Just got a new GTH52XLS and had my first chance and cutting my lawn. First things first is I had to remove the deck to get it home because I had to fit it into my back of my Supercrew box. Getting home and getting the deck back on was a very simple task with just hooking the front lift to the deck and putting 4 bow tie cotter pins locked into place and hooking the sway bar and 1 bow tie cotter pin. All that was left was just to slide the deck belt onto the engine pulley and reconnect the one and only spring that is on the deck to the the eye bolt. I found it was easier to remove the belt shield and loosen the eye bolt and use a spring puller to connect the spring and retighten the bolts and eye bolt.
First thing I noticed once I sat on the seat was there seems to be some flex where the pivot bracket is bolted to the rear fender maybe it won't be an issue when the seat is down and supported by the 2 seat springs.
Second thing was the steering wheel was not centered and one of the front tires was not straight. When I would straighten out one tire with the steering the other tire would be toed in. I looked at the drag link that is connected to the geared sector plate that is bolted to the steering shaft and there is no adjustment nuts where the drag link connects to the front tire spindles. Also it seems like one tire has a lot of negative camber meaning the top of the tire is leaning in compared to the other and is very noticeable when you stand back in front of the mower. How you can adjust these 2 issues?
Mowing the first few times the deck was scalping really bad on the right hand side of the deck even though the deck seemed to be level and adjusted evenly with the rear adjustment nuts. It seemed to scalp when turning to the left as the deck tilted to the right. After playing around with the adjustment nuts and lowering the 2 wheels on the right hand side of the deck it seems to have fixed the scalping even on tight left hand turns and continuously making left hand circles. Not sure if I'm setting the deck correctly but if the finished cut looks good thats all that matters. I'll be able to test it better next time when my grass grows and needs another cut.
I'm thinking that maybe I can't cut my grass as low as I used to with my old MTD with a 42" deck and with the extra length of the 54" that it may scalp easier on uneven ground cause I never had any scalping with the MTD even when I would cut my lawn low some times.
Any feedback or opinions or information would be appreciated and I'll keep updating as the weeks go by raying:
First thing I noticed once I sat on the seat was there seems to be some flex where the pivot bracket is bolted to the rear fender maybe it won't be an issue when the seat is down and supported by the 2 seat springs.
Second thing was the steering wheel was not centered and one of the front tires was not straight. When I would straighten out one tire with the steering the other tire would be toed in. I looked at the drag link that is connected to the geared sector plate that is bolted to the steering shaft and there is no adjustment nuts where the drag link connects to the front tire spindles. Also it seems like one tire has a lot of negative camber meaning the top of the tire is leaning in compared to the other and is very noticeable when you stand back in front of the mower. How you can adjust these 2 issues?
Mowing the first few times the deck was scalping really bad on the right hand side of the deck even though the deck seemed to be level and adjusted evenly with the rear adjustment nuts. It seemed to scalp when turning to the left as the deck tilted to the right. After playing around with the adjustment nuts and lowering the 2 wheels on the right hand side of the deck it seems to have fixed the scalping even on tight left hand turns and continuously making left hand circles. Not sure if I'm setting the deck correctly but if the finished cut looks good thats all that matters. I'll be able to test it better next time when my grass grows and needs another cut.
I'm thinking that maybe I can't cut my grass as low as I used to with my old MTD with a 42" deck and with the extra length of the 54" that it may scalp easier on uneven ground cause I never had any scalping with the MTD even when I would cut my lawn low some times.
Any feedback or opinions or information would be appreciated and I'll keep updating as the weeks go by raying: