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Been reading this forum for days and couldnt find anything on this subject so I decided to register and post a new thread in regards. Just bought a brand new Snapper walk behing Hi-vac. I'm a fan of these because it's that same brand and model of mower I've used in the same yard since I was about 10 ( i now own the house I grew up in) so it is the one I purchased due to the high level of familiarity. I did the research on it before buying and noticed the few things that have changed over the years including the one that is giving me the fits and that is the speed. I know they put bigger wheels on at some point to make them faster but I dont like it. I have all the adjustments for the self propel set for it is moving as slow as possible and since I have a thick lawn it is still leaving a lot of grass uncut because it is simply too fast. I went to the place I bought it and they told me all I could really do is adjust the self propell but it is bottomed out. There has to be something that can be done or bought to slow this thing down. Im thinking of changing the crank pully for the drive belt to a smaller one but the stock one is quite small as it is. Any thoughts, or anyone else have this issue? Is it possible that I have the deck set wrong, it's sitting level. power is not a problem, nor is catching, it picks absolutely everything up that gets cut, it just leaves some uncut cuz it's too fast.

Don't know if you can slow down the speed any more, but have you tried to make a narrower pass. Your grass may be too thick and heavy to cut cleanly. Another thing you can try is having the blade sharpened at a lower angle, like those used on mulching systems.

Yeah I ve tried that the narrower pass, but as I've said, it's not a power or vacuum issue. I though maybe at the 2nd mow that it was cuz i let the grass grow a little tall (i re-seeded and let it go for 3 weeks) that that was the issue, but last night was the 3rd mow and it seems as if the mower is just too quick.

This just doesn't seem right. You say you reseed the area and that would tell me you may have a thick lawn. Is that correct? How high is the grass when you cut? At what height do you have the wheels set? 2" 3" 4". Are you bagging, mulching or side discharging? Have you and/or the dealer checked to see if you have the correct blade for the way you are cutting? How often do you cut? Do you cut wet or dry? Sorry to ask so many questions, but I am just trying to think of all the different causes to you problem, to see if I can come up with a solution.

i have 4 older snapper self-propelled mowers ( all from the 80s ) and the one with the Wisconsin-Robin 5hp 4cycle is faster in all speed settings than the others and all i can think of is that it seems to have a higher operating RPM. not sure if that's it or not but u mentioned the wheel size...are your rear wheels 9" or 10"? if they're 10" maybe going to 9" would do it. if your pulley is already as small as it can be that's the only other thing i can think of.

im a snapper restorer and can help u with this. my father just got a new hi-vac as well. the speed is all determined by were the vertical drive wheel is on top of the horizontal drive plate, closer in is slower, further out is faster speed. the newer mowers have an adjustable linkage rod that u can adjust to make it longer or shorter that will change the ground speed. i had to do this on my fathers ( hes 81 and only walks so fast ) but still loves to mow. the older mowers only had a rod bent backwards on both ends and they wernt adjustable. i built a few adjustable rods out of threaded rod and a turnbuckle center so it can be adjustable. u can adjust to were the vertical drive plate is nearly in the center of the horizontal plate and thus slowing the speed down.

hope this helps

Rivets said:

This just doesn't seem right. You say you reseed the area and that would tell me you may have a thick lawn. Is that correct? How high is the grass when you cut? At what height do you have the wheels set? 2" 3" 4". Are you bagging, mulching or side discharging? Have you and/or the dealer checked to see if you have the correct blade for the way you are cutting? How often do you cut? Do you cut wet or dry? Sorry to ask so many questions, but I am just trying to think of all the different causes to you problem, to see if I can come up with a solution.

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I mow it at about 4 inches tall or so, and take it down to 3 or so. I'm bagging. As far as a correct blade, the dealer said it had a bagger blade, and since it does pickup everything it gets cut I would assume that is correct. I cut when dry, usually in evening. It doesnt matter if the grass is really tall or if I'm trimming very little, it seems to leave uncut blades behing becuase of speed.

Snapperfreak said:

i have 4 older snapper self-propelled mowers ( all from the 80s ) and the one with the Wisconsin-Robin 5hp 4cycle is faster in all speed settings than the others and all i can think of is that it seems to have a higher operating RPM. not sure if that's it or not but u mentioned the wheel size...are your rear wheels 9" or 10"? if they're 10" maybe going to 9" would do it. if your pulley is already as small as it can be that's the only other thing i can think of.

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This. My brother now uses the mower my dad bought in the 80's of this same design. It has 8" and 6" wheels where this new one has 10 and 8 inch. I know that is a published point of this machine, that the larger wheels and higher torque motor allows for a quicker speed, but i'm seeing it as an issue.

harleyman959798 said:

im a snapper restorer and can help u with this. my father just got a new hi-vac as well. the speed is all determined by were the vertical drive wheel is on top of the horizontal drive plate, closer in is slower, further out is faster speed. the newer mowers have an adjustable linkage rod that u can adjust to make it longer or shorter that will change the ground speed. i had to do this on my fathers ( hes 81 and only walks so fast ) but still loves to mow. the older mowers only had a rod bent backwards on both ends and they wernt adjustable. i built a few adjustable rods out of threaded rod and a turnbuckle center so it can be adjustable. u can adjust to were the vertical drive plate is nearly in the center of the horizontal plate and thus slowing the speed down.

hope this helps

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I have already tried this. Yes, it has 2 different adjustable rod ends on the speed linkage. There is room to move the rubber disc closer to the center of the drive plate, however, it is already bottomed out because there is a stopper on the main shaft that hold the rubber disc bracket. I am very mechanically inclined and I know I could slow this thing down one way or another, but I'm really against hacking into a new mower with less than 10 hours on it. The shorter wheels are my main hope, but I cant find any and the 3 dealers in my area are quite ignorant of this issue.

Really dumb suggestion, I'm pulling at straws. Have you removed the bagger and side discharged the grass to see if it does a better cut? If it does we have are different problem than we are trying to solve. When solved it will be one for all of us to learn from.

Rivets said:

Really dumb suggestion, I'm pulling at straws. Have you removed the bagger and side discharged the grass to see if it does a better cut? If it does we have are different problem than we are trying to solve. When solved it will be one for all of us to learn from.

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You know that's not a bad idea. I'm heading out to remow the yard as I just did a couple days ago. Gonna take the height down a couple notches to catch some of the missed grass. I'll check that out and see what happens. Gonna guess it wont change however.

Two notches max please!

mowerfreak said:

I have already tried this. Yes, it has 2 different adjustable rod ends on the speed linkage. There is room to move the rubber disc closer to the center of the drive plate, however, it is already bottomed out because there is a stopper on the main shaft that hold the rubber disc bracket. I am very mechanically inclined and I know I could slow this thing down one way or another, but I'm really against hacking into a new mower with less than 10 hours on it. The shorter wheels are my main hope, but I cant find any and the 3 dealers in my area are quite ignorant of this issue.

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good luck but the smaller wheels wont effect the speed. if it does will be very little

I order all my parts from Lawn Mower Parts in Ohio, 800-937-7279. They have a good website to look up parts and even if the wheel size won't help your problem you can get original replacement wheels (and anything else) through them.

harleyman959798 said:

good luck but the smaller wheels wont effect the speed. if it does will be very little

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just got back from measuring a bunch of components on the mower my brother is using. Yes, the one that is abotu 20 years old. every component measures the same. Crank pully, drive plate, drive disc. They are all the same size, EXCEPT the wheel size. So this tells me that either the motor is turning a substantially higher rpm or the 2" larger wheels are making a considerate difference. That, or there is different gearing in the rear end which is something I havent even looked at. I made a couple rounds with his and then with mine, I'm sorry but there's something wrong. This thing's just too fast. There's no reason that the slowest possible speed should be this quick.

Today's mowers are running at roughly 3100 RPMs compared to mowers ten years ago, which averaged about 3400 RPMs. So if everything else is the same it must be the wheel size. Who'd a thuck it. I would contact Snapper at this address and see what they have to say. Contact Snapper. Good luck

Swap wheels with the two mowers and try it out to be sure. 11/16" socket.

Rivets said:

Today's mowers are running at roughly 3100 RPMs compared to mowers ten years ago, which averaged about 3400 RPMs. So if everything else is the same it must be the wheel size. Who'd a thuck it. I would contact Snapper at this address and see what they have to say. Contact Snapper. Good luck

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briggs engines are turning 3600 rpm when running wide open as should be not 3100

Snapperfreak said:

Swap wheels with the two mowers and try it out to be sure. 11/16" socket.

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I'm sure you meant to also swap the height adjusters. If you change just the wheels, the height will never be right.

I never knew about that. And I wondered why I scalped my lawn a bit first time I mowed with the WR on my deck. Thanks I just learned something new.

Thought I'd bump this. I did finally get around to changing to the 9" wheels and it did make all the difference in the world.

Cool, glad it worked out.