Earthquake Acreage rough cut mower homeowners review
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- I review the features I especially like on this machine as I unbox it.
This is my second tow behind brush mower, with DR Power Equipment being my first. I don't go over the step height adjustment on this unit or cover its adjustable hitch as those features have been done to death by others.
Overall, this Earthquake seems like it will be more durable than the DR.
Fewer parts, simpler design.
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Sent an email to "customer service" two days ago asking if the part to fix the piece of garbage will show up this decade or next. No answer so I'm going to assume it's next decade. Prime example of their "customer service.
Parent company is Ardisam, I'd recommend you check out their line of junk prior to any purchases.
Bought mine Nov 2021 to use the next year. Worked fine seemingly for the year.
2023 I got maybe six or seven days use before all sorts of things broke off the machine. Enough so that it was put in the shop end of June and parts to fix it didn't show up until almost November. So ardisam offered a new mower (after five months of no mowing the sixty acre deer property it was bought for).
2024 the new replacement lasts about 15 hours. The pulley guide bolts - all 4 get sheared off (pretty sure the same happened on the first one but never realized it), the pulley breaks and the wheel falls off. ardisam says sorry, figure out how to get it out of the field and take it to a service shop. Get it there about the end of June.
Get it to the shop, ardisam is covering the cost but the shop tells me don't expect the mower until sometime in September because they're waiting for the parts.
Do not recommend, try DR, Swisher or whatever else you can find.
Insightful!
Nothing but belt problems with the dr, just about everything that could break and rattle on that thing has done so… so far I’m happy with the acreage, but the Swisher would be my next option in a few years if need be
While I'm waiting on ardisam to get the part as it's only been two months, last machine it was three months before they got the part. This time I think it's the wheel bolt. You wouldn't think it'd take more than a week at most, but it is ardisam. So I thought I'd share a few emails with customer service from the first mower that they finally replaced.
And remember, they never had anyone look at the machine after it broke through the deck.
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From the pictures it looks like the brake pad is completely wore off, that is where we are getting the idea that the problem came from there. Another thing I can see in the pictures is that bolts were in there at one point in time. It looks like you only need the bolts that come in from the sides, not the ones that go through the deck of the mower, correct?
I am able to send you a new brake pad and all the bolts, nuts and washers needed to get your mower running again
Cust service
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Read your email, I have some questions.
You say the brake caused the problem. That's not what caused the problem.
The brake pad didn't wear down, it broke at one of the triangular pieces holding the pad. Being 2 hours away from where the mower is kept I can't say but the one side with the triangular piece broke off. That isn't wear that is a defective part.
However it was the missing bolts that was the cause of the damage. If the missing bolts were there where is the scratching damage from them around the bolt holes while they were backing out from the vibration? And where did the nuts and washers that were on the inside of the pulley housing disappear? There isn't sufficient room for them to slide out of that housing.
There should have been nuts and washers inside the pulley housing but there weren't any.
As far as the vibration causing any bolts to loosen and fall out, then why haven't other bolts loosened and fallen out. Was the torque not done to the specifications which might explain vibration?
Videos on line at your site for replacing the drive belt clearly show a design change for the 2 black guide plates on each side of the main pulley. They are no longer secured by bolts going down through the deck. Latest design shows them bolted to the large red base plate. Obviously the bolts through the deck were a weak point. The new design has no bolts through the deck. Without the "missing bolts " all the forces from the main pulley are directed to the bolts through the deck. That would have eventually caused the those bolts to pull through the holes in the deck.
When was the design change implemented?
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Good morning!
I didn’t answer those questions because I don’t have answers for your questions. I have no idea why they ALL vibrated loose, I have no idea why the nuts that should have been trapped inside disappeared. Sometimes, things happen that I can’t explain, the world is an imperfect place. We think, (and by we I mean me and both of my managers) that the brake pad being completely gone caused the issues with the bolts. Diagnosing problems from pictures is not ideal, so we use what we have and we do what we can.
This will absolutely all be covered under warranty (this is the connector on the tow bar, it broke after we jury rigged the deck to keep the mower running, I did not take their bolts). Per my last email, I certainly can help you out here by sending you everything you need. The other part of my job is to educate our customers about proper maintenance and things that can be done to prevent future problems. I apologize if you were offended by that, it certainly wasn’t meant to be insulting or anything like that.
If I send you parts, are you able to install them yourself? Will you be able to drill the pin out that snapped and put a new one in there if I send it? Or would you rather bring it to one of our service centers and have it repaired under warranty?
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Notice after having looked at the pictures they decided the brake "looked" like it completely wore off. At no point did the lock nuts vibrate loose, they were still tight holding onto the brake.
So their customer service didn't care enough to do any actual inspection of the machine, they just decided they weren't going to repair the damage.
Later on after more work the big pin on the mower where the tow bar connects also sheared off. That was the part that took 3 months to show up. By that time they had finally offered a new machine, which of course lasted about 15 hours before the wheel fell off, the bolts sheared off, the belt broke and such.
I do not recommend anything from this company, they have more companies. I also bought one of their pop up blinds - Baronette was the name. One of the fiberglas ribs on the hub broke, later that same spring it developed a tear which in subsequent winds tore the blind apart. Less than two months of use and it was unusable.
😂😂your foreman was making sure you were doing everything right
Excellent first impression review. I almost bought a DR Power 44T but after reading all 94 reviews and watching videos it's apparently a hit or miss product. The biggest problem, almost half the complaints were broken belt springs. One guy went through 3 of them with the first breaking during the initial use. After paying $3000+ for an engine on wheels you would think it would be bullet proof.
Now that you had the Acreage for over a month, have you used it enough to give it a "buy" rating?
My biggest fear was the belt coming off the pullies like was a constant problem with my old DR brush mower. With the pin placement to keep the belt from ever getting unruly and good deeper grooves on the clutch pulley, I have not had the belt jump yet (knock on wood) with the DR I always figured at at least once an hour for belt maintenance. I’m probably sitting around 10 hours now and I am so amazed no belt issues. I’m so done with the DR
The one advantage I think the DR does have over the acreage is the engage and disengage actuation.
On my DR, you can start the engine, engage and disengage the blades without ever getting off of your machine. I am not a fan of having to engage the blades while I’m standing next to the acreage
@@highvelocitywilliam Totally agree on the remote engage but I read many reviews about that button box malfunctioning. That made me lean towards the basic 44T with no remote. In that case I'm back to the Acreage.
Thank you for the information and your time.
@@highvelocitywilliam A jumping belt would drive me crazy. The Acreage is pretty easy to access the belt and it's from the top. Not sure if you have to turn the DR over to access the belt but def not with the Acreage.
Thanks again!
@@HomesteadOnThePreserve no you don’t have to turn the DR over to access the belt, however, you do you have a much smaller access panel up front and have to remove the fuel tank or work underneath it.
Still waiting on the part to fix mine. Second year in a row that it's been in the shop for months waiting on a part.
Haven't heard a thing from customer service after my original call, terrible company. Do not recommend.
I will get blades fabbed up at my local shop then. Thanks!