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Deck butchering yard! Help!


hurleyii

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Ok so i have a Sunstar 16hp with 48" deck. In any location where the grass isnt pristine its just acting like a center blade and just digging down into the dirt. Ive had to rip the tractor out of my yard with my truck at least 2 times a mow. The deck rollers are old and worn , no flat spots but they do appear to be locking up. Would new wheels and a new bar fix this problem? I have sandy lome and sand. Never had issues with my 7100 series 48" deck this bad. Im about to junk this whole tractor ive had it. Its not relaxing in anyway. 

Thanks for the help guys!

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If the rollers dont turn, its just going to act like a road drag in loose topsoil or sand like you say. I wont say a new roller bar and rollers will stop it all together in sandy soil . Reason being that unlike your sovereign deck , the sunstar deck is also carrying the added weight of the gearbox and driveshaft assembly as well as all the extra iron that supports that stuff. Not to mention the added weight of the height adjustment lever.

Newer decks have larger diameter rollers which helps  with this sort of problem. Dont know if those can be retrofitted or not. I know the Legacy 48" deck uses  those larger rollers too.

Bear in mind there's little worse than spending money on a fix and getting no great results.

 

Best I can do for advice. Might be worse than no advice at all.....

Edited by SmilinSam
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Never seen a Sun star deck, but it seems the rollers are to close to the shell.  Can you drop them and then adjust the front for the correct angle of cut?

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1 hour ago, GregB said:

Never seen a Sun star deck, but it seems the rollers are to close to the shell.

Maybe, but it looks like the roller bar is set to mow very low.  I think a Sovereign would look similar if we ever lowered it that much.

 

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It's easy to see that the deck is way too low..the bottom lip is only about half way up the diameter of the roller...and there is no grass for it to roll over...it's like driving a car on a beach...that  loose soil is just too deep and soft for anything that small a diameter to roll over....there is nothing there to warrant mowing

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Deck hieght was an attempt at seeing if it was a flotation problem thinking it was hitting the tractor itself cause it was raised to hi. Didnt help amd same results. The grass was actually 6" plus tall when i before i mowed. Thanks for the help guys and im afraid it is the extra wheight of the sunstar deck . Id like to hear from more people with my type of soil. I purchased this unit for the 60 " deck option to mow faster. Not so sure i should fix my 60" deck now.

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Even with 6" high grass...it is just to sporadic and mainly soft dirt...it's not enough grass for the rollers to roll over...there is mostly dirt and it looks really soft...more like sand...even if you used a deck with anti scalp wheels they would sink in also...it's not a problem with the deck...the deck is just not being used correctly...or more simply it is not the type of deck to use on this type of surface....you need the type of deck that just hangs from the tractor

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Even though it might not help, I'd remove the roller bar and see what kind of shape it's in.  For the existing rollers, I'd drive 1/2" pipe (I think it's 1/2", whatever has a 5/8" OD, assuming the rollers are the same as a Sovereign's) into the rollers, full length if possible, or just short lengths on each end.  Reinstall them on the roller bar after it's cleaned up and see if they turn freely. 

Then test. - if there's no improvement, then i would assume the extra weight and sand is the problem.  

 

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