That's what I'm talking about!I will never have another belly mower or a side discharge.
Love my new tratcor, but HATE the belly mower!
- Thread starter Dsmith
- Start date
Hey Murphy, just being nosy to see what other people do. But do you keep any grease in the shafts that holds the wheels on? I never have on mine for the simple fact I take my wheels on and off alot to change the cutting height. That would get pretty messy on a customers lawn. They are starting to get a little rust inside the shaft on my mower and sometimes I have to tap or use brute strength to get the wheels loose.
Not Murphy, but here's what I do. About twice a year I might adjust the cutting height. The shafts are good and greasy. First thing to do is slip a pair of disposable nitrile gloves on. I raise the deck and kill the engine. Then I insert a couple fingers between the tire and the upper part of the yoke so I can control the wheel/yoke asembly. Slip the pin out and carefully slide the assembly down and out. The grease holds whichever spacers are above the deck from slipping off. If I want to raise the deck, I take a spacer from the stack on top, slide it onto the shaft and slide the shaft back up through the sleeve on the deck. Align and spacers that may have shifted and put the pin or bolt back through the shaft.
An old deck has had the zerks broken off for years, so I occasionally squirt a little oil into the gap between the shaft and the sleeve. I found that without lube, the wheels sometimes fail to rotate and dig into the grass.
An old deck has had the zerks broken off for years, so I occasionally squirt a little oil into the gap between the shaft and the sleeve. I found that without lube, the wheels sometimes fail to rotate and dig into the grass.
If it was my own lawn and I had a lil bit of acreage I'd probably lube them up with grease. But constantly changing the height and being on a customers lawn when I do it, I didn't think they would appreciate me leaving wads of grease behind when I change the height.
Since I already have the mid deck and don't even want to use it, I'm considering fabbing up the stuff to make it work from the three point hitch. Anybody ever seen that done?
Would probably be less of a headache to but a used rear mower then try to hassle with converting a mid mower over to 3pt. You'd have to find a new gear box to change the direction so the pto shaft will hook up. That alone is going to be a pain since you'd have to change out the spindles and belt routing for the new gear box.
That's right. I didn't even think about the rotation. Why does it have to turn a certain direction? Aside from the side exit, which could be made to be a rear exit. If direction is because of the blades, could they not be turned around to go the other way? Sorry for all the dumb questions. I'm on vacation right now or I would be outside looking at it, probably answering my own questions. LOL
Aside from rotation the MMM is driven at a different PTO speed. Not sure if the pulleys would be the same so just changing the gear box over might not fix all the problems. I think Eric was right, just get a rear mower instead of trying to change yours over.
The gear box its self will have to be changed. The spline shaft size on a mid mower is not the same as on a pto gear box. The direction of the box would have to be turned around and face in a manner that will hook up to the rear of the tractor and not in the middle. Also with most gear boxes on many mowers they sit at the back of the deck which belt routing would need to be changed.
Blades have a bent portion to provide lift to the grass. The blades suck the grass up and cut it off. If you flip your blades they'll blow the grass downward. If they cut at all it would be an interesting looking lawn.