Hello. I am new to this forum and a "new" mower. I have 5 acres of land with about 1 acre in grass and the rest "natural" that I have been mowing with a Toro Wheelhorse Diesel tractor. I just purchased a 2004 walker 18 HP GHS mower. This is my first Walker. It reportedly has about 600 hours (has new hour meter with 0 hours) on it and has recently been "totally gone through" by the dealer with over $2,000 in parts/labor and "good to go". Unit appears in great shape and I am happy with my purchase but have couple questions/issues that I wonder if some experienced Walker owners may be able to help me with:
1) When first started (fires right up) there is some squealing of the belts, especially at low speeds, when driving around on flat ground. Given that it has all new belts I assume this may be somewhat "normal" as they break-in. I looked for a way to possibly tighten the drive belts, but it appears that they are auto tightening based on spring tension. I don't see any way to adjust this. Any ideas would be appreciated. It does seem to have gotten much better after driving about a bit.
2) I was able to mow my grass and fill the hopper a couple times without any issues and all worked well. Then I went to work in some open pasture area with some weeds 12 - 18 inches high. I raised the deck as high as it will go. In the thinner areas it worked well, but in the heavier areas the mower drive belt would start to squeal when under what seemed like a fairly light load. I tightened up the tension on the mechanical idler which has markedly reduced the squealing - I may need to tighten a bit more. Main issue I then ran into was that the hopper was not filling. On checking I found several areas that would become plugged. Often there would be a plug in the tube going into the hopper beyond the impeller (or whatever it is called). To me this would seem that the problem has to be some sort of resistance in the discharge tube into the hopper, but I can't see any obvious issue. The impeller seems to be turning well but grass just totally plugs the tube all the way up to the curve. Anyone have any thoughts? Is there any "slick" spray that would help?!? Also in the thick, especially damp, grass/weeds I get plugged exiting the deck going into the impeller. The blades and discharge tube from the deck are all new. Is there anything I can do to help with this? It does seem to be somewhat related to my belt squealing issue - I'm thinking that perhaps when it squeals that the flow slows down to the point that it plugs and then it just can't clear itself. I also wonder if the blades could possibly be mulching blades and not designed to "blast" the grass out the back. Any ideas here would be greatly appreciated.
3) When mowing up a hill I get some squealing, which I believe may be coming from the drive belts. If I pull back on both the steering levers it goes away (but I slow way down). I have seen some other post regarding this issues, but since it was just serviced and has new belts and fluids don't quite know what to do. Does anyone know of any adjustment that might help?
Thanks for any help in advance! So far I love my new mower and look forward to many years of great service out of it and meeting some new friends here on this forum.
1) When first started (fires right up) there is some squealing of the belts, especially at low speeds, when driving around on flat ground. Given that it has all new belts I assume this may be somewhat "normal" as they break-in. I looked for a way to possibly tighten the drive belts, but it appears that they are auto tightening based on spring tension. I don't see any way to adjust this. Any ideas would be appreciated. It does seem to have gotten much better after driving about a bit.
2) I was able to mow my grass and fill the hopper a couple times without any issues and all worked well. Then I went to work in some open pasture area with some weeds 12 - 18 inches high. I raised the deck as high as it will go. In the thinner areas it worked well, but in the heavier areas the mower drive belt would start to squeal when under what seemed like a fairly light load. I tightened up the tension on the mechanical idler which has markedly reduced the squealing - I may need to tighten a bit more. Main issue I then ran into was that the hopper was not filling. On checking I found several areas that would become plugged. Often there would be a plug in the tube going into the hopper beyond the impeller (or whatever it is called). To me this would seem that the problem has to be some sort of resistance in the discharge tube into the hopper, but I can't see any obvious issue. The impeller seems to be turning well but grass just totally plugs the tube all the way up to the curve. Anyone have any thoughts? Is there any "slick" spray that would help?!? Also in the thick, especially damp, grass/weeds I get plugged exiting the deck going into the impeller. The blades and discharge tube from the deck are all new. Is there anything I can do to help with this? It does seem to be somewhat related to my belt squealing issue - I'm thinking that perhaps when it squeals that the flow slows down to the point that it plugs and then it just can't clear itself. I also wonder if the blades could possibly be mulching blades and not designed to "blast" the grass out the back. Any ideas here would be greatly appreciated.
3) When mowing up a hill I get some squealing, which I believe may be coming from the drive belts. If I pull back on both the steering levers it goes away (but I slow way down). I have seen some other post regarding this issues, but since it was just serviced and has new belts and fluids don't quite know what to do. Does anyone know of any adjustment that might help?
Thanks for any help in advance! So far I love my new mower and look forward to many years of great service out of it and meeting some new friends here on this forum.
