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cwm1276

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My Mom got tired of her old grasshopper having issue and having me try to fix it. So she got one of these.

ChampionXT_RF_426x276.jpg

http://www.simplicitymfg.com/us/en/zero-turn-mowers/champion-xtIt mows like crazy, but does not lay down stripes like my 7117. Now I am figuring out how to do maintenance on it. How does one pull the mower blades or even get to deck enough to grease it?I know everyone here likes the old school stuff, but figured this crew would have some ideas as well. The owners manual tells us what to grease, but does not show how to get to the grease zerks.

ChampionXT_RF_426x276.jpg.8db4682131bd5a16f228dc45a9fa42a4.jpg

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I purchased a ATV/MOWER lift from Harbor Freight about $100.00 it works awesome, more than enough room to work under decks

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Back when I used to do lawn care professionally we put a care ramp in front of one of the front tires, have somebody push their foot against the other side to keep the ramp in place and drive it up. set the parking break, get your impact gun out and drop the blades.

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I mowed with a champion for a couple years . Never did take the deck off as it looked complicated to remove. So, I used a mower jack to raise it up to sharpen blades. The jack I have you drive the front wheels into some stirrups and tie the tire in with straps and crank the handle on top to raise the mower front end way up in the air.

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So it is like how Mom saw the underside of the deck Friday night, She got the Rops caught in a tree branch and lifted the front up!

We have an old farm jack I can jack the front up with and slide some boards under the wheels then. Does the foot rest flip up to get the center arbor for grease?

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Unless they have changed the design since Dad bought his in 2010, the foot rest does not flip up. I am very surprised as that is an industry standard. I also cannot figure out why ours doesn't stripe, even with the stripe kit installed.

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carl i bought a new zt3500 and it didnt stripe so i got looking and it didnt have any rollers on the back of the deck, but they offered a stripe kit from simplicity for a hundred dollars what a bummer.

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I know some folks, set the loading ramps on the truck bed. Drive the mower/tractor onto the ramps, strap it in place. AND work-a-way at the underside.

Wayne

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For Mom, she won't be worried about stripes. That is why I have my 7117 at home :) I should work on its rollers this year.

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  • 10 months later...

Stripes...I have a 1996 Kubota B2400 with 60" full floating deck and it stripes as well as my 917 and it does NOT have a rear roller.

BTW the new Kubota's no longer have the floating deck and they do not stripe either.

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Carl, nice mower know several who us Simplicity they seem satisfied, Personally I have Exmarks, always stripe nice without kit. Anyway I just use a floor jack under front of deck when at home and out on a job I use the tail gate on my trailer to clean or change blades. Just run one tire up on the gate allows me to change blades or what ever I have to do under mowers. A good cut in my business means everything

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Seems like the striping is more a function of vacuum flow under the deck than it is the rollers. I have had several designs that striped good and several that didn't. In almost all cases the ones that did not were mulchers or otherwise less flowing.

It doesn't make it a bad cut, however because such decks tend to eat less debris. I had one push mower that had a deck almost the same build as the b-series but in single 22" blade. It would stripe and suck edges in so close it almost negated an edging job in places. The down side was it would eat anything liftable, even down to a cast-iron water meter cover that was properly seated in it's hole. My toros with the less flowing, more mulching decks don't stripe and barely pick up leaves from the grass.

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  • 2 months later...

Only partially. Even roller-less decks can stripe if they vaccum enough.

One mower lift I used to use a lot was actually an old iron pipe swingset. It was the right height to pull a come-along or pulley block up to near vertical and solid enough to be stable.

Later I cut the cross bar and made it so the ends were removable for storage. Also doubled as an engine lift for overhauls.

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Wow my topic is active again. Getting the blades off this guy was a challenge. Plus the bolt have somewhere around 1" head. None of my sockets would fit. After mowing with it and my 30 year old 7117, I like the old machine better. It drives much different than the old grasshopper as well, with you sitting on the deck so much.

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Assuming "Mom" was okay after hooking the ROPS structure... THat must have been a sight. Mom popping wheelies!!!

Could the degree of visible striping be partially a function of ground speed? Seems to me every zero-turn mower I see in operation, is really moving, compared to the usual rider mower speed. Could it be the rollers don't have enough contact time to form a significant enough crease in the grass blades to cause sufficient residual grass blade 'lean' to give the impression of hand brushed velvet? This theory could be tested by decreasing ground speed to something more akin to an easy walk for a few rounds, then assessing the degree of stripedness. Maybe a second roller mounted ahead of or abaft of the original roller would increase residual grass blade lean? --- Just a thought.

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Well the trees are all getting trimmed nothing below 6 feet. Plus it does not have full width rollers as traditional simplicity's. Figured that out when I got the blades off to sharpen this spring. One has to know that this is really a Ferris mower painted orange. If I was mowing smooth ground this thing would fly. Mom has an old farm so the yard is anything but smooth.

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I'll agree with the speed thing. Our non-rollered Scags would stripe but not as well at full speed. Not enough dwell. Might be a good candidate for a flattening roller too to smooth out the molehills.

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Carl,

Looking at the picture of this (nice machine BTW), it looks like the center front axle pivot has a bottom bracket of some sort which might be an ideal lifting point for a traditional floor hydraulic jack. That's what I use under the axle on my RBT's and FDT's when servicing the underside of the mower decks. Provides easy unobstructed access left and right sides.

Tom (PK)

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