Spindle tacho

[Mad_mat222]

Greetings,
Has anyone ever added a tacho to their deck spindles? I’ve snapped a couple of belts on my hustler recently due to cutting really heavy grass while running a mulch kit. Driving by ear at the moment but every now and then the blades are locking up. Just wanting a visual to tell me what my ears are hearing. And I don’t need any tips about mowing grass please. Just tacho suggestions ie has been done but waste of time or great idea or no one has ever bothered.

cheers
mat.

 

[Born2Mow]

There are hand-held testing devices that will scan a shaft end and report the RPM, but most of those are for temporary lab use.

There must be someone making a small tach kit that connects to an app on your smart phone. That way you wouldn't need to buy 2 expensive gauges, or bother mounting them. And if you were required to affix a cell phone mount, that's not so bad since it has other uses.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

How tall of grass are you cutting ?
Always heard mulch kits shouldnt be used in thick grass.

 

[100 td]

No tacho suggestions, but other possible fix. Your choice entirely, but cutting "really heavy grass while running a mulch kit" will always be a challenge if the cuttings can't clear the deck.
But instead of adding a tacho, consider fixing the cause, not the symptom, consider cutting without mulch kit, then when the cuttings are dry, come back and mulch. Consider cleaning all pulleys with solvent, check for wear in vee of pulleys, replace pulleys if worn, consider increasing belt size from A to B or B to C etc if pulley groove depth and vee size allows. My belts used to slip without mulcher when cutting long grass, my pulleys are worn, but they were actually deep and wide enough to fit a B section belt instead of the factory A section. Difference is night and day, no more slip and the engine bogs and dies if I don't lift the deck quick enough so it can clear. Good luck!

 

[VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ]

A sudden stop of the blades are caused by 1) object obstruction 2) clump of grass wedged blade tip to deck, 3) bearing bind, 4) belt path loose or off, 5) PTO clutch drop out, etc. Since this happens only while mulching, I put my money on 2. Usually when this is building up to a final wedge, a rumbling in the deck is happening while the ball of grass above the blade is rumbling around above the blade making the ball of grass bigger and bigger.

 

[Mad_mat222]

Thank you for all the mowing tips I didn’t need.
Found this hall sensor tacho which might do the trick.

4 LED Digital Tachometer RPM Speed Meter + NPN Hall Proximity Switch Sensor AU | eBay

Sign: Pusle signal, Hall NPN 3 wires normally open. Sign: NPN 5 wires normally open. Hall proximity model: NJK-5002C. 1 x NPN hall proximity sensor. Refresh frequency: 0.2-0.5S(120-1200RPM),0.25-0.06S(2400-9999RPM).

www.ebay.com.au

For $15 even if it doesn’t work long still interesting to see what’s going on. Will mount a magnet and a counter weight on the pulley and see how it goes.

 

[bertsmobile1]

FWIW
I have a Go-Pro knock off that we tried to make motorcycle videos with ( didn't work cause old bikes shake too much ) .
However it is bees knees for looking under the mower to run down occasional problems that only happen when mowing.
Picked up quite a few decks that actually flex when under excessive load .
Don't know if your set up will work but there is a plethora of optical tachos designed for lathe / mill work to check spindle speeds.
A push bike speedo will also do the job which works fairly well the same as the unit you have bought with a magnet you clamp onto a spoke