Ok, so this should really go under the Grassroots School Management thread, with the minitruck and trailer threads....
I have about 5 acres that need mowed twice-weekly from March-October in the Lowcountry of SC. Due to cash issues after purchasing a building 2 summers ago I was looking at used commercial mowers, with a strong preference to Wright since they are basically the best and most solid, and I can just call them up for support. So the local used models were about $3K (instead of $10-15K new), but had a lot of hours. I picked up a 2013 Stander X 48 with a Kawaski FX691V engine from the service depot, with 2600 hours on it. Had them replace the worn rear tire and the starter, they had just serviced it but it had no warranty. Fast forward 2 weeks and the thing dies while mowing and won't restart. The oil shows on the dipstick, the battery is has charge, all online troubleshoot has failed so it's time to call up the company!
I should mention, this mower is now stuck in a fenced area without direct road access, and it's raining. Also, I went to college with the CEO of Wright so maybe I was able to get answers quicker than others.
After trying several fixes (and making sure it had fuel flowing) I call in the cavalry and ask WVUMTNBKR to come assist. Mower is now on it's back. We've removed spark plugs and mower PTO belts, and wacked on the starter after checking all wiring is tight. We've tried moving the crank after removing cooling shroud and fan. No joy. Now we get the designers on the phone and they tell us to remove the clutch and hope it is a seized clutch bearing.
Surprise! It's not the clutch bearing, the engine is seized. So we jump the curb with the truck, crash the gate doing 98 (meters/hour), loosen the hydro motors so the machine can roll freely, and muscle it on the trailer to take back to the service depot. Dropped off via minivan the following day, and awaiting diagnosis...
HF Predator engine swap (and document!)
The company calls back a few days later. Engine has been run with no oil (even though I had seen it on the dipstick) and the cylinder walls are scored, engine toast. Since they had just serviced it they offer to swap me an identical used model. 1 year older, 300 more hours, but all the same specs. So away we go again! The minivan does it's thing across the largest inclines Charleston has to offer (bridges), and we get our "new" mower tucked away into the shipping container home that we've just installed. More to come...
Original replacement mower specs, if anyone cares to know them.
In reply to wyndscreen :
Don't worry, that time will come... But also, these are vertical shaft engines and I need over 20HP, so that is a challenge to find at HF.
I saw a hydrodrive on Scrapyard wars last night. It's a tempting rabbit hole. Please don't tell me that you have one drive per wheel because I swear that will send me off hunting.
5 acres twice a week with a 48" deck? Yikes! I do not envy that.
I do about 3 acres with a similar size/power machine once a week-ish and I'm ready to drive it into our pond by the time I'm done.
In reply to Stampie :
1 drive per rear wheel. Fronts are just casters.
In reply to Crackers (Forum Supporter) :
5 acres isn't all lawn, probably about 3 total. But with the stander I can do it all in less than 3 hours. It's always broken up, and 2 other guys do most of the mowing.
Oh no. What's going on with it now?
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
It's running and cutting. This is just a thread for me to document the path getting here from the past 2 years....
In reply to bbbbRASS :
You're not helping. You wouldn't know the specs of them or their make and model?
In reply to Stampie :
How's this?
Motor is a Hydro-Gear HGM-15P-7131
Pump is Hydro-Gear 12CC PK-3HPP-NB1E-XLXX (right side, left is NA1E)
Ok, where were we? Ah yes, we'd gotten through a bit over 2 weeks of ownership with 2 different used mowers taking us to August 2023. Fast forward to summer 2024 and we have been happily mowing along, adding just over 50 hours to the mower (so just over 3000hr now). We did an oil and filter change (using the good Kawasaki branded stuff), changed both air filters, kept the tires at proper inflation, put on new blades, and just keep chugging along.
Now school has started (August, 2024) and the mower is becoming difficult to start. Remembering the previous experience I make sure to keep checking the oil, and also recall that the original mower I got needed a starter replaced but that didn't get swapped to this one. I grab a starter off Amazon (OEM parts for these are remarkably expensive!) toss in new spark plugs for good measure, and also replace the positive battery terminal cable since it was rather worn and crusty. Gosh darn it, it is still hard to start and eventually impossible. I give up and haul it off to the repair depot where it gets the same diagnosis as the first mower! If you are following at home I would just say the Kawasaki air-cooled twin cylinder engines are probably only good for 2500 hours. Faced with the prospect of attempting to teardown and rebuild the internals of the engine I give in to my baser instincts and opt for a repower. Primarily motivated by timeline as it is peak mowing season, and I don't want to keep having to worry about this thing.
I look at different engine options. Kohler made some that are supposedly more reliable, but experiences seem mixed. There is one guy on the youtubes who was able to use a predator engine, but those models that would be of the needed size and configuration were discontinued. I check online marketplaces and while there are tons of horizontal shaft options that would work for a riding mower, almost nothing for the standers. So i breakout the credit card and off we go with a shiny new Kaw FX730. I confirmed with Wright that they have switched to the 730 also, and it will bolt right in as long as you get the correct crank size and wiring selected. Shiney! Time to get some students involved...
So we swapped this puppy out in an afternoon, with 3 different periods of kids coming to "assist." Since it wasn't like we had prep for them to understand what to do I could only have 5 at a time watching and following rote instructions. I debated a few different ways to rig a pulley for an engine hoist, and then realized I could just lift the thing. Out with the old and dirty, and time for some cleaning!
All accessories swap over, including the exhaust which is a bit of a pain. I redid a bit of the wiring, as I wanted thicker cables for my main positive and ground so I went from what I think was 8AWG to 4AWG. Since my old starter wasn't actually bad I was able to send it on to a new lucky user in the 2024/5 NYG. 2 students helped lift the motor in place while I aligned all the bolts and torqued. The clutch gave me a little issue and I found a piece of metal in the old crank that turned out to be a key. Wright was super helpful quickly answering me so I didn't just toss that. I also found badly frayed PTO wiring and redid that.
So here we are, all powered up and ready for the first start. Only a bunch of judgmental teens to mock me if we fail...
In case the embed isn't working, here's a link. No phones allowed at school with the new (wonderful!) state law, so first start isn't captured but here she is purring away.
See this belt around the clutch? You can't just put it over the clutch when you install it. You have to remove a little metal clutch alignment bracket, and then reinstall that bracket. I forgot that, and smoked out the parking lot while ruining the belt when I started mowing.
To be continued...
Ok, so we mowed a bit more in the fall, and then started up again in the spring of 2025. Things seemed fine, with the replacement drive belt and the initial oil change completed but then at the beginning of this month (April) I was informed that the blades weren't engaging. berkeley. The clutch solenoid makes noise when you engage the switch so it didn't seem like the platform safety switch or PTO switch was the issue. There is a chance for an electrical issue to make the clutch not engage, but the battery tested well. I decided I should just bite the bullet and made the decision to replace the clutch with a new OEM part. I looked online and with the repower wasn't positive what clutch would be correct so I went to the local dealer. That made the part (71410020, in case you need it) more than double the price of the online places, but also I didn't have to wait for shipping. So on the jackstands we go, and off comes the old clutch, nice and easy.
Easy-Peazy! Torque specs are in the manual, just pinched a finger when the old clutch slid off. Tossed on the belt while the clutch was off so lets do this.
Well shoot, maybe you paid attention and see one thing I messed up in my rush. I should add this was during a time when a 700 page report was overdue and being reviewed, so my focus was a bit torn as I kept checking for updates and comments. A blood sacrifice was required.
I had hammered back a bent mulch kit (I was never told it had been bent, must have been a pretty hard hit!) with a sledgehammer and apparently not gotten it flush enough. When I stood up with it on jack stands I let the edge grab my lower thigh pretty good. The PTO still didn't turn on. tried using the other point of the clutch alignment bracket, with no success. I fired the parts cannon and installed the replacement clutch wiring, with no change. I went and got a new battery (exceptionally painful for me, as I was ready to just use the LiFePO4 4S Headway battery I had built), checked over all the wires, and let it down for the 5th time. Then I noticed a ground wire from the engine to the chassis was broken at the terminal. It seems when I installed it I may not have left enough slack for the deck to be dropped on the ground, which I do when I remove the belt covers. New ground wire installed, checked operation again. Success! Except, what is that odd squealing and why is the belt vibrating so much? Gosh darn it, I had forgotten that I needed to unbolt the clutch alignment bracket so that it could have the belt guided in the proper route. With that finished, I thought we were good and was finally able to mow. I'm not positive there was ever something wrong with the clutch, or battery, or wiring other than the broken ground. There is a different ground going to the PTO and it still completes the circuit, but at this point I'm just happy that everything has been changed and we should be good. Need to grease the Zerks before much longer but otherwise expect this to continue mowing for many hundreds of more hours.
