Ryobi RM480E 38" riding mower won't move!

Dingo-J

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I would be curious what batteries people are going with. My batteries, or at least one of them, is bad and I'm thinking about upgrading all four of them to the 100 Mhp batteries and wondering if anyone has an Amazon link for what you found and that works.
That was supposed to read 100 AH, not mhp.
 

Phblawn

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I have the same problem. Mower won't move, but everything else works including blades, lights, and even the beep sound while in reverse. Mower is 3 1/2 yo, so slightly out of warranty. Local service center won't touch it due to previous bad experiences with those mowers (I don't have details about that). Still trying to get service somewhere with Ryobi rep.
 

Pete46beards

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My problem seems different from most of the above: I bought the M480e just under a year ago, worked fine all summer. But a couple of weeks ago it suddenly stopped being able to go up a slope. Now it has gotten so that it will barely go at all. But it is clearly not electronic: the switch works, the drive motor engages, and it tries, like an old car with a slipping clutch. Somewhat better in reverse. Blades work fine. Gotta be mechanical, not electronic. The nearest service center might as well be in Brazil, and I don't have a truck capable of carrying the beast. Anybody with a similar issue?
 

tomofcg

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Yes. This is frustrating. I wiggled the wires that connect to the key mechanism. That fixed it for one mowing. I used two jumper cables to connect to each of the two wires which go into the key lock mechanism (bypassing the key lock mechanism). I connect the other jumper ends to a plastic part. When I want to start the mower, I take the jumpers off the plastic and connect them to each other. It starts every time, but I haven't had to mow since I did this, so I don't know how durable this kludge will be.
When I connected the jumper, I noticed the jumper teeth scraped some clear plastic off the wires ends. I'm guessing this plastic was interfering with the electrical connection. This was probably waterproofing for the electrical connection. Seems like a good idea, that goes wrong, when the plastic shifts around.
By jamming the jumper onto the ends of the wire, I bent the connector on the ends of the wire. I'll never be able to reconnect those bent ends onto the key lock again. That probably voids my warrenty. But what good is a warrenty when I don't have any way to haul this mower to be repaired?
 

slomo

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Update: Took the batteries out, charged them individually on a noco genus 10, and got them tested at Autozone. Cold cranking amps measured on all 4 batteries: 320, 234, 202...and 30. Well, now I know why its not even turning on. Time to upgrade from the 75AH batteries to the 100ah!
Larger packs have more cells. More cells = more failure points. Using a 100ah would be a step back in reliability.
 

ElectRon

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To all posters: Ryobi has had my ZT480e for 5 months now, that's on top of the 4 months that the local Ryobi repair center had it (before they returned it to me still not working). The unit will not move forward or backward. The problem is in the control arm sensors, they have no parts to fix it. We can only hope that they are trying to re-engineer the mower.

You can call Ryobi and TTI until you are blue in the face. They are very nice, even helpful, but they never keep their promises. Try to call back and you get referred to another helpful person. They are stalling! They have a major problem here and are just trying to buy time. Don't think for a second that you are making progress getting your mower fixed. You are not. I've been down this road with at least 5 technical and service representatives and managers. They will just go silent on you and you have to start all over again. They promised to pay for my grass cutting until my mower was returned. They paid for 4 weeks, then stopped. I have not been paid in the last 6 months despite sending my receipts many times to many individuals, all making wonderful but worthless promises.

I will be pursuing a class action suit against Ryobi and Home Depot over this matter. Contact me if you want to join!
 

MowerMike

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Sounds like the same design team that was used on the Space Shuttle.
 

bertsmobile1

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Right way to go Ron
A letter from your local MP will usually get you a refund or replacement but does nothing for the rest, some of which are to timid to take the proper actions
Just be wary of using litigation funders because all they want to do is get large amounts of money out of HD & Ryobi which does nothing to fix the problem , even if you do get your money back .
Fortunately down here we have the Dept of Fair Trading so for $ 55 ( Aus) I can lodge a complaint and they will take up a class action but the damages are limited to a realistic amount to cover out of pocket expenses & replacement so million dollar amounts for the mental anguish of your mower not working & your grass being too long don't happen.
 

StarTech

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But isn't battery power the greatest thing around? I think I wait it gets better perfected. Great for handhelds not so riding mowers at leas not yet.
 

ElectRon

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Thank you for your kind words. Stay tuned to see how it moves forward.

Best, Ron
Right way to go Ron
A letter from your local MP will usually get you a refund or replacement but does nothing for the rest, some of which are to timid to take the proper actions
Just be wary of using litigation funders because all they want to do is get large amounts of money out of HD & Ryobi which does nothing to fix the problem , even if you do get your money back .
Fortunately down here we have the Dept of Fair Trading so for $ 55 ( Aus) I can lodge a complaint and they will take up a class action but the damages are limited to a realistic amount to cover out of pocket expenses & replacement so million dollar amounts for the mental anguish of your mower not working & your grass being too long don't happen.
 
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