Mower deck pulley change

[Butch 194]

To get a nice cut I mow in 1st hi or 4th gear. Most of you use 2nd hi or 5th.  The sound of the mower deck doesn't sound

like a fast rotation and the clippings don't go far at all. Have any of you changed the pulley system on the deck so the

blades rotate faster?

 

[clem 28]

if you go with a smaller drive pulley on top of the center spinde, you will gain speed while losing some torque. this works good if you don't have very tall or thick grass like on sandy ground. when I tried this on heavy clay soil the grass was thick enough that it would slow the blade speed to where they wouldn't cut well. the deck that spins faster does cut with a much better finish than the stock pulley setup, but I can't let it go as long between mowings. I think this would work better if you could make the crank/pto pulley larger instead of the deck drive smaller. their isnt much surface area on that little pulley for the belt to contact so it will slip pretty easy once it warms up and the blades get some resistance in the form of tall thick grass

[Butch 194]

You can't make the PTO pulley larger can you? It would be better than putting on a smaller deck pulley.

[clem 28]

probably not, short of some fabrication/machine work