1811 w/44C deck leveling problem
 

Good news. Having much better luck with a Stens Trueblue Belt. Even after the mule drive idler literally smoked its bearing today... I guess that's to be expected after 30+ years.

Off topic question. I replaced my rear tires which seems to have lowered the height of my machine. I hear that can happen... So much for standards I guess? Anyway my deck rides low even at max elevation. My old 38" deck hanger had left and right adjustable links/levelers. The 44" deck hanger has a solid link on one side. I don't want to change the tires out but I do have a spare adjuster. Wondering 1) why does the wider deck hanger only have adjustment on one side? Engineers must have had some reason... 2) Any harm if I cut the solid link off and put my spare adjustable link in its place in hopes of being able to recover some of my lost height?

Thanks friends. Happy mowing season.
BG

Out of curiosity, what did you install besides the normal 23 x 10.50 - 12 tires?

:bigthink:

Threw on a set of Carlisle Turf Master Lawn & Garden Tires - 23X10.50-12s. I even had to pull a link out of my chains to get them to fit correctly.

Today I was able to experiment. I removed the fixed hanger bracket and installed an adjustable unit. Put 20 turns on each adjustable hanger and that got me back to the range of motion on the deck that I remember before the tire swap. Nice and level now too. Going to run it for a while and see what happens.

Put 1.5 hours on it today. Belt behaved nicely. Much better deck range of motion and the mule drive likes its new pulley. I think we have a winner.

Glad you got it back up and working to your liking. Tires of the same size from one manufacturer to another and of equal tread types really should not change much. Like less than a 1/4 in overall height.

I suspect maybe something was getting hung up in your hanger linkage and you fixed it while changing over to adjustable.

Either way.. Good Job!