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I guess this is the best place for this. If not, feel free to move it wherever it does belong.

I just got another MTD mower yesterday. It's in fantastic condition except for the trailshield. I'm calling it a trailshield because that what MTD refers to it as. Other guys call it a rock shield, or rear flap. It's the rubber strip attached the the bottom rear of the deck to prevent debris from flying our from under the mower. You guys know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I thought I'd just order the part and put it on. The problem is that it costs over $30 before shipping and tax. It's a bit difficult to drop $30+ on a trailshield when the mower only cost me $45 and I'm expecting to put it out of resell at maybe $85 or $90. I have one other mower ready to sell that is completely missing the trailshield and one other deck that I'll put a Briggs on in the future that has a trailshield that is missing chunks.

So, is there a cheaper way to put a trailshield of some sorts on these things? I've only done a tiny amount of searching for an alternative, but so far I'm not finding exactly what I need. Anybody got an idea on this?

Do you know any one around you who installs rubber roofing? I’ve seen more than one guy use their cutoffs to manufacture a new trailing flap. All you need is a piece of 1/8” rod, couple of small pieces of sheet metal, pop rivet gun and a piece of rubber. Twenty minutes of labor and your back in business.

Rubber roofing. Dang. I never thought of that. I need to contact my contractor. He might have some or know somebody that does have some. OK. That's a good suggestion. Thank you!

I have used an old rubber floor mat to fab one for my antique MTD...

Piece cut off a tire of Your choice.

google
Cotton insertion rubber sheets
Stuff used to be dirt cheap
Also search for
used conveyor belting
I got a 80' roll with a lot of holes in it far almost nothing at an agricultural show swap meet
I was going to use it for cutting rubber washers with but in the meantime I have cut dozens of discharge chute flaps out of it and of course not a single washer .
I also bought some short ends of brake band lining which I use for recovering spindle brake blocks
Cost next to nothing while MTD brake pads down here cost a fortune and without them the belt drags

OK. Three more good ideas. I had thought about rubber mats, but hadn't yet turned up one that was thick enough.

Old tires. I hadn't thought of that.

I had never heard of cotton insertion rubber sheets, but a quick search turned up a place that has 12mm x 1m x 1m sheets for $19 plus shipping. That's a whole lost cheaper than $35 to $40 for the piece from MTD.

I just did the conversion of mm to in. I'm terrible with the metric system. But, 12mm is nearly 1/2", which I believe to be too thick. I just looked back at the price for a 6mm or approx 1/4" piece, still 1m x 1m, and the price is only $9.51 plus shipping. Yep, that stuff is plenty cheap enough. I guess I need to take a closer look at just how thick these trailshields are. 1/4" just HAS to be thick enough, doesn't it? If that turns out to be the case, I'll buy myself 3 or 4 sheets. Then, I'll have plenty on hand to make quite a few trailshields.

So, what do you guys think? Is 1/4" thick enough. They do also have 8mm and 10mm thicknesses, so there would be no problem getting the correct thickness.

Now, since I'm getting such useful and helpful tricks from you guys, here is another. If I were going to construct a complete trailshield from scratch, like for the mower I have that is missing the trailshield entirely, what are some common and cheap sources for a way to attach the rubber to the deck? I know these things are supposed to flop back and forth as you push the mower in opposite directions, and is also supposed to be able to work successfully at any cutting height. I'm thinking that all I really need to do is sxcrew the thing directly into the back of the deck, and to hell with the rod to let the thing flop back and forth. Will that work?