Anyone else have poor cut quality with XT1/2 42" mowers?

I am just looking to see if anyone else has had any cut quality issues with the XT1 or XT2 4" riding mowers? I recently purchased a brand new LX42 and went out to do my first cut and the lawn looks terrible. Of course it is cutting every blade of grass as the blades are sharp and I am mowing nice and slow. When I get done mowing there are additional stripes in each pass. Not only is the stripe not even with the others, it is has a different color/appearance. Before my first mow I made sure that the deck was level but because it appeared to be a leveling issue I parked the mower on my poured concrete garage floor and check both side to side and front to back and it is about as perfect as it can be. 3 inches on both sides at 3" setting and 3/16 inches higher in the back than the front. Just to be sure I went ahead and parked it on my other garage floor and checked again and it is still on point. I dropped the deck down 1/2" and made another pass and it still does not cut level. Tire pressure is also good, 10psi in the back and 14psi in the front. The spindles are not loose and the blades appear to be straight although I did not remove them. It has cut this way since the first pass I have made with it.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I have included some pictures of the cut this mower is leaving behind as well as a picture from both of my previous mowers. All of these cuts were at the same height (3") and in the same area of yard.

I appreciate anyone's feedback.

Mike

New Cub Cadet LX42

2009 Cub Cadet LTX1050

2006 Exmark Lazer Z CT

P.S. - I know that the "striping" between these mowers will obviously be different/more pronounced but both my old mowers left a perfectly level cut. Also, I left out that I had a Toro Timecutter SS4225 with the same engine, both 42" 2-blade stamped deck and it did not have any issue.

Looks like a combination of tires flattening the grass and the blades not picking it back up before the blades go over the top of it, and uneven distribution of discharge grass. You said the deck is level but are the blades level with each other. Do the blades meet at the same level tip to tip under the deck. Also make sure the tires all have the correct air pressure, because air pressure differences can cause issues also.

ILENGINE said:

Looks like a combination of tires flattening the grass and the blades not picking it back up before the blades go over the top of it, and uneven distribution of discharge grass. You said the deck is level but are the blades level with each other. Do the blades meet at the same level tip to tip under the deck. Also make sure the tires all have the correct air pressure, because air pressure differences can cause issues also.

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Thank you for the reply. As far as I can tell everything on the machine is set up correctly. I triple checked the tire pressure and deck level. I don't think there could be a more "anal" person about these types of things and I am. I have 3" blocks that I used to level the deck side to side at the 3" setting, and I used a tape measure to level front to back in which at the 4 inch setting the front of the right blade is at 4" and the back of the right blade is at 4 3/16". Since the uneven cut is not on the edges of the deck (i.e. it's not apparent at the edges of each pass), it is an issue of where the blades meet. No matter what adjustments I make to the pressure or deck level it will not and cannot change the plane at which the blades are meeting or in my case not meeting. I realized this late last night after my post that it either has to be a spindle not seating correctly or the top of deck is not as "flat" as it should be. The blades are sharp and have not got anything. Like I said, this is my first cut with it and every single pass from the first to the last looks like this. I have an entire acre of land that has these uneven stripes.

My question to you, since I know you to have some mechanical expertise, what will the dealer likely do with this issue considering that it was "defective" out of the gate and it is less than 1 week old and only having one use on it?

Do the blades meet in the middle at the same level or is one tip higher than the other. I could be an issue with the dealer claiming that you hit something and bent a blade, spindle shaft or deck. I suspect that the deck shell itself has a slight bowl shape to is. And the blade tips are meeting in the middle, but the center of the deck is lower than the outside edges.

Yeah, I would look at how the blades are meeting. Looks like a bend blade or warped deck to me. Someone could have bent a blade uncrating, loading/unloading it or hopping a curb. My bet is a bent blade, new or not.

Darryl G said:

Yeah, I would look at how the blades are meeting. Looks like a bend blade or warped deck to me. Someone could have bent a blade uncrating, loading/unloading it or hopping a curb. My bet is a bent blade, new or not.

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Darryl,

You are probably right. We will see what they say when it gets to the shop tonight. Thankfully the driver for the deliveries will be in my area today so it will already be on its way for repair by the time I leave work. Either way, I look forward to getting it back and cutting the way that it should. I did send some pictures over to the dealer as well so that they could see what I was seeing in my lawn. Now that I think about it, when the mower was taken off of the truck the delivery guy drove it over a ratchet clamp and it made a loud noise which I didn't think anything of assuming that the deck just grazed it. But maybe it damaged something underneath. Regardless, not a good taste in my mouth right now for the dealer and/or Cub Cadet. I just hope they make it right by me!

cruzenmike said:

Darryl,

You are probably right. We will see what they say when it gets to the shop tonight. Thankfully the driver for the deliveries will be in my area today so it will already be on its way for repair by the time I leave work. Either way, I look forward to getting it back and cutting the way that it should. I did send some pictures over to the dealer as well so that they could see what I was seeing in my lawn. Now that I think about it, when the mower was taken off of the truck the delivery guy drove it over a ratchet clamp and it made a loud noise which I didn't think anything of assuming that the deck just grazed it. But maybe it damaged something underneath. Regardless, not a good taste in my mouth right now for the dealer and/or Cub Cadet. I just hope they make it right by me!

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Good luck. I think we can all agree that it should cut better and that your expectations are reasonable. Something definitely isn't right.

Darryl G said:

Good luck. I think we can all agree that it should cut better and that your expectations are reasonable. Something definitely isn't right.

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I was able to get under it after work today just before they picked it up to take it in for repair. What I found was no surprise (see my picture)! I rotated both blades and this did not change, so it is definitely not a blade issue, but more than likely the spindles being unequal length or the deck being warped as you stated. I did ask that the shop call me prior to replacing any parts. If they are going to have to go so far as replacing the entire deck I may be asking for a new mower or at least an exchange for something else.

Yeah that definitely isn't right...

Looks like that left blade in the photo has smacked into some thing hard by the dents in the cutting surface.