308-8 42” deck

[Ohio308-8 0]

Recently bought a 42” side discharge deck for my 308-8. After installing it the deck seems to be offset to one side and even on the tallest setting it is scalping the yard. Any advice would be awesome. 

[doc724 925]

Either the deck is not on correctly (where it attaches to the mid hitch), a broken baffle weld on the underside, or something is bent.  Pix will help us diagnose but you have to be a paying member of the forum to post pix

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 11,033]

Go through the operator manual and review the setup instructions.

Make sure the tire pressures are correct. Click on the fuzzy picture of the manual below

Make sure the fork in the hitch is captured by the cross shaft

Garry

[peter lena 8,582]

those shaft spacers have to shoulder up on the inside ,both sides of the mid mount hitch plate. as soon as you described the deck offset I knew what was up. I also pick up the lift rod to stop , put deck on lowest setting, before sliding deck in and hooking up to lift slide hole. Then I pick up deck with lift rod handle, and secure it to hitch plate, that is where you shoulder up your deck to square. flip the lower locking lever  back to secure the front mounting shaft, your now locked in. now pick up your cutting height at wheel .after I did this a couple of hundred times , its a piece of cake, pete 

[Ohio308-8 0]

Thanks for the help guys got the offset all figured out. Now onto the short cutting height. I think the issue may be the rear wheels. Looking at the manuals the parts book calls for 6” wheel and it appears the deck I bought has 5” wheels installed. Being that I’m trying to use the 42” deck with the small 8 hp engine it really has to work hard to turn the blades in heavy grass. 

[slammer302 2,155]

My dad and i both have tried running 42'' decks on 8hp horses. I went back to 36'' deck

[Vinylguy 4,674]

I picked up a very nice 1990 312-H at the show.

It has the 42 SD on hydro lift.  I am very disappointed with the cut. I mow the lake front which is mostly side hill. My commando 8 with 36RD always had a perfectly level cut but this 42 is disappointing to say the least.  I will check tire pressure and mount setup. Must be something wrong? Hope to find a good RD for it next year.

Also will check wheel size after reading this thread. 

Edited June 26, 2018 by Vinylguy

[clueless 2,976]

The 6" wheel will help, if you decide to buy some, buy the ones made for the WH deck. They are a little pricey but will last years longer than the cheap ones. The SD decks need a little more nut to work as well as the RDs do.

[Vinylguy 4,674]

It does have 6 inch wheels. PO said put on brand new blades. Also have the old blades which are set up for the bagger attachment. 

 Will set the deck one notch higher next mowing.  Not sure what you mean by a little more nut?

[Goldnboy 910]

Probably means that the axle bolt for the wheels is just a tad short for a nut  may want to use a half width nut.

[Ohio308-8 0]

Well after switching up the wheels even on the highest setting it is still cutting way to short. Any other suggestions would be great. At this point I’m thinking I have to go back to the 36” deck.

[Marv 919]

It may be that the front to rear adjustment is off. Might want to run the setup procedure on the mower.

Marv

 

[dcrage 627]

For what it is worth. Complaints about WH decks cutting too low have been ever present since I started reading this forum. I assume 3”(?) was the designed maximum grass height. 

[posifour11 723]

On 7/1/2018 at 7:15 PM, Marv said:

It may be that the front to rear adjustment is off. Might want to run the setup procedure on the mower.

Marv

 

 

Once it's set up right (by the book), it stays that way and gives you an amazing cut for years if not decades.