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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.

cruzenmike said:

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.

View attachment 44012

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Mike, you stated that you had not hit anything and I believe you, your yard looks pristine other than the uneven mow. Looking at the pic of the left blade, it looks damaged [cutting edge far left of pic] or maybe I am looking at it wrong.
I hope all goes well with the dealer. Keep us posted.

deck~dragger said:

Mike, you stated that you had not hit anything and I believe you, your yard looks pristine other than the uneven mow. Looking at the pic of the left blade, it looks damaged [cutting edge far left of pic] or maybe I am looking at it wrong.
I hope all goes well with the dealer. Keep us posted.

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If picking up a pine cone could do this then it is possible but I doubt it would cause the deck to warp or the spindle to go off kilter. There is physically nothing in my yard that I could hit, especially when I am cutting at 3" and I steer clear of anything that I would otherwise get with my trim mowers.

I can certainly see this from the dealers point of view; I just hope that with less than 2 hours with no signs of abuse that they will warranty whatever they do. At the end of the day they are more than welcome to come look at my lawn and see that there isn't a spot on my lawn that doesn't have the stripes which would be evidence of the issue from the get-go.

deck~dragger said:

Mike, you stated that you had not hit anything and I believe you, your yard looks pristine other than the uneven mow. Looking at the pic of the left blade, it looks damaged [cutting edge far left of pic] or maybe I am looking at it wrong.
I hope all goes well with the dealer. Keep us posted.

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I see that in the picture too. When I was rotating the blades around by hand I did not notice any "damage" to the blades other than a few nicks. The blades came razor sharp so I anticipated them wearing and nicking very quickly.

Sounds like it very well have been the delivery driver running over the ratchet clamp while unloading. I'd be sure to mention that and there's bound to be damage on it if it took those chunks out of the blades. I didn't notice the blade damage until Bert mentioned it. That doesn't look like a typical rock/obstruction impact...trust me I've hit quite a few.

Darryl G said:

Sounds like it very well have been the delivery driver running over the ratchet clamp while unloading. I'd be sure to mention that and there's bound to be damage on it if it took those chunks out of the blades. I didn't notice the blade damage until Bert mentioned it. That doesn't look like a typical rock/obstruction impact...trust me I've hit quite a few.

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I went ahead and contacted my service advisor and left him a message mentioning what had happened while unloading. And like we can probably all agree, hitting something that hard while the blades where spinning I would believe that the damage would have been catastrophic.

Just another update on the mower . . .

I called the dealer today and spoke with another manager who had to take my information down and call me back after he looked into what was going on. About 20 minutes had passed and he called back to let me know that they (techs) were just buttoning up the mower. I asked what was done to fix the mower and I was told that the deck was adjusted. I promptly interrupted the manager and explained what the problem was at that a simple adjust met would not correct my issue. He then said he would have to go talk to the techs and see what was going on. He said he would call me back shortly.

Of course I wanted to sit by the phone and await their call but I had things to do so I went about my day. A few hours had passed and I went back to look at my phone and had a voicemail from another person at the dealer saying that my mower had a bent blade and that I could call back and schedule a delivery. I called back and talked to a third person who explained to me that the original service adviser had remarked the work order incorrectly so when it first came it in just stated that the deck needed to be leveled. This is what aggravates me the most since I had an extensive conversation with the service adviser about the deck not being level in-between the wheels and I even included a handful of pictures of not only the grass after being cut but the blades in the middle of the deck not being on the same plane.

So then I start the conversation of what exactly is going on considering that a) the two blades when rotated manually did not result in any change in the difference of where they meet, b) I was not experiencing any vibration/shaking, odd noises, c) I was not getting a wavy cut from either blade and d) how likely is it that I would receive a mower with bent blades?

At the end of the conversation this is the "resolution" for the time being: due to my schedule and the forecast I will not be receiving my mower back until this Friday. Once it is delivered I am to take it right out to my lawn, which by then will be slightly overgrown, and mow a couple of passes to see if it is still cutting poorly. They did replace at least one blade but I am not at all confident that this will resolve my issue. If it still is not cutting properly, the driver is to then take the mower right back to the dealer and the Sales Manager and I will be having a conversation about what is to happen next.

Based on my little experience with mowers but having a decent understanding of geometry and mechanics, I still believe that the deck is warped/bent on top or one of the spindles is not seated properly. At this point I have already had the mower at the shop longer than I have owned it and very well could see it going back for the second time in just two weeks. If this is the case I will be refusing to keep the mower and will demand a refund.

This is just not a good start to my ownership experience!!

I will give an update at the end of week and hopefully all is well. If not, I will be back on the hunt for a new mower!

Just imagine how this would go if you weren't knowledgeable about mowers and sticking up for yourself. It's sounds like you're being very diplomatic at this point, but I'm waiting for when you have to tell them "look I have a brand new mower that cuts like crap!"

Darryl G said:

Just imagine how this would go if you weren't knowledgeable about mowers and sticking up for yourself. It's sounds like you're being very diplomatic at this point, but I'm waiting for when you have to tell them "look I have a brand new mower that cuts like crap!"

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You are correct! I am not too certain as to what I will do if it isn't right when it comes back. Part of me is hopeful that I can just get it and it is fine so that I can cut my soon to be overgrown lawn. Then another part of me is hopeful that the dealer doesn't know their you know what from a hole in the ground and it will give me the chance to start over with something else. I have already started considering that may be next just in case!

Situations like this are why I tell anyone buying a mower that finding a good dealer is more important than what color your mower is. The dealer can make or break the whole experience with your mower. I didn't buy a Bob-Cat because I thought it was the best mower for my operation - I think the Exmark Radius was a better choice - but the Bob-Cat dealer is simply the best in my area. If I pulled in with a broken mower a mechanic would drop what he's doing to try to fix it while it's still on my trailer. Unfortunately not everyone can find a dealer like that.

Well, here is the final update on this. Came home from work early today to meet the deliver guy and upon receipt I found that the mower was still not correct. They did in fact put two new blades on it, but when I looked under the deck the two blades did not meet up. I also made 4 passes on the lawn and the cut was still noticeably off. I had the driver load it back onto the truck and take it back to the dealer.

I then called the dealer and spoke with the sales manager who stated that he would make the situation right. I asked what that meant and he stated that he would talk to the service department and figure out what was going on and that he would fix my issues and "make it right." After he said that a second time I basically asked him what the heck that meant. I then proceeded to tell him that I would not be allowing them to start replacing parts on a new mower and that I would not be taking another of the same mower (that was more of a preference at this point as a brand new mower would likely work fine). I told him that I was getting into the car and would be heading down there to sort this all out tonight.

When I arrived at the dealer my original sales guy greeted me and we started into a long conversation about what was going on with the Cub Cadet and we started talking about replacement mowers. I pondered long and hard and at the end of the night I purchased a new Exmark Radius E. I know it does not seem very logical to sell my Lazer Z and turn around a purchase a Radius E, but in the end I was not all dissatisfied with the Lazer Z, it was just getting old and starting to require more money than I wanted to put into it. The new Radius is faster, has more HP, a better deck and has a 4 year warranty. Also, with the money I made on the sale of the Lazer Z I was able to purchase this new one for under $3000 out of pocket.

While in the end I will have a decent machine to cut my lawn, I certainly did not see myself spending 3x as much to do it. Had the original LX42 worked without issue I would have had no problems using for as longs as I could. I enjoy mowing and take pride in a well manicured lawn with nice stripes and a carpet like finish. The Exmark better suits my needs in this regard.

Congrats. The Radius is a really nice machine.

Darryl G said:

Congrats. The Radius is a really nice machine.

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Thank you. I have already made some adjustments to the seat and motion control levers. Next I will double check the tire pressure and deck leveling. Just started raining so I probably won't get a chance to use it until tomorrow.

I typically mow at 3" but it might be time to start thinking about taking it up to 3.5" in preparation for the summer months?

The grass is already getting long as you can see...

I'd be interested to know how the Radius deck stacks up to the Tri-Vantage deck you had on your Lazer. Those tend to clump in wet or lush conditions. My Lazer Z HP with the Tri-Vantage is still in the garage awaiting my attention. It's been laid up for a year since a friend broke a pulley. I've got the parts now but have had better things to do. Engine is tired at 1900 hard hours too. The 2002 walk behind Turf Tracer HP is still going strong at 2600 hours.

I really love my Exmarks. They leave such a beautiful cut!

Darryl G said:

I'd be interested to know how the Radius deck stacks up to the Tri-Vantage deck you had on your Lazer. Those tend to clump in wet or lush conditions. My Lazer Z HP with the Tri-Vantage is still in the garage awaiting my attention. It's been laid up for a year since a friend broke a pulley. I've got the parts now but have had better things to do. Engine is tired at 1900 hard hours too. The 2002 walk behind Turf Tracer HP is still going strong at 2600 hours.

I really love my Exmarks. They leave such a beautiful cut!

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Darryl,

I don't know if you saw but I posted a first impression on the mower and I spoke a bit about the deck. I originally thought that my CT deck was 7 gauge all around but it might be 10 on top and 7 on the front like the Ultracut 3. I do know that the deck is solid. Many had complained of the Trivantage deck but with mine finely tuned I had absolutely no issues with it. I will continue to use my mower and update my other post with any changes in my opinion or lessons learned.