Conquest 20H44 - drive / power issues

Packman

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Greetings.

I just got a 2004 Conquest 20H44 last fall. It doesn't have a ton of hours - about 270. It's served me well so far, though I hadn't yet mowed with it until the other day (hadn't needed to yet).

I used it for the first mow of the season the other day, and it had extreme power issues. I have a fairly good slope in my yard - about 10-15%, though I would think it could handle that OK, and it has handled it fine up until now. However it didn't the other day, when I had the PTO engaged. It struggled to get up the hill at all, to the point where sometimes it wouldn't even go, and I had to turn some, or back off the forward ground speed pedal some. When I did back off it would usually "catch" and then move forward, albeit slowly.

The engine was fine - it wasn't struggling any, so it wasn't an issue with overall power; it just had a hard time with the drive system.

It's been fine with past uses - I did the lawn last fall with a turbo blower attachment, which requires even more power from the PTO system. Also I did the whole lawn with a towed aerator the other day as well (didn't require PTO). I can't imagine that harmed it any - it was a fairly light tow (about 150 lbs).

I'm going to be looking at it today, though I'm new with riding mowers (I'm a fairly handy person, though this is my first riding mower; just moved into the house last year and previously only had a push mower).

If anyone has any tips of what to look for, and what they think it might be, it would be appreciated. I hope I don't need a new transaxle assembly - I see those are about $1400 or so, just for the part.

Thanks.
 

Packman

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So looking at it - pretty sure it's just the PTO belt going bad. I ordered a new one - hopefully that'll do the trick.
 
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