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Got another question about my new Tiger Cat 61". I cut for about three hours today and it cut beautifully! But how much shaking/vibration is normal in the belts/pulleys? I test drove a 52" TC a couple of days ago, and in my memory it seemed very smooth when I engaged the blades. I didn't look under the plate at the belts, but the blades seemed to start very smoothly with no noticeable shaking, and I don't remember the engine RPMs changing much (but my memory could be faulty).

But THAT isn't the machine I bought. I visited another dealer who offered me a fantastic deal on a 61" that he had in stock. It only had 1/10th of an hour on it from a couple of parking lot test drives, and had never cut grass. It looked virtually perfect (except for some rust on the spindle pulleys that I mentioned in another thread). But on this machine, when I engage the blades, the machine shakes quite a bit and the engine VERY noticeably decreases RPMs (and if I try to engage the blades at low idle the motor will often go dead). And when the blades are running, the idler pulleys and the belts vibrate a lot (although the spindles themselves are spinning perfectly with no visible vibration). I pointed it out to the salesman and he assured me that this is normal. And before I came back with my trailer to pick up the machine, they took it into the shop and had their mechanic look it over and he said it was fine as well. So hopefully I'm just being overly picky. But if something actually IS wrong, I'd like to get it fixed now before it gets worse or causes other problems.


I've put a couple of videos on Youtube showing what I'm talking about. Does this amount of shake/vibration seem normal?

In this first video, I engage the PTO at about half throttle.



David

In this second video, the engine is idling at the beginning, and then goes to full throttle at about 11 seconds, and then all the way back down to idle around 25 seconds.





Any thoughts/comments?

David

The wider the deck, the greater distance between pulleys, and the longer the V belts are, the more they will whip.

Mad Mackie said:

The wider the deck, the greater distance between pulleys, and the longer the V belts are, the more they will whip.

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Ah, that makes sense! So did it look normal to you (compared to other machines with similarly sized decks)?

I have the exact machine as you. I purchased mine a little over a year ago. I have never paid attention to teh belts but I will look at them the next time I mow and compare.

When I purchased mine the dealer recommended that I always engage my blades at full throttle you may want to check with your dealer and see how he recommends engaging the blades.

Most mower manufacturers recommend engaging the PTO at 3/4 throttle, but in time this can be a pain to do. I have always engaged my PTOs at full throttle or what is called high idle which on most machines is 3,300 to 3,600 RPM. The places and the mowing I do, I need to be able to quickly turn the PTO off and on and quickly raise the deck to get over roots, rocks etc. I do keep a replacement clutch on hand for my Scag Tiger Cub. As for my Hustler X-ONE, it is operated by a crew that does the cemetery and the machine is still on warranty. If I find a new clutch for the Hustler at a good price, I will pick it up and put it in stock, otherwise my dealer stocks clutches for Hustler machines and they only deal with the Hustler commercial/industrial lines, many models of which use the same part number clutch.
New V belts do take a period to "run in" so to speak.
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

The belts and pulleys look fine to me.

All machines have some wobble to the belts and pulleys. Take a look at another tractor you have around.

Thanks for the extra comments everybody! The manual does in fact say to set the engine at 3/4 throttle before engaging the PTO. And I had to go to Birmingham today, so I stopped at another Scag dealer and he let me crank up the 61" Tiger Cat they had in the showroom (which had JUST been taken out of the crate). The belts and pulleys on it vibrated just about like the ones on my unit, so I'm confident (and relieved) that there's nothing to worry about with the operation of my machine.

You can always spin each blade & measure the cutting edge tip to the ground, & spin blade 180* to measure that opposite tip to ground as well.. That will tell you if you have a blade that might not be perfectly straight..

This should also be in your manual on this proceedure.

Congrats on the new Machine !!! :thumbsup:

7394 said:

You can always spin each blade & measure the cutting edge tip to the ground, & spin blade 180* to measure that opposite tip to ground as well.. That will tell you if you have a blade that might not be perfectly straight..

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I did check all the blades today (and lightly sharpened them) and they all appeared to be straight and well balanced. So I think the amount of vibration I'm seeing in the belts is normal.

7394 said:

Congrats on the new Machine !!! :thumbsup:

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Thanks Buddy!

David- Enjoy it then !!!

Buddy

7394 said:

David- Enjoy it then !!!

Buddy

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Absolutely! Can't wait for the grass to grow high enough to cut again! :laughing:

We have a 52" Tiger Cat with 150 Brutal hours on it. The belts vibrated on it right from the start. Personally that is the ONLY thing I do not like about it. It is one grass cutting machine. We run two Kubota mowers as well. In tall grass, especially Bahia the Scag will cut circles around either of the Kubotas.

This may not be your issue but it could help someone else with belt vibration. Sweet gum trees here in my state drop these little spikey balls that are a perfect fit to fly up and end up in the pulley grooves. This causes belt vibration as they stick in the pulley.

jekjr said:

We have a 52" Tiger Cat with 150 Brutal hours on it. The belts vibrated on it right from the start. Personally that is the ONLY thing I do not like about it. It is one grass cutting machine. We run two Kubota mowers as well. In tall grass, especially Bahia the Scag will cut circles around either of the Kubotas.

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Yeah I VERY seriously considered a Kubota Z725. But I test drove two of them and just wasn't impressed. I think the main thing was that they just seemed to ride rough compared to the Tiger Cat (and I never found a Kubota with the optional suspension seat).

Anyway, the vibration in the belts doesn't really bother me. Now that I'm confident that it's normal and that there's nothing wrong with my particular machine I won't loose any sleep over it.

Bill Martin said:

This may not be your issue but it could help someone else with belt vibration. Sweet gum trees here in my state drop these little spikey balls that are a perfect fit to fly up and end up in the pulley grooves. This causes belt vibration as they stick in the pulley.

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Great tip! I actually removed all three of the blade pulleys yesterday and they all looked fine. But I'll be sure to look out for any debris getting lodged in there in the future.

David Giles said:

Absolutely! Can't wait for the grass to grow high enough to cut again! :laughing:

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:laughing: Cool, I know the feeling, I was waxing mine today.. (Yes waxing it)..