# Liberty 43 - Front Roller Issue?



## ADanto6840 (Apr 1, 2021)

I was mowing late evening one night this last week & found that my Liberty 43 felt like it was "floating". I didn't have a chance to look into it closer until today, and I've found that my front roller is basically not spinning.

With my hands I can just *barely* get it to rotate, but it's a workout. It's definitely far too stiff to rotate from the mower's propulsion/movement while mowing.

I went ahead and pulled the front roller off entirely to see if there was anything obviously amiss. I got it off of the machine easily, just two hex screws/bolts. I was then able to get one 'end cap' of the roller completely off of the roller, it pretty much just 'fell out'. I was NOT able to get the other 'end cap' off, though; I'm not sure if that's by design, or if it's stuck, or what -- I checked online and in the manual, and I can't find any documentation on whether the 'end caps' should come off or not & I didn't want to "force it" in case they aren't supposed to come off at all.

Anyways, I looked inside & there was a [very] small amount of debris/grass clippings, which I dumped out and generally 'cleaned' it as best I could with the fingers of my work gloves. I applied some lube to both 'end caps' -- and then went ahead & re-assembled it onto the mower.

It's _slightly_ less difficult to rotate than before, but it is still nowhere near 'freely spinning' -- and is way too 'stiff' to be able to mow & have it rotate [currently it will just forcefully 'scoot' over the grass].

Anyone else experienced this? Any ideas, or things I can try? If you have an Allett, how 'freely' does your front roller spin? Have you had to do any maintenance on it, have you greased it, etc.

FWIW, I reached out to Allett about it already & am hoping to hear back soon -- but I wanted to go ahead & post here too, especially since we're nearing the end of the mowing season and I'm going to need to mow in the next couple of days [or else I may end up with some pretty darn long Bermuda, going into the cooler months/dormancy].

Appreciate any thoughts / ideas / things to try! Can post pictures or video too, if it might be helpful.


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## ADanto6840 (Apr 1, 2021)

Alright, since I haven't had any other ideas or been able to find anything along these lines online.... I took it apart again!

I lubed it up again, going MUCH heavier this time, and I examined the hell out of it -- then put it back together. I left one of the bolts a bit looser and that, plus the *heavy* application of lube, and I think that it is at least _usable_, for now. I do think the 'bearing' (unsure if that's the right word) has seized though & there's probably an actual parts failure/defect/issue that will need to be warrantied & replaced. Not certain on that, but relatively sure, unless it's designed to work differently on the two different sides -- but that seems relatively unlikely.

*Pictures & videos of what I'm seeing:*



*Key thing to look at in here -- the two sides spin differently:*
Side #1 -- the side I can't get off of the roller -- the entire 'assembly' spins. This side is difficult to spin, and the best I can do at lubricating it is to just "blindly" spray lubricant into the opposite side of the roller tube... 
Side #2 -- the side that easily comes off the roller -- only the 'inner' part of it spins (I'm unsure if it's called a "bearing" but that's what I'm calling it til I know better, heh). This side spins very nicely once lubricated.

*Video - While Taken Apart:*





*Video - After Re-Assembly: *





Photos: 


http://imgur.com/bwMGwA4



It seems unlikely, to me at least, that the two sides are intended to spin differently. My best guess is that the 'bearing' is seized on the one side. I don't know if I should try to forcefully beat/pry it off to clean & lube it, or if that's too risky (I don't want to disfigure the bearing or take it out of round, etc) -- I did try to use mild force to get it off with Robogrips, but no dice.

LMK any thoughts. Hopefully, in meantime, it'll work just _alright-enough_ to get a mow in this afternoon, but we'll see. And hopefully Allett will get back to me this week and be able to provide guidance and/or ship a replacement.

Honestly, it also has me wondering if some of my "uneven" cutting is because the front roller was 'dragging' on one side or something, but I don't know.

Anyways, any thoughts/ideas/etc appreciated, as always! =)


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## Allett Canada (Oct 13, 2020)

Following this thread,

I have a customer up north with this issue and one of my demo machines has experienced this failure as well. Admittedly I have not gone to the extent that you have in taking it apart and diagnosing it. I have spare rollers in all sizes in stock and will be shipping a replacement to the customer next week under warranty. I'll take mine apart, as well as theirs, and share my findings here as well with Allett UK. They are in eternal pursuit of mowing perfection and if this is a common issue the engineering team will be all over it.

Both my customer and I are experiencing this with a Kensington Model. I have been a lot "nicer" to my Liberty 43 demo machine than my Kensington, so I'm not sure if it's a different type of roller between the two. The Kensington has been put through some totally unacceptable operating conditions and still runs like a champ other than the seized roller, a shredded intermediate gear after dethatching a large rock, and a stripped screw from me being a beast on the Allen key.

All of which were easy fixes with spare parts on the shelf here in Canada.


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## ADanto6840 (Apr 1, 2021)

Cool, thank you, I appreciate it. I've not heard anything back from Allett US so far. =|

My Liberty 43 is pretty babied; it's climate-controlled indoors, etc. I do feel it doesn't stripe anywhere near as well as some of the videos online, and I've had some uneven-cutting concerns [and have tested & adjusted the reels well]. Beyond that, I've replaced the "quick change" screws 3X now [I'm not using a hex key every time for the QC cartridges -- drill, all day long -- replacement screws are cheap], and I've gone through 2 (or 3?) of the main motor-drive belts in my first ~8months of ownership.

Overall am relatively happy with it, especially love the scarifier cartridge (pine needles, be gone!) -- but am a *little* annoyed at the lack of follow-up on the roller issue though I'm trying to stay patient, especially since we're now out of my TifTuf's growing season.

Appreciate any info you can find out, though. Worst case, I'm going to take it apart again and 'smack' it to try to get it to "free up", then lube it. If that doesn't work, I'll be requesting that they RMA the roller.

PS -- I'd *love* to get a grooved front roller. The TifTuf is dense and, even when the roller was ... rolling, it still 'floated' a bit. I feel like a grooved roller would perform substantially better, and from what I've read on this forum, that seems to generally be the consensus (most say they'd never go back to 'smooth'). Out of curiosity, do you guys have grooved rollers for the Liberty 43 up there in Canada? I'm told they don't have them available here in the US, but if Allett makes them/if they exist, I'd *really* like one. =D

Ty again!


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## ADanto6840 (Apr 1, 2021)

Heard anything on this? I sure haven't. My front roller apparently "came unstuck" at some point while float-mowing towards the end of the year. Was obvious when it happened, but if it happens again, I just bang on it? I don't know, not thrilled about it though, heh...

Anyways, curious if you heard anything from them? I saw they released a new electric reel mower (or line of them or something ) -- maybe they solved it there, and will "backport" a replacement part? Wishful thinking probably, heh. =D


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