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I've never removed my entire deck for any reason but I've though about removing my deck (4 bolts) to change blades and check bearings and pulleys on the deck itself. I just wondered how long it takes and if it would make blade changes easier.

Tiger Cub (48")
21 HP Kawasaki

No it does not make blade changing easier.
Put some long 2 x 4 under the deck and slide the deck out on them
The deck is a lot lot heavier than it looks so watch out where your pinkies are.

I can't imagine taking my deck off and having to level it again just to change the blades. I either pull one front wheel onto my trailer ramp or jack it up with a floor jack. Before I got a floor jack I used to just lift it up by hand and slide a jack stand under it with my foot.

I've probably changed them about 5 times and it never gets any easier lol. I usually run the front end up on ramps or jack stands but next time I'm gonna pull the deck off for a good inspection. Thanks for the replies :thumbsup:

I've got 2 older Murray tractors (2004-2005) I pull off the decks about every 4 months, change blades, belts only if needed, grease the spindles, check the pulleys, bearings and mounting brackets for wear, replace the springs as needed, to remove the deck takes about 5 min. .... to replace, about 10-15 min. because of re-leveling the deck, and re-installing the anti-scalp wheels, a VERY simple procedure. .. :thumbsup:

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I've done it with stamped decks. It's still a hassle. Fabricated decks are too heavy to mess with. I prefer to jack up the mower, place jack stands, then remove blades and/or clean under the deck.

I routinely pull the stamped decks off our two Craftsman mowers (50" garden tractor and 42" lawn tractor) to sharpen the blades and scrape off any buildup of clippings before they rust holes through the relatively thin deck. No big deal. But I can't imagine pulling the heavy fabricated deck off of our 48" Liberty Z. It's a hole different beast. Especially since it's so easy to just elevate the front end of the Z to access blades and scrape any clippings that have accumulated underneath.

YEP ...... BIG difference in stamped vs fabricated ..... and tractor decks vs Z models ......

srw101 said:

I've never removed my entire deck for any reason but I've though about removing my deck (4 bolts) to change blades and check bearings and pulleys on the deck itself. I just wondered how long it takes and if it would make blade changes easier.

Tiger Cub (48")
21 HP Kawasaki

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Dude get a cordless impact and a small floor jack. You have a 5 minute or less job that you are talking about making an hour or more job out of. We change blades on Tiger Cats some times 2 and 3 times a day when we are running them flat out in Bahia Grass. It is literally a 5 minute job done that way.

jekjr said:

Dude get a cordless impact and a small floor jack. You have a 5 minute or less job that you are talking about making an hour or more job out of. We change blades on Tiger Cats some times 2 and 3 times a day when we are running them flat out in Bahia Grass. It is literally a 5 minute job done that way.

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And because you do it several times a day the bolts never self overtighten.

bertsmobile,
The bolts are 5/8 x 11 x 9 1/2" long. They pass thru the a washer, blade, spacer, the spindle and are held in place with a nut on top torqued to 75 FTLBs.
The machine has to be jacked up enough to allow the bolts to drop out of the spindles.
jekjr does this several times a day times three machines, I think that he has the procedure down pat!:laughing:

Mad Mackie said:

bertsmobile,
The bolts are 5/8 x 11 x 9 1/2" long. They pass thru the a washer, blade, spacer, the spindle and are held in place with a nut on top torqued to 75 FTLBs.
The machine has to be jacked up enough to allow the bolts to drop out of the spindles.
jekjr does this several times a day times three machines, I think that he has the procedure down pat!:laughing:

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We have had bolts over tighten a couple of times over the years. What happens I guess is you hit something and it tightens the bolt so that it gaulds the threads. When that has happened to us we took a 4 1/2" side grinder with a wafer thin blade on it and cut the bolt off right at the bottom of the nut. You have to make sure that you do not cut the top of the spindle off. I did that slightly on the first one I did. Even having to do that with us having the tools on hand with us we did that in the field and were running in less than 30 minutes down time.

A cordless impact and a small cheap floor jack will get that job done in under 5 minutes. I am 61 years old and can do it by myself in 5 minutes or less. Also many times I just run one front wheel up the ramp on my trailer and don't even use a jack. I prefer doing it on the left side of the trailer using the right front mower wheel so that I can work through the discharge hole in the deck beside the trailer ramp.

I use an impact gun to remove the blades and reinstall them.

I also added a hoist in my garage and just let the hook down, with the aid of a nylon strap or two on the front and lift it up in the air. I added hooks to the rear and lift the rear end up with the chains on the back half. I could lift it high enough that you could work underneath sitting on a low stool.

I try and work smarter now as I get older. Car jacks and hand tools are too much work.

tigercat said:

I use an impact gun to remove the blades and reinstall them.

I also added a hoist in my garage and just let the hook down, with the aid of a nylon strap or two on the front and lift it up in the air. I added hooks to the rear and lift the rear end up with the chains on the back half. I could lift it high enough that you could work underneath sitting on a low stool.

I try and work smarter now as I get older. Car jacks and hand tools are too much work.

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On a Tiger Cat there is no need to raise it that hight nor be under it to change blades. If you change them only in the garage at home none of that is wrong. However if you run them for a living you don't have that luxury. Plus on a normal day I can have the blades changed and be gone again before you get your stool located. There is no need to turn a 5 minute job into a 15 or 20 minute one. Just sayin.

I recently had a hydo belt issue so I will get it up on the rear instead of me getting under. I'm getting old and somewhat inflexible.

When I do the blades I don't have a trailer to get it up so I use a pair of straps and lift the front 30 inches off the ground. Then I work on my knees reaching underneath. Only the center blade is hard to reach, that's why I lift it like I do. It took me 5 minutes to do the blade swap. More time to pressurize the air compressor than to do the job.
The impact gun and hoist are extremely fast to use, my body is slow to crawl around. :laughing:

tigercat said:

I recently had a hydo belt issue so I will get it up on the rear instead of me getting under. I'm getting old and somewhat inflexible.

When I do the blades I don't have a trailer to get it up so I use a pair of straps and lift the front 30 inches off the ground. Then I work on my knees reaching underneath. Only the center blade is hard to reach, that's why I lift it like I do. It took me 5 minutes to do the blade swap. More time to pressurize the air compressor than to do the job.
The impact gun and hoist are extremely fast to use, my body is slow to crawl around. :laughing:

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Hydro belts are a pain. I have changed several in the field. ;P They are about like putting a cat in a quart jar.

I do it about once per year on a 1994 Cub Cadet 2140, mainly to give the underside a good cleaning.

The stamped deck is relatively light and easy to R&R.

jekjr said:

Dude get a cordless impact and a small floor jack. You have a 5 minute or less job that you are talking about making an hour or more job out of. We change blades on Tiger Cats some times 2 and 3 times a day when we are running them flat out in Bahia Grass. It is literally a 5 minute job done that way.

Click to expand...

I've already done it just inspect all the pulleys and bearings not for ease of blade change. I do think it should be done occasionally just to keep things tip top but all the other times i just use a breaker bar but I may invest in a 1/2 drive cordless impact in the near future.

srw101 said:

I've already done it just inspect all the pulleys and bearings not for ease of blade change. I do think it should be done occasionally just to keep things tip top but all the other times i just use a breaker bar but I may invest in a 1/2 drive cordless impact in the near future.

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Yes we have dropped them from time to time to inspect stuff. At about 800 or so hours we have to weld new baffles in and patch holes in the deck from sand. I have to pull one out this winter and go through everything on it. This mower has 1900 hours on it and might have 2000 before I shut it down for winter.

jekjr said:

Hydro belts are a pain. I have changed several in the field. ;P They are about like putting a cat in a quart jar.

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It's weird 3 weeks ago I had a branch flip up and remove my hydro belt. That was a million to 1 chance of ever doing that.
I seen the 3/4" branch laying in the field, I said screw it as I need to pull these blades and get ready for leave season anyway, so I just went over it slow. The machine lost all power to the wheels. I shut it down and seen the belt underneath.
I towed it back with the tractor and positioned it under the hook. I lifted it up expecting to see a bad belt or bad pulley. Nothing. Everything looked in good condition. I reinstalled the belt and its been fine since. Weird, a million to one chance to flip that off by a branch. Lol
Heck that belt is tucked up there a good foot or more!

tigercat said:

It's weird 3 weeks ago I had a branch flip up and remove my hydro belt. That was a million to 1 chance of ever doing that.
I seen the 3/4" branch laying in the field, I said screw it as I need to pull these blades and get ready for leave season anyway, so I just went over it slow. The machine lost all power to the wheels. I shut it down and seen the belt underneath.
I towed it back with the tractor and positioned it under the hook. I lifted it up expecting to see a bad belt or bad pulley. Nothing. Everything looked in good condition. I reinstalled the belt and its been fine since. Weird, a million to one chance to flip that off by a branch. Lol
Heck that belt is tucked up there a good foot or more!

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Yep, Have run over thousands of limbs like that and then one day wham one gets a belt. Had one that did it one time and a piece of it wedged in the pulley where you could not see it and every time I put the belt on and started working it would throw it off again. I finally found it and took a long screw driver and a hammer and got it out and had no more problems. Just a freak thing.

just wait till you get a little bit of bark wedged into a pulley sounds & feels like the mower is about to blow up

I bought one of those cheap Harbor Freight hoists and it hangs from the trusses in my garage. I use a nylon strap and it lifts my commercial TORO Z plenty high. I have several sets of blades so I just swap them out and when I have enough I sharpen the whole stack.

A couple of weeks ago I bought the Ferris IS 3200 and it weighs 1,500 pounds, a good 500 pounds more than my TORO. I don't know if my trusses will take more abuse.:laughing:

Padroo said:

I bought one of those cheap Harbor Freight hoists and it hangs from the trusses in my garage. I use a nylon strap and it lifts my commercial TORO Z plenty high. I have several sets of blades so I just swap them out and when I have enough I sharpen the whole stack.

A couple of weeks ago I bought the Ferris IS 3200 and it weighs 1,500 pounds, a good 500 pounds more than my TORO. I don't know if my trusses will take more abuse.:laughing:

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Mine is a 1300 LB harbor freight hoist. (I think). It's rated for more than the machine weighs so I should be fine. What I didn't like was it really winds the cable quick, so I hooked the hook to it's self and now it pulls on 2 cables. It's cable is stronger this way with an added bonus of winding a little slower.

In CT lately we get a lot of snow. If anyone knows about snow it gets quite heavy. I figure there are perhaps thousands of pounds on my garage roof in the winter. It should lift a zero turn safely without fear of bringing the building down.
I did reinforce all the rafters with wood and bolts, plus I added a 2" bar going end to end that the hoist is connected too. I'm sure I could double the weigh I pick up without any fear of the roof giving out.

One thing for sure, I love these hoists! It sure beats using floor jacks.

tigercat said:

Mine is a 1300 LB harbor freight hoist. (I think). It's rated for more than the machine weighs so I should be fine. What I didn't like was it really winds the cable quick, so I hooked the hook to it's self and now it pulls on 2 cables. It's cable is stronger this way with an added bonus of winding a little slower.

In CT lately we get a lot of snow. If anyone knows about snow it gets quite heavy. I figure there are perhaps thousands of pounds on my garage roof in the winter. It should lift a zero turn safely without fear of bringing the building down.
I did reinforce all the rafters with wood and bolts, plus I added a 2" bar going end to end that the hoist is connected too. I'm sure I could double the weigh I pick up without any fear of the roof giving out.

One thing for sure, I love these hoists! It sure beats using floor jacks.

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If you are changing blades on a Tiger Cat or comparable Scag actually the floor jack under the front of the deck is much easier because there is not as much in the way in the front. There is no need to go under the mower. Just raise it high enough for the bolt to drop out when you take the nut off. A complete blade change is 5 minutes or less by yourself if you have a small floor jack and a cordless impact. Having the big mower jack in front of the mower makes it harder to reach the hole to put the bolt through to put the middle blade back on. We have changed them hundreds of times on 4 different mowers using the floor jack and cordless impact. Sometimes as many as 3 times in a day per mower when the bahia grass is kicking in July and August.

Nope I haven't don't see the reason to have too.

This is how I usually clean my deck and change the blades on my Z riders. Then I'll move it to the other side of my trailer gate to get at the left blade. I know not everyone has a trailer ramp to run up, but for those that do it makes servicing the deck pretty simple and easy. I throw down a tarp to lay in and to collect the deck crud.