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Hello,
I have a Troy-bilt 17.5 HP, 42" mower. Yesterday evening I was mowing and I accidently hit a exposed tree root. I wasn't sure what I had hit at first because it's not the main tree root I am always conscious of trying to avoid but the mower made a tremendous racket and I saw a few sparks come from under the deck and it scalped the next 4 feet of grass until I stopped. I turned off the mower and looked around underneath but I really know nothing about mowers so the only thing I could really check was if the deck was sitting on the ground.

Normally I would have put the mower up without hesitation until I could find out more about it but I had been planning to have a yard sale today in the front yard and I only had a little bit left to complete so after I checked that the deck was not sitting on the ground I started it and tried again. I went slowly and raised the deck to 5 inches. There was a new slight noise but what I noticed the most was the dust was flying, not horribly but very obvious, and I usually don't have this unless the lawn is extremely dry or I'm mowing a bald spot and mowing low. My best guess was the deck was sitting lower than normal.

Does anyone have suggestions that I, as a novice can check on the mower to see if I can tell what was damaged? I don't really have the money to take it in for a repair and I have the rest of the yard I really need to mow when I get a chance. I don't want to attempt mowing again until I find out more.

Two more issues while I'm talking about the mower:
1.) This year when starting the mower, most of the time I turn the key and all I hear is a very high pithed whine. Don't tell me how I figured this out but if I rock the mower back and forth (from my seat) when this is happening, it will suddenly start the normal noise of starting...turning over a little bit before starting. What might be causing this?

2.) Since the first month I had the mower, bought brand new, when I would put it in reverse, when I went back to put it in 1st, it would not engage and I can totally let the clutch out and it's like it's in neutral. I have to spend a couple of minutes, moving the knob back and forth, letting the clutch out to find it's not in 1st yet, then funny but often when it does finally catch, I'm not expecting it so I have a little rougher than normal take off because normally I would let the clutch out slower as not to take off so fast.

I've had the mower about 5 years and should have taken it back in as soon as I noticed it but I had to borrow a truck to get it home and would have had to do the same to take it back so I figured I'd just deal with it. I did have a problem last fall and I noticed it affected this so they may be connected, and unfortunately I can't remember all the details, but I think it got to where I couldn't put it in a gear at all, or like it was in 1st and I'd go to put it in reverse and I couldn't get the shifter much past neutral, like something was resisting me moving it into position for reverse.

My neighbor looked at it and figured it out and I can't even visualize now what he did, but you have to prop the mower up to tilt it and something came disconnected underneath the mower and the area it was in was in the center of the mower from side to side perspective, and about at front of the seat level as to the length of the mower.

These last two issues I can continue to deal with if I need to but I'm fearful of doing further damage if I ignore the main reason I posted... the deck.

Any idea's or suggestions would be much APPRECIATED!

WELCOME to these Forums...
FIRST thing to do is Look Under the deck... It sounds Like you have a bent blade. That will be the easiest fix and the least expensive of the possible problems....
(REPLACE a bent blade):smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

WELCOME to these Forums...
FIRST thing to do is Look Under the deck... It sounds Like you have a bent blade. That will be the easiest fix and the least expensive of the possible problems....
(REPLACE a bent blade):smile:KennyV

Click to expand...

Oh, didn't think of that. I know I can push the deck up an inch or more so was thinking I had lost some pin or something. And I will look today at the blades! Didn't think about looking at it again yesterday in the daylight. And I know I need my blades sharpened so if it's that, I'd at least be killing two birds with one stone. Thank you for reply, I will check when I get outside today!

On a different topic, yet the same, does anyone know if I can cut two 1 foot sections out of the roots, each on opposite sides of the tree and the tree still live? : ) It's a gorgeous 30 year old maple and I don't want to lose it though. I'd love to get rid of the root issue altogether. I had laid some extra dirt on top of them but really didn't have enough for that to work.

Trees generally have as many roots under the ground as they have limbs above ground.
Maples have rather shallow roots, if it is a Large root, I think I would get a lot more dirt & cover them, you really should not cut Large roots close to a tree... :smile:KennyV

Pray it is noting more than a bent blade. I tried that root trick last fall and it was not pleasant for me or the mower. I had a broken blade, broken mandrel and bent deck. Fortunately the mower was under warranty and was fixed frre of charge (I asked the Tech if the warranty would cover my error and he said he just repaired them and was not a claims adjuster). Good luck.

vabear said:

Pray it is noting more than a bent blade. I tried that root trick last fall and it was not pleasant for me or the mower. I had a broken blade, broken mandrel and bent deck. Fortunately the mower was under warranty and was fixed frre of charge (I asked the Tech if the warranty would cover my error and he said he just repaired them and was not a claims adjuster). Good luck.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the post! I still haven't got out there and looked at the mower and how tall my grass in the back is getting should be incentive enough but with everything else going on, I will head out to look and then get off track and forget. But even these posts that tell me what happened when like you hit a root, are helpful. Just "next steps" if the blades aren't bent.