How to Lower the Deck on a Dixie Chopper: Step by Step Guide
The Dixie Chopper is a popular zero-turn lawn mower. It’s widely described as one of the best riding mowers available, especially in the zero-turn space. Its distinctive bare-metal and black-tubing look is brilliant in its stark simplicity, making it look like a sleek piece of industrial equipment. The Dixie Chopper Classic is a piece of beautiful hardware, even compared to the
The Dixie Chopper’s zero-turn machinery is industry standard, giving intuitive push-pull operation to the worker running it. Its mower deck operation is simple. With individual wheel motors for the Dixie Chopper, the Dixie Chopper Classic is one of the most distinctive gas-powered mowers in the commercial class.
Sometimes a riding mower can be less intuitive than a push-behind mower, especially when the user needs to get up to speed on the riding mower quickly to get used to a larger lawn or after getting a job as a groundskeeper. To lower the deck on a mower isn’t a difficult operation, but it is one that requires following the right steps in order to do it.
If you’re looking for online documentation for this particular operation, you’ve come to the right place. We can get you up to speed on your Dixie Chopper, and help you set the right height for your mowing.
To Adjust The Deck On A Dixie Chopper
The deck of a riding mower is the housing containing the blade assembly. The Dixie Chopper uses an arrangement of three bar-type X-blades to evenly cut a wide range of grasses. The width of the platform reduces the number of passes that need to be taken over the operating area to get all the grass, making more efficient use of the worker’s time than a narrower mower. The whole chopper assembly is built to be simple and highly maintainable.
The simple summary is, to lower the deck on a Dixie Chopper, press on the mower deck adjustment pedal and when it’s at the right height, lock it with the lever knob on the right side of the deck.
Step By Step To Adjust The Deck On A Dixie Chopper
- Place your Dixie Chopper on a flat surface. Most frequently, this flat surface will be the garage where the mower is stored. With the Dixie Chopper on the flat surface, you’re ready to begin, since the even surface will provide a good reference point for the adjustment. The temptation is to adjust the chopper on the grass, but unless the dirt surface under the mower is extremely flat and well-packed, the garage floor will provide a better reference point and you’ll be more likely to recognize if the chopper deck is adjusted too low.
- The mower deck adjustment foot pedal is on the left side of the deck fender.
- Press the mower deck adjustment foot pedal.
- The lever knob can be located on the right side of the deck, which can then be rotated.
- Once the knob is rotated, the mower can be unlocked.
- Depress the mower lifter lock lever and the left foot pedal.
- To lower the mower deck, now let go of the pedal.
- Adjust the mower deck’s gauge wheels until they’re not touching the ground. Put the 13mm bolt back in the gauge wheel’s center and tighten it.
- Repeat on the other three gauge wheels.
How Do You Level The Dixie Chopper Deck?
Leveling the deck is an important operation to make sure that the user knows that grass on the left side is mowed to the same height as grass on the right side. The Dixie Chopper deck leveling system is adjustable as well as the height.
- With the mower on the garage floor, make sure all four tires are properly inflated.
- Turn the blade front to back and measure from the floor to the blade bottom in both directions.
- If the deck is properly adjusted, the distance from the floor to the blades should be the same in both the front and the back. With the Classic, the distance from the floor to the blades should be anywhere from 2.5 to 5.5 inches, depending on the height adjustment setting.
- If the front of the centered blade is lower than the back, add height to the front wheels of the deck. If the back of the centered blade is lower, reverse this.
- Repeat for the other blades.
- Once the deck is fully leveled, drive it away.
Having a leveled deck on your Dixie Chopper is an important part of having a well-mowed lawn. If the deck is not leveled, the edges of the blades will give the lawn grass a scalloped look that makes the lawn look unevenly manicured. With a high-speed mower like the Dixie Chopper, any variation in the height of the lawn is going to be exaggerated by the mower blades being uneven.
Frequently Asked Questions
How good a mower is the Dixie Chopper?
Of zero-turn lawn mowers, the Dixie Chopper is one of the best if not the best around. Its powerful motor and sturdy cutting blade make it a low-maintenance choice for lawnmowers. Though John Deere and other competitors are more widely used, and they can be thought of as dependable midrange options, few lawn mowers have a better range of features or stronger cutting arms than the Dixie Chopper.
Dixie Chopper’s competitors in the industrial lawnmower space are agriculture giants John Deere of Molina, IL, and the Toro Company of Bloomington, MN. The Deere company is more focused on large agricultural equipment, however, and Toro’s primary focus is consumer power equipment. Dixie Chopper’s mowers are most comparable to the professional-grade equipment produced by Toro in their Minnesota factory. Dixie Chopper is a professional outfit and has no commitment in the small-lawn consumer space. The smallest size of lawn that a Dixie Chopper machine would normally handle is 1-2 acres, larger than the typical .6 acre urban lawn.
What Is A Zero-Turn Mower?
Many people may not have experience with a zero-turn mower. A zero-turn mower is a lawnmower which can make a turn in no space, due to having independently driven wheels. This is achieved in different ways based on propulsion: A gas powered mower might use differential clutch to drive the wheels in different directions while an electric mower will simply have motors independently controlled by the control levers next to the seat. The first zero-turn mower was invented in 1949, with the modern twin-lever system added in 1963. Zero-turn mowers are especially important for precision mowing. Because of this difference, Dixie Chopper’s mowers can either make seamless mows in less space and less time, or mow similar areas more efficiently, developing patterns.
The Dixie Chopper mower experience is widely praised by owners, as these sturdy mowers fulfill all of the needs of an industrial customer. With the Dixie Chopper mower, anyone can have an industrial-quality lawn mow any time.
What Is A Dixie Chopper?
The Dixie Chopper has two industrial models, the Classic and XCaliber, four commercial models, the Blackhawk, Blackhawk HP, Eagle, and Eagle HP, and two residential models, the Zee 2 and Zee 2 HP. With common features including pneumatic tires, a heavy-duty industrial look featuring bare-metal finished steel and black tube steel deck construction, the Dixie Chopper line of lawn mowers is heavy-duty machinery designed for high speeds and thorough mowing at speed to get basic yard work done in half the time of traditional riding mowers. Unlike their competitors, John Deere and Toro, Dixie Chopper focuses on the industrial market.
What Are Distinctive Features Of Dixie Chopper Mowers?
Dixie Chopper mowers feature zero-turn drive trains, including independent electric motors in each of the drive wheels. With electric motors in every drive wheel hub, the Dixie Chopper mower can be operated more efficiently and use less fuel than its competitors, saving money for its owners and operators.
Is Dixie Chopper Still In Business?
Textron purchased Dixie Chopper in 2014, but announced to dealers that they would be terminating production in 2019. However, Dixie Chopper was purchased in August 2020 by RhinoAg, a heavy agricultural machinery company focused on tractor-mounted hardware like rotary cutters and mowers. After Dixie Chopper was purchased by RhinoAg, production was moved to a new facility in Gibson City, IL.
After purchase by RhinoAg, customers reported improvement in quality assurance as fit and finish of the parts was improved by the new owner.
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