Lawn tractor battery question

J · 2013-05-20T23:16:47+00:00

Helo gurus, For the winter I have generally just disconnect the battery on my lawn trac tor and leave the tractor in the garage. In the spring I usually have to j ump the lawn tractor anyway to get it started - not necessarily because the battery is dead, but because starting it the first time in the spring is a bear and usually takes a lot of cranking (and the tractor battery runs dow n before I can get the tractor started). However, once I've started it and got her running for a while, I can start it from the battery without too m uch trouble for the rest of the season. This spring, I jumped it and it started right up. I let it run for a while , but then when I went to turn on the blades, it sputtered and died. I had to jump it again, but this time started the blades with it still connected to the car battery - no problem. After disconnecting, I tried starting an d stopping the blades a few times with no trouble, but then after sitting a couple of minutes, again the engine died when I tried to start the blades. Finally, I jumped it, started the blades and then mowed for about an hour - figuring this would both charge the battery and loosen up any tightness in the blades. Afterwards, same problem - and I also couldn't start the engi ne from off. I'm thinking "new battery time". I just measured the voltage (tractor off) and got 12.2. It's a 12 volt battery, but I'm not sure if that's a decent voltage or not - that was after a few unsuccessful cranks by the way. I s wear I've never had a problem starting the blades once I got the tractor is running, so I'm wondering if the problem is something else (or if there ar e multiple problems). Like maybe the blades are sticking and things need t o be greased and the extra oomph required to start the blades is too much f or the battery - just like it can kill your engine if you go too quickly th rough grass that's too high. Or maybe the battery's not charging properly while the tractor's running. Is...