Monin Mech, Got a JD mower deck question. (Hoping we'll actually see grass this year) I've got the 3 blade mower under my 575 tractor. Would hose fittings help, to flush the deck after mowing, and keep the grass from building up? If so, where are the best areas to install them? Thanks.
Stinny Nothin beats a good old scraper for the mower decks. Pia i know but it works better than anything else except a pressure washer. Get it clean try to keep it painted and use a product called mo deck to keep crud from sticking as much. If hose hook ups were the answer, you would see them on the commercial units. seems to me those are a Harry homeowners type fix. I scrape my ztr decks weekly. Drive one front tire up trailer ramp. Chock tires and crawl under. Put on safety goggles and scrape away.
I'm pretty sure those hose fittings were installed to enhance the livelihood of guys like MM, and to enhance sales to homeowners who just throw away a mower instead of replacing the bearings.
The grass buildup is far less harmful to the machine than the wash-out ports would be. Problem is, after you get done mowing, the spindle assemblies are warm, as they cool, any water on the seal lip will get pulled into the bearings and we both know how good that is for them. It usually doesn't take long for the spindles to self-destruct either. I've seen them go in as little as one season under homeowner type use. If your mower spindles have steel cups installed to help prevent string or twine from wiping out the seals, then the problem is compounded because the debris in those cups will hold the water right where you don't want it. Personally, I feel they are just a feature to sell mowers and have no place on machinery not sold at HD or Lowes.
My lil' Toro has the hose adapter, it wasn't a selling point!! MasterMech is right about warm/hot bearings creating a vacuum when hit with cool water, or mud etc,,in the case of off road toys.. I tried the hose adapter a couple times, the problem is the mess it makes. To be most effective ya' gotta' drop the deck all the way down and the result is a slimy pile of wet mulched grass that has to be cleaned up. Did I mention the the WET SLIMY MESS that needs cleaned up??? A regular scraping and annual pressure wash followed by a hi quality paint job once a year,,I use an enamel paint.
Does the soaking wet grass that's caked 3" deep inside the deck cause the same issues as flushing the deck with water and letting it dry? I've seen reel mowers washed off at golf courses, so the wet grass doesn't hard dry to the blades. One of the reasons I asked. Interesting that you feel as tho the wash ports cause more problems. Well, got any ideas on ways to keep my deck clear of that thick cake of wet/dry grass that builds up? I have to pull the deck, hang it with my hoist and scrap, brush, dig, etc. quite often during the season. Mowing is night and day difference when the full deck depth is clear... no surprise.
We wash both reel and rotary mowers after every use (sometimes that's daily) on the golf course, because we have to mow wet grass. We mow in the very early AM hours when the dew is heavy and if it rains for a few days straight, guess what? Still gotta mow, even the rough. What you don't see is those reel units getting torn down and rebuilt every season (at least) and the old grease is flushed from the bearings weekly. Most courses have full-time mechanics on staff. The easiest way to avoid the build-up is not to mow in wet conditions. But it ain't a perfect world and I get that. Personally, I can usually go all season without a clean-out and just a few sharpening every few weeks. Of course with a 575, you probably are covering a lot more ground than I am. If I have to mow in wet conditions, taking a garden hose with a decent nozzle (you know, the simple pistol grip type that adjusts on the fly from full-stream to a light cone) and hosing the mess off the underside of the deck is far less harmful than creating a hurricane under there with spindles a blazin' and water mist getting flung everywhere. Some heavy-duty spindles have good seals that help keep the water out and they are usually prevalent on the bigger commercial mowers. I've yet to see something like that on lawn and garden equipment marketed to homeowners, even Deere's excellent X-series tractors like yours. As far as an easier way to get at the underside of that deck..... Look into a Pro-Lift or Mo-Jack. I really like the Mo-Jack Pro unit and it's more than capable of hoisting the front of your X575 off the ground. Or if you already have a hoist, grab the tractor by it's front frame bumper or the front axle (with the hood removed).
Thanks for all of your thoughts Mech. I appreciate your time. My lawns are pretty wet especially one, that refuses to drain. Don't know how the grass gets a chance to stick when I'm mowing it. Looks as tho a high pressure washer might be finally happening this year. Lots of uses and the mower adds another. As you know, when these deep mower decks are clear of old grass and you're using sharp blades… man, they do one h*ll of a job… and with the chute guard up… even hay is no sweat. Thanks again.
We used to mow rain or shine on a couple contracts. They were so heavily fertilized and irrigated that even one day off the twice weekly ( 3 in the spring) schedule would make things look terrible. We'd drive one front wheel of the ZTR up the trailer ramp and scrape away right there in the parking lot...shovel it up and repeat. Blades make a difference. We had to change out the high lift blades on the walk behind when it was wet to keep it from clogging up....they chop the grass up finer and the small pieces stick more. We used fluid film spray, but it was hit and miss....you had to get the deck REALLY clean for it to work good. No silver bullet for this...just a putty knife.
Harbor freight makes a mower jack for riders that looks good for a home owner. Or you can lift the front with a hoist. I personally lift mine with a regular jack. And if u do it before it dries hard you can use a garden hose to clean it like MM recommends. I do my home mower once or twice a season. Its an old really old mower that I keep patching together for mowing my half acre or so of grass at the house. The farm mower is an old hood less MTD I got for free. It needed a carb rebuild. I may wash it out once a year. Have to weld the deck up about once a year from hitting roots. And it mows about 1.75 acres each time we now there which I about 3-6 times a summer. I try and hit the worst stuff with the finish mower behind the Yanmar. It gets washer once maybe twice a summer??
I bought an ole beater MTD mower for our cabin, eventually. Any idea where I could find a muffler for it? It's so loud that you guys in Pa prolly can hear it… B&S 14.5 OHV engine…
Check ebay. There is all kinds of used parts there. Otherwise I search the internet and buy everything from various places. Sometimes agrisupply sometimes amazon sometimes just some random place. Try partstree.com or replacementparts.com
