Anyone drop and unbolt deck to change blades?

[jekjr]

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!

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.

 

[bertsmobile1]

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

 

[Padroo]

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:

 

[tigercat]

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:

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.

 

[jekjr]

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.

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.

 

[Luffydog]

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

 

[Darryl G]

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.