Hi,
Well I now have about 30 hours on my 2 year old Simplicity Regent 38" lawn tractor. So far, I am extremely happy and impressed with build quality. The tractor has been flawless and cut quality is perfect!
I have the twin grass catcher (P/N 1696752) installed on this tractor as I bag all of my grass and leaves. Today, while emptying the bags, I noticed that both bags are wearing through on the rear outside corners of the bags where a steel bracket from the cover lowers down and contacts the bag. See attached pic of left bag; the right bag is wearing similarly although not quite as badly as the left bag. It seems a little premature to start seeing bag failure with only 30 hours on the tractor; I would consider this a design flaw.
So instead of eventually just replacing these bags upon failure (and continuing to do so) I am going to perform a modification to the bagger cover bracket to prevent further bag damage. By raising and lowering the cover a few times to determine root cause of the bag damage, it is very obvious that the steel cover brackets on both sides are pinching the fabric of the bags as cover is raised and lowered. The steel bracket in question is located in the picture just above the frayed area of bag damage. I was thinking about removing the cover, drilling out the rivets on the brackets on both sides so I can put the brackets in a vise for the mod and cutting around a half inch of material from the brackets so that they will no longer brush along the bags and damage them. I can either pop rivet the brackets back onto the cover, or just use bolts and washers and nuts to secure them when I'm done with the mod.
I don't see how this mod would have any effect on cover functionality or structural integrity and if these brackets can no longer contact the bag, that should resolve this issue. Removing this small amount of material would still leave the vast majority of the bracket intact and the mod is also minor enough so as not to eliminate the riveted points on the bracket.
Looking for feedback or is there something I'm missing here as I don't want to do something I would regret! Thanks in advance!
Well I now have about 30 hours on my 2 year old Simplicity Regent 38" lawn tractor. So far, I am extremely happy and impressed with build quality. The tractor has been flawless and cut quality is perfect!
I have the twin grass catcher (P/N 1696752) installed on this tractor as I bag all of my grass and leaves. Today, while emptying the bags, I noticed that both bags are wearing through on the rear outside corners of the bags where a steel bracket from the cover lowers down and contacts the bag. See attached pic of left bag; the right bag is wearing similarly although not quite as badly as the left bag. It seems a little premature to start seeing bag failure with only 30 hours on the tractor; I would consider this a design flaw.
So instead of eventually just replacing these bags upon failure (and continuing to do so) I am going to perform a modification to the bagger cover bracket to prevent further bag damage. By raising and lowering the cover a few times to determine root cause of the bag damage, it is very obvious that the steel cover brackets on both sides are pinching the fabric of the bags as cover is raised and lowered. The steel bracket in question is located in the picture just above the frayed area of bag damage. I was thinking about removing the cover, drilling out the rivets on the brackets on both sides so I can put the brackets in a vise for the mod and cutting around a half inch of material from the brackets so that they will no longer brush along the bags and damage them. I can either pop rivet the brackets back onto the cover, or just use bolts and washers and nuts to secure them when I'm done with the mod.
I don't see how this mod would have any effect on cover functionality or structural integrity and if these brackets can no longer contact the bag, that should resolve this issue. Removing this small amount of material would still leave the vast majority of the bracket intact and the mod is also minor enough so as not to eliminate the riveted points on the bracket.
Looking for feedback or is there something I'm missing here as I don't want to do something I would regret! Thanks in advance!
Last edited:
