Toro Z-Master Battery Problem

[rjohn33566]

This is more of an informative posting than anything. I recently bought a 48" Commercial Z-Master mower to cut about 6 acres of property that I have. I cut about 2 acres without any issues, took a break then began to cut an additional couple of acres. Before getting back to work, I decided to run at about 3/4 throttle to save some gas. I cut more grass, then took another break. Oooops, the mower wouldn't start when I was ready to get back to work. Because I didn't run at full throttle, the battery drained enough to not allow the mower to start. I jumped it off, but it died again a couple of minutes later. Because the fuel pump and PTO require battery power, it didn't have enough to continue running.

Moral of the story, always run your mower at full throttle or the battery will die.

 

[Brucebotti]

This is more of an informative posting than anything. I recently bought a 48" Commercial Z-Master mower to cut about 6 acres of property that I have. I cut about 2 acres without any issues, took a break then began to cut an additional couple of acres. Before getting back to work, I decided to run at about 3/4 throttle to save some gas. I cut more grass, then took another break. Oooops, the mower wouldn't start when I was ready to get back to work. Because I didn't run at full throttle, the battery drained enough to not allow the mower to start. I jumped it off, but it died again a couple of minutes later. Because the fuel pump and PTO require battery power, it didn't have enough to continue running.

Moral of the story, always run your mower at full throttle or the battery will die.

That doesn't seem right to me. 3/4 throttle should be more than enough to keep the battery charged. Hopefully one of the experts will chime in.
Bruce

 

[Rivets]

Simple check. Start the engine and while running at 3/4 throttle check battery voltage. It should read at least 13.2 VDC. Reve engine to full throttle and the voltage should increase. If it does not you could have a stator or voltage regulator going bad. Also, check your battery to ground connection.

 

[rjohn33566]

Thanks for the recommendation on how to check the voltage. I will certainly do so and report back what I find out.

 

[exotion]

I agree battery shouldn't die. However you shouldn't run your mower at a lower throttle for long periods of time anyway...

 

[djdicetn]

I agree battery shouldn't die. However you shouldn't run your mower at a lower throttle for long periods of time anyway...

User exotion is spot on!!! Any user manual will tell you to mow at full throttle. I've read some posts where users wanted to control the mowing speed or reduce gas consumption by reducing the throttle to less than full. However, engine and/or tranny problems can be caused by doing this:0(