Will tall thick grass cause a new belt on a riding mower to break in an hour?

We just had our riding mower serviced, and they put on a new belt. It broke in an hour. We are cutting grass that is about 3 ft tall and pretty thick. Would this cause the belt to break or did we get screwed at the repair shop?

Comments

5 Responses to “Will tall thick grass cause a new belt on a riding mower to break in an hour?”

Kamin_Majere says:

May 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm

It was probably the strain of trying to cut the grass. You should probably look into a bush-hog or a feild and brush mower to cut grass that thick and tall

I have cut grass about that tall on a mower before, but we were using industrial built mowers and i couldnt go very fast (less than 1MPG in most cases) to make sure i didnt over load the mower and cause breaks.

I cant say if you were screwed at the repair shop or not as i dont know what they charged you or what, but the belts are built at a factory and the shop probably just buys then from there and installs them, so it really wouldnt be their fault.

That said it could have been a bad install, but places that work on mowers are usually not huge profit business, so most of the time they do VERY good work to get customer loyality, because if word of mouth about bad work gets around they will go under rather quickly.

I would say you just used the mower in a situation it wasnt able to handle. You can try it again, but i would recommend a feild and brush mower for that kind of a job. Or even a weed eater if it isnt a very large area, before i used the mower to "polish up" the area.
Sonny says:

May 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Grass that tall will tangle in the pulley and belt area causing the belt to break or come off the pulleys. You are probably trying to cut the tall grass too fast. Slow the mower speed down and take narrower swaths.
Carl says:

May 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm

If a stick gets on the belt it can break in a flash.
My mower eats belts like candy.
It's amazing your mower can cut 3 feet tall grass with a belt. What kind of mower do you have? I want one!
Maybe cut the grass sooner so it's not so hard on the belt. I think you did it in with the tall grass.
googie says:

May 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm

You had a riding mower and tried to mow grass which was 3 ft. tall? All of this matter gathering around the mower blades certainly might be the cause of the belt breaking. More likely it was the cause. You might have to mow a section about 1/4 the width of the mower cut so as not to injure your mower and put less strain on the belt. If it ever gets that tall again , hire someone with a brush trimmer to whack down the grass to a reasonable height before you mow.
rbwrt2 says:

May 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Cutting grass 3 feet tall will put extreme pressure on all moving parts.I would assume you had to start and stop when cutting and you most likely plugged the rotary blades causeing excesive wear on belt. You may have even stalled moter by cutting grass at this height.There is a possibility the pulleys were out of line from serviceing or became that way from excessive pressure.Replace the belt and check that pulleys turn easily with no grinding or wobbling and try it on normal height of cut and your problem will most likely be solved.Leave the long grass to a Bush Hog and use the mower for it was designed to do