I lost a blade

[deminin]

Yesterday, I started doing some mowing, and noticed that my Husqvarna 48" riding mower wasn't cutting a full "swath". I pulled the deflector up, and the R/H blade was Missing. A couple of days, prior, I used the rider to cut some tall. knee high weeds at the edge of the yard, and suspect that the blade flew off in that area. I walked all over that area, and couldn't find the blade....and I can't understand how something so Major could happen without noticing a big "bang" or some other indicator of such a major "malfunction".

I changed the blades this past Spring, and still had the old ones in my workshop, so I installed one of those....I had a bolt and thick washer/lock washer that fit in my hardware bin, and torqued all the blade bolts properly and went back to the mowing, with no further troubles. I will continue looking all over the yard for the missing blade, and it may eventually show up....but losing a blade while mowing sure seems strange.

 

[StarTech]

Actually the blade usually just drops down and you just pass over it; unless, the deck trailing hangs on it. It probably covered up by the clippings.

 

[cpurvis]

You may find it while mowing and this time there might be a loud 'bang.'

 

[slomo]

Old timers used to WALK the entire yard prior to mowing. They would take a bucket to retrieve sticks, rocks, log chains, mower blades and so on.

slomo

 

[deminin]

I walked all over that area, again, today, and found nothing. However, there are a half dozen dead trees nearby that I plan to take down to add to my Winter firewood supply, so hopefully I'll find this blade before mowing season starts again next year. One things for sure....if I Don't find it, I will be Very Careful and watchful when I start mowing again next year.

 

[cpurvis]

I walked all over that area, again, today, and found nothing. However, there are a half dozen dead trees nearby that I plan to take down to add to my Winter firewood supply, so hopefully I'll find this blade before mowing season starts again next year. One things for sure....if I Don't find it, I will be Very Careful and watchful when I start mowing again next year.

I would walk the whole thing, maybe even dragging a magnet behind me.

The reason I give this advice is because when we bought our property, I didn't walk it. I was VERY careful mowing it the first time and hit nothing. For the second mowing, I put the wife on the tractor and she hadn't gone 100 feet before she found a 5' metal fence post that I didn't see and the mower made an AWFUL racket chopping that fence post to pieces.

 

[StarTech]

If you can't something as big a mower blade I would use a metal detector it is there somewhere. I currently got a customer that lost very large spring off a JD Z830A that they can't find on the their lawn but it is there just waiting to become a missile once hit.

A bonus from using a metal detector you just find other things too. like old plow points and even loose change. On the last place I found even found several discarded electric motors. The neighbor across just found an alternator with his ZTR. Bent the heck out two brand new blades.

 

[slomo]

If you drop the deck all the way down, you will find it.


slomo

 

[Hammermechanicman]

He didn't lose it. The neighbor needed a blade so he took it.

 

[slomo]

He didn't lose it. The neighbor needed a blade so he took it.

That figures.

slomo