Post by bobinoly on May 16, 2020 19:41:06 GMT
I have owned a Raven since 2015 and have had several issues with it. This is long but I thought I would list them out and the resolution in case it would help someone else. I have 2.5 acres with 1 acre in lawn and the rest fir trees, fully fenced, so the generator is good to have when working away from the house. I have had most of the issues repaired by some good mechanics and probably paid twice for the machine over the past 5 years.
1. 2016 - The mower deck would not run even though everything was connected properly. I tried to troubleshoot over the phone with the Raven customer service. Since power was there and the fuses were fine, we decided it was a mower deck issue and Raven sent me a new deck at no cost. They had no service center in Washington State. When I hooked up the new deck, it did not run either. I finally took it to a repair center that worked on golf carts and tractors. They went through it and found the computer module was not working properly. They contacted Raven and were sent a new computer module. Everything worked fine. Cost to me about $500 in labor to the repair shop. I probably could have gotten Raven to pay under warranty, but I figured I had a spare mower deck out of the deal and that was good enough.
2. 2017 - The Raven was idling fine but bogging down and dying when I gave it gas. It ran fine on the battery without the gas engine running. I was going to go back to the repair center, but one day I thought it seemed like maybe back pressure was killing it. I removed the spark suppressor screen at the end of the exhaust pipe and that solved the problem. Cost to me $0.00. I never put another screen on the exhaust pipe. I probably could have cleaned the screen but thought it was not a necessary item for my needs and tossed it.
3. 2018 - I was mowing the lawn and the steering was freezing up making it very difficult to turn left. Then the Raven quit running. I could not get it to start again. I put it on electric and drove it back to the shed. The Raven was surging under electric. I checked the batteries and they all needed replacing. Interstate Battery sold me the required batteries. Cost to me about $400 for the 5 batteries. It still would not start under gas, so I took it to the repair center. They found the Regulator and Contactor were bad. Denver Global was out of business so they found the parts on eBay. They also readjusted the steering. Everything worked fine. Cost to me about $700 parts and labor.
4. 2019 - Steering on the Raven was acting up again making it extremely difficult to steer either left or right. I took it to the repair center. The mechanic called me and said the comb and gear steering system was a terrible design and suggested I let him replace it with an ATV rack and pinion system. I said okay and he did that. He had to fabricate some new attachment points to get it to fit and added a few other adapters, but it worked. It steers like a dream ever since. The tradeoff was I no longer had a 14” turning circle (more like 3’) but that was fine, it is a permanent repair and a much-improved system. Cost to me about $730 parts and labor.
5. 2020 - My latest challenge, the Raven was working fine, I turned it off and then the gas engine would not start. I drove it back to the shed under electricity which seemed fine. Tested the batteries which were fine. I took it to the repair center. The compression release was not occurring which meant they had to tear the gas engine down and replace the cam shaft which was a Honda part so it was available. While doing so, they also found that the crankshaft gasket was being sucked in and breaking and was going to fail completely very shortly so that was replaced also. Cost to me about $780 parts and labor (seeing a trend here?).
Yeah, I probably spent too much, but I really do like the machine and I figure with all the cheap parts I replaced with higher quality parts I am well on my way to having a quality machine. I also have a repair center that can think outside the box and find a fix for just about anything. I also use non-ethanol gas in all my Raven and all small engine tools at the recommendation of my mechanic. I have found that 10% ethanol gas, over time, made the fuel lines in my leaf blower, hedge trimmer, and weed whacker brittle and they broke.
About one year into ownership I had a feeling Denver Global would not last so I stocked up on blades and air filters so I will be good for a number of years to come. Hopefully, this will be of some value to any of you having any similar problems that may be puzzling you.
1. 2016 - The mower deck would not run even though everything was connected properly. I tried to troubleshoot over the phone with the Raven customer service. Since power was there and the fuses were fine, we decided it was a mower deck issue and Raven sent me a new deck at no cost. They had no service center in Washington State. When I hooked up the new deck, it did not run either. I finally took it to a repair center that worked on golf carts and tractors. They went through it and found the computer module was not working properly. They contacted Raven and were sent a new computer module. Everything worked fine. Cost to me about $500 in labor to the repair shop. I probably could have gotten Raven to pay under warranty, but I figured I had a spare mower deck out of the deal and that was good enough.
2. 2017 - The Raven was idling fine but bogging down and dying when I gave it gas. It ran fine on the battery without the gas engine running. I was going to go back to the repair center, but one day I thought it seemed like maybe back pressure was killing it. I removed the spark suppressor screen at the end of the exhaust pipe and that solved the problem. Cost to me $0.00. I never put another screen on the exhaust pipe. I probably could have cleaned the screen but thought it was not a necessary item for my needs and tossed it.
3. 2018 - I was mowing the lawn and the steering was freezing up making it very difficult to turn left. Then the Raven quit running. I could not get it to start again. I put it on electric and drove it back to the shed. The Raven was surging under electric. I checked the batteries and they all needed replacing. Interstate Battery sold me the required batteries. Cost to me about $400 for the 5 batteries. It still would not start under gas, so I took it to the repair center. They found the Regulator and Contactor were bad. Denver Global was out of business so they found the parts on eBay. They also readjusted the steering. Everything worked fine. Cost to me about $700 parts and labor.
4. 2019 - Steering on the Raven was acting up again making it extremely difficult to steer either left or right. I took it to the repair center. The mechanic called me and said the comb and gear steering system was a terrible design and suggested I let him replace it with an ATV rack and pinion system. I said okay and he did that. He had to fabricate some new attachment points to get it to fit and added a few other adapters, but it worked. It steers like a dream ever since. The tradeoff was I no longer had a 14” turning circle (more like 3’) but that was fine, it is a permanent repair and a much-improved system. Cost to me about $730 parts and labor.
5. 2020 - My latest challenge, the Raven was working fine, I turned it off and then the gas engine would not start. I drove it back to the shed under electricity which seemed fine. Tested the batteries which were fine. I took it to the repair center. The compression release was not occurring which meant they had to tear the gas engine down and replace the cam shaft which was a Honda part so it was available. While doing so, they also found that the crankshaft gasket was being sucked in and breaking and was going to fail completely very shortly so that was replaced also. Cost to me about $780 parts and labor (seeing a trend here?).
Yeah, I probably spent too much, but I really do like the machine and I figure with all the cheap parts I replaced with higher quality parts I am well on my way to having a quality machine. I also have a repair center that can think outside the box and find a fix for just about anything. I also use non-ethanol gas in all my Raven and all small engine tools at the recommendation of my mechanic. I have found that 10% ethanol gas, over time, made the fuel lines in my leaf blower, hedge trimmer, and weed whacker brittle and they broke.
About one year into ownership I had a feeling Denver Global would not last so I stocked up on blades and air filters so I will be good for a number of years to come. Hopefully, this will be of some value to any of you having any similar problems that may be puzzling you.
