts at this time are that the deck itself is too small and the debris is coming off of the blades at a high speed, hitting the deck wall, and then bouncing down and out from underneath the deck without being captured by the airflow. You would think that with the Chip N'Vac connected that you wouldn't lose any material from underneath. My last riding mower was a Craftsman LT100. It did not throw material out like the new one does with or without the Chip N'Vac. Is this something that anyone else has experienced? I thought about raising the spindle bearing housings to see if that would help. I also wondered if a different blade would matter. The amount of debris thrown out is considerable. The yard definitely did not look clean after I finished. I recalled afterwards that I didn't operate it at max motor rpm which could make a difference but towing the Chip N'Vac at full speed isn't too practical. comments welcomed.

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That blade you described sounds like it's a "sail" on a high-lift blade. What you're getting is generally called blow-out. It sounds like the high-lift blade is creating too much air flow, so much that it's overpowering the suction of your Chip N'Vac. But you shouldn't be getting blow-out without it. It should be discharging out your discharge chute. You should always have the mower engine at full rpms when mowing. The Chip N'Vac has it's own motor, right? I'm not sure which you were saying wasn't at full speed. I would think the Chip N'Vac should be at full rpms too but I have never run one.

Things I would suspect as being the cause of the blow-out is the blades, that your cutting height is too high or that your deck pitch is wrong. First I would check to make sure that all of your tires are aired up per specification in the manual, then park the mower on a level surface such as a paved driveway or shed/garage floor and lower the deck down to it's lowest setting and get out a tape measure and measure the distance to the ground at the front and rear of the deck. The front should be a little lower than the rear, on the order of 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Technically you should actually measure the distance from the tip of the blade at the front and back of the blades to the pavement. But in any case check to see how the deck is pitched. If the front is higher than the rear it could cause the issue you're experiencing.

Thanks for your input. I was not operating the mower at full motor rpm. The Chip N'Vac was at full speed. Next time I mow I'll look into this further. It is possible that the blades are part of the problem. I saw another post where someone reported the same problem with a Zero Turn mower. I do want to check deck height and such. I can't pick up leaves with the deck at a lower position because it just bulldozes the leaves so I was operating with the deck up about an inch and a half or so above the ground. However, when I mowed the grass for the first time I saw debris being thrown out even though the deck was near the ground. At the same time, my old Craftsman mower didn't spew stuff out while being used the same way. I've only used the mower twice so far, so I have a learning curve to go through. I'm enjoying the machine so far. The Chip N' Vac is new too. That combination sure beats the heck out of the old mower with it's two-pot bagging system.

Yeah, you should be operating the mower at full engine speed. It's possible that you weren't getting proper suction from the deck running it at reduced speed. Being that your mower has a hydro-drive system it's important that you run the engine at full speed so that the hydro fluid circulates and cools properly. Running at lower rpms could actually overheat and damage the transmission.

This may sound really stupid but is the vac system hooked up correctly in that the hose from the mower is the suction side . I don't know anything about that set up so that was a WAG.

Tom

Pumper54 said:

This may sound really stupid but is the vac system hooked up correctly in that the hose from the mower is the suction side . I don't know anything about that set up so that was a WAG.

Tom

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Valid question, but I don't think so looking at the pic of the unit he mentioned. It looks like the suction hose and discharge will only hook up where intended. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Agri-Fab-Chip-N-Vac-55249/202638967

Darryl,
As I know about this much () about that system I was WAGging it. Thanks for the link and now I see my question was a dumb one. Oops.
Tom

Pumper54 said:

Darryl,
As I know about this much () about that system I was WAGging it. Thanks for the link and now I see my question was a dumb one. Oops.
Tom

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Nah, I once spend hours troubleshooting the snow plow on my truck trying to figure out why it didn't have power. I had plugged the power plug for the plow into the dust cap for the plug on the plow. Sometimes the most obvious problems are the ones that are overlooked :smile:

It must have something to do with the Cub Cadet mowing deck on this model. Without the vacuum unit the mowing deck still spews debris all around. Some comes out the discharge chute but more just shoots out around the bottom of the deck. My last craftsman mower did not do this and there is a very obvious difference between the two units. It is almost as if the debris does not flow toward the discharge. The airflow should form a sort of conveying air flow toward the discharge and this isn't happening. This is a new model so I would think more people will mention this as more units are sold.

It may not have baffles in it.

THis is an old post but just for the record, the problem still exists. I've tried different blades. The mowing deck has a relatively small cavity which may or may not have anything to do with it but it throws debris out all around. More debris comes out the discharge chute, but some blows out all around. This was the case with the original factory blades and it continues to be the case. I chose this model because it was advertised as being better suited for pulling loads and I needed to be able to pull my chipnvac. The old rider, which I think was a Craftsman LT1000, had very little blowout and quite frankly was easier to use. It handled better and it seemed that the mowing deck tracked better right behind the front wheels. That made it possible to trim closer. The new machine beats to crap out of you while you are on it. If it weren't for the supposedly more robust rear end I wouldn't have a lot of good to say about it.