Z421 Zero Turn Drive belt protection

[ddjames]

Good day, I seem to all to frequently get a stick that wedges it's way up to the HST on my Z421, it throws the belt. Sometimes it also breaks the fan, and or the belt. I was wondering if anyone on this forum had run into a similar problem and created any sort of protective plate to keep sticks and debris out of the HST drive belt? I keep an extra belt on hand, and have become quite good at putting it back on. Would prefer to know if anyone had any ideas on how to keep this from occuring. The stick I hit today was buried down deep in some tall grass in my pasture, did not see it at all.
Thanks in advance

 

[lugbolt]

supposedly it was also an issue on the early ZG1xx series

I have one of those supposed junk early units. It's been a GREAT mower, never any issue.

I did a ton of those. Pick up the trash in the yard and it's less of an issue

Kubota did have a kit which reduced the issue on some of them, basically was a baffle that went on the back side of the mower deck. On the Z4xx series some of those had deeper groove pulleys available for them which helped too. Ask the dealer about it. Kubota was picking up the tab on those but that program may be out of date now.