Glad I bought my Raptor last year!

[kraky]

So..I'm curious about the torque curve comment above and found a chart for the kaw 691v engine. It has 40# at 2000 rpm, 38# at 3000, and 34# at 3600.
Must be why I have no problem kicking my 54 SD deck into gear at 1/3 throttle....even w/heavy gator blades on it. it must also be why the engine "plays" with my sd54 raptor at 3/4 throttle. So if there's something wrong w/that I'll be darned if i know what it is.
I do see complaints that the kaw needs good air cleaner maintenance....no problem for me but could be in the wrong hands.
Before I bought the raptor I checked a new ahriens w/7000 auto choke. When the dealer fired it up it stuttered and stammered for 15 seconds and blew white smoke all over the place. It was louder sounding than my kaw to. I don't know how the reg choke 7000 starts but my kaw needs only a whisper of choke and fires up and runs very smooth right away.
I don't know how good the 7000 kohler will be. I know he courage line was a terrible model. I know both kaw and kohler have had good reputations in the past but that's no guarantee about the future.
For me I'm liking my kaw very much.

 

[ILENGINE]

I have a customer with a CC with the kohler 7000 series on it purchased back in april or may. He brought it in last week for blade sharpening and as of last week had 180 hours on it. No problems so far.

 

[Carscw]

So..I'm curious about the torque curve comment above and found a chart for the kaw 691v engine. It has 40# at 2000 rpm, 38# at 3000, and 34# at 3600. Must be why I have no problem kicking my 54 SD deck into gear at 1/3 throttle....even w/heavy gator blades on it. it must also be why the engine "plays" with my sd54 raptor at 3/4 throttle. So if there's something wrong w/that I'll be darned if i know what it is. I do see complaints that the kaw needs good air cleaner maintenance....no problem for me but could be in the wrong hands. Before I bought the raptor I checked a new ahriens w/7000 auto choke. When the dealer fired it up it stuttered and stammered for 15 seconds and blew white smoke all over the place. It was louder sounding than my kaw to. I don't know how the reg choke 7000 starts but my kaw needs only a whisper of choke and fires up and runs very smooth right away. I don't know how good the 7000 kohler will be. I know he courage line was a terrible model. I know both kaw and kohler have had good reputations in the past but that's no guarantee about the future. For me I'm liking my kaw very much.

Please tell us you do not cut your grass at 3/4 throttle.

See how much the torque drops?

 

[kraky]

Yup....am I gonna be arrested by the lawn police....lol.
I cut for looks....and mental therapy...lol.
My whopping 3/4 acre is finely manicured every 2-3 days and looks beautiful even at 3/4 throttle w/razor sharp gator blades. So....you're gonna say I need full power and have to spray those 1 to 1.5" clippings 10-12 ft instead of 8? The neighbors think I'm crazy enough being out there w/a 54" cut and zero turn....now I have to rev it to full throttle to boot?

 

[Carscw]

Yup....am I gonna be arrested by the lawn police....lol. I cut for looks....and mental therapy...lol. My whopping 3/4 acre is finely manicured every 2-3 days and looks beautiful even at 3/4 throttle w/razor sharp gator blades. So....you're gonna say I need full power and have to spray those 1 to 1.5" clippings 10-12 ft instead of 8? The neighbors think I'm crazy enough being out there w/a 54" cut and zero turn....now I have to rev it to full throttle to boot?

The whole mower ( every part on it ) is made to operate best at full throttle.
The engine is designed to run its best and to cool it's best at full throttle.
You are actually hurting the engine and the hydros by not running full throttle.

I am sure some place in the owners manual. It will say to never operate the blades at less then full throttle. I know all mine do.

 

[kraky]

Well....I guess I'll have to break out my infrared thermometer and run a test. If the temps are consistant I ain't gonna worry. Now...how to run a test on my whopping 3/4 acre lawn.....

 

[Carscw]

Well....I guess I'll have to break out my infrared thermometer and run a test. If the temps are consistant I ain't gonna worry. Now...how to run a test on my whopping 3/4 acre lawn.....

Let me know what you come up with.

 

[kraky]

I'm an old fart...58 yrs old. I've flown airplanes, driven semis, raced snowmobiiles, and been around engines in general all my life. After all this time I have a pretty good feel for odd sounds, lugging, overheating etc. I got my thermometer this spring to see if i was overheating the hydro on my little jd lt180
Lawn tractor pulling a 250# roller. I usually run that 17 HP kaw at about 80% when mowing with that.
I found my hydro w/o the roller was running a nice 135 degrees at the end of mowing. With the roller I was surprised it only picked up about 5 degrees. The engine (kaw 17 hp) was running a nice 150 degrees in the middle of the engine block/cyl area. That was a shocker compared to my 1300 vtwin Yamaha bike w/liquid cooling. I was picking up temps in the 220 degree range and the fan hadn't even kicked in!
None of this proves anything about the hustler...still trying to figure out a way to test it fairly.
Maybe someone who does some commercial mower and owns one of the thermometers will read this and take it to task......otherwise I'll figure something out. The neighbors already think I'm nuts so what the heck....at least I provide cheap entertainment.....lol!

 

[RetiredGuns]

I've always been in the camp that air-cooled engines need to run at full throttle for a few reasons. A neighbor of mine burnt up his weed wacker running it super slow. His theory was that the line lasted longer. Drove me nuts. Line is a heck of a lot cheaper than a new trimmer. I run my Tanaka wide open and is sounds like a go cart!

 

[kraky]

Here's a funny...I have a 17 year old homelite weedeater I bought for $69. When we moved in the house all the plantings were new so I didn't want to wack the heck out of them. I screwed the idle adjust screw in till it was above idle just a bit and have used it that way ever since. Hardly evrr touch the throttle. My "theory" on the cheap homelite was I'd throw it away when a spark plug didn't fix it. Its still running perfect. I don't think there is a fan on it like a 4 stroke engine. I see the theory that the fan on the four stroke runs faster at full throttle....but all the moving parts are going faster too.
Maybe I'm screwing up but I've never burned an engine up yet! I'll play with the thermometer some....but w/so little lawn its gonna be hard to run a comparison.