Mower Deck
 

Have a question concerning the underside of your mower deck? How do you keep it from clogging up with grass, crawfish mounds and ant piles?? I live on 15 acres out in the country, so I don't have a perfect yard to cut all the time. When my mower deck starts to clog up, my mower starts to bog down because it cannot throw the clippings out. I know many of you guys live in the country and I'm sure someone has a solution to keep the deck clean. It hate cleaning out the deck with a pressure washer every time I cut the grass.

Thanks.

Josh

I'm listening too!!!!!!! a ZTR aint no fun lifting up high enough to clean & scrap all that crap out!

I have a boat launch in my yard. When it need cleaning I put left side in a little bite and the blades pump water out the discharge.

After cleaning the underside of the deck, spray it with a silicone spray. The grass and dirt will not stick to the underside after that. I spray mine twice a year and have no issues with grass or dirt sticking.

What spray do you use? Do you prepare the deck any before you spray besides cleaning it?

Just clean and let dry. I'll post the name of it in about an hour when I get home.

I have the same issue with those darn crawfish mounds... I have an electric lift in my shop that I use to lift the mower to clean but it's still a pain in the butt to do it every time.

I used to put a sprinkler under the deck running for about a half an hour. Really seemed to knock the clumps of grass and dried dirt off with little to no effort.

Mow more often..

JJ I have somewhat the same problem with a much smaller lot, I cuss myself every time I let it too high.

I use a brush hog on mine, but not sure if you have a tractor. They make small yard tractors that will drive a small brush hog.

I use the drive up ramps that i bought at Walmart for a car.
Lifts the front enough to get down under and clean the deck.
Also spray the underside of the deck with Silicon Spray i get at lowe's

I have a commercial ExMark ZTR.

Josh, this is the spray I use.

I have always thought of trying the silicon spray but never have. Now, I will. This is the type of post that keeps me coming back to this site. Thanks!

the biggest problem is the time of day you are cutting it.

large lots have endlessly damp grass so cut in the afternoons and not the mornings, this lets the overnight dew and the blades of grass to dry off and dry out some before cutting so they don't stick to the deck. this is the same for crawfish mounds, if they stick its because they and the grass is still too wert to cut.

I don't have near the lots you guys have but I never clog up, never need to or clean out the deck anymore, and it stays clean. this "drier" condition cutting also helps keep my blades sharp and I only need to swap out and/or sharpen the blades every 2 years but cutting in the afternoons instead of mornings.

its only natural to want to cut in the cooler mornings when it feels best on us doing the cutting, but when I used to cut in mornings with cooler weather my deck got clogged up with inches thick, still "moist" grass and I had to clean it after every use

Thanks.

There is a water hose fitting you can buy, that you install on your mower deck on the left side, it stays there. When you are finished mowing, connect water hose, turn it on, and let blades run for a while and it self cleans the underside of your mower deck.

I would make sure to grease bearings if you have them on your blades every time.

I saw that on the Toro mowers when I was looking. I've been thinking about putting one on my Gravely. Seems like a good idea in theory.

Just make sure everything has cooled down before spraying the water like that. Those spindles will soak up water like a sponge and at $400~$550 per spindle it can be costly.

a little known fact is the spindles are easy and cheap to replace the bearings in.

the bearings (2 for each spindle with spacer between them) are an average $10 each and simply drop in place, they are not pressed in or anything but can seam stuck from dirt and junk that collects over time so you remove the pulley first, using the blade to keep it from turning, then remove the blade (assuming your going to sharpen it)

its obvious the shaft can only come off in one direction (the blade end) and the shaft with both bearings can be gently tapped out by replacing the pulley nut and tapping it out and then push the spacer to one side to tap out the top and bottom bearings and clean the bearing seats and rub some grease in the spindles before the bearings are replaced and everything gets reassembled. you don't even need to remove the spindle from the deck so this avoids snapping off those "one time use" bolts they get installed with

its very easy to do and only takes a few minutes to do this after you do the first one and see how everything works.

there are youtube video that show the process, but in most, the guy is beating on the bearings but its not a very tight fit so there is no reason to "beat it" into place and a gentle tap such as when installing grease seals is all that's needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBlvT95hbWI