Toro Chute Cover

[MuskyGuy]

I bought a new 2020 Toro Timecutter 50 inch fabricated deck. Once I purchased I began looking into baggers/grass catchers and really would like to get a side attach grass catcher my problem is that my deck does not have a straight side on it, see picture below. Does anyone know of a plate to cover this so that I could get a side discharge grass catcher on this machine.

 

[GBHRPS]

MuskyGuy,

I'm in the same boat. I, too, removed the large plastic discharge deflector chute from the deck. It creates furrows of cut grass that are unsightly and it impedes the places I can get the mower into. Yes, I get the safety issue from flying stones, etc., but my property has none of these obstacles. And when my discharge chute is aimed at road traffic, I stop the mower and wait for the traffic to pass before continuing cutting (don't need a liability suit over a broken car window, etc.)

But .. I've made a much smaller discharge suit (an old chute from an 80's JD mower that I've cut down to just cover that cutout opening from the top. I was concerned that the deck does not cover the spinning blade from the top. My concern was someone stepping off of the mower on the right side and stepping down through that opening and chopping off a foot.

As for grass collection, I bought a used JD Power Flow fan assembly from Kijiji several years ago, and grafted it onto the deck of my 2003 CC Z Force Zero turn. I used the Power Flow fan, and discharge chute and purchased 5 feet of 8 inch heavy duty flexible tubing to connect to a tow behind trailer. I made sides and top of plywood added to the inside of the metal trailer, and bungee corded a removable back door and top cover to seal the leaf debris. (a 10 inch wide screen the length of the top lets the compressed air out of the trailer box). I even put a 2 inch wide plexiglass window in the front top to bottom to see when the trailer was full.

Obviously I'll be fabricating the required bracketry to the Toro deck and will graft the fan assembly to the Toro. A little welding, and a trip to a TSC store with the deck and fan attached to try-fit a suitable drive belt for the fan of the proper length. A 4 inch drive pulley on top of the one on the right spindle drives the fan (my CC just required a longer spindle bolt, the Toro may require cutting the center out of the fan drive pulley and then welding the pulley to the existing deck pulley (the cut out section allowing a socket to get at the deck pulley's fastening bolt, or some other method, perhaps a longer bolt with a spacer between the two pulleys?)

What you are considering is doable. The hard part is locating a suitable fan assembly. I got lucky in my search. The expensive part is the high quality flexible tubing that is tough enough to take abuse without ripping or puncturing from stones, etc.. I paid just over $200 CDN for 10 feet (8 inch diameter) and then used just 5 feet of it.The rest of the build just takes a little ingenuity. I have pictures of my last setup if you're interested.

Gene

 

[MuskyGuy]

MuskyGuy,

I'm in the same boat. I, too, removed the large plastic discharge deflector chute from the deck. It creates furrows of cut grass that are unsightly and it impedes the places I can get the mower into. Yes, I get the safety issue from flying stones, etc., but my property has none of these obstacles. And when my discharge chute is aimed at road traffic, I stop the mower and wait for the traffic to pass before continuing cutting (don't need a liability suit over a broken car window, etc.)

But .. I've made a much smaller discharge suit (an old chute from an 80's JD mower that I've cut down to just cover that cutout opening from the top. I was concerned that the deck does not cover the spinning blade from the top. My concern was someone stepping off of the mower on the right side and stepping down through that opening and chopping off a foot.

As for grass collection, I bought a used JD Power Flow fan assembly from Kijiji several years ago, and grafted it onto the deck of my 2003 CC Z Force Zero turn. I used the Power Flow fan, and discharge chute and purchased 5 feet of 8 inch heavy duty flexible tubing to connect to a tow behind trailer. I made sides and top of plywood added to the inside of the metal trailer, and bungee corded a removable back door and top cover to seal the leaf debris. (a 10 inch wide screen the length of the top lets the compressed air out of the trailer box). I even put a 2 inch wide plexiglass window in the front top to bottom to see when the trailer was full.

Obviously I'll be fabricating the required bracketry to the Toro deck and will graft the fan assembly to the Toro. A little welding, and a trip to a TSC store with the deck and fan attached to try-fit a suitable drive belt for the fan of the proper length. A 4 inch drive pulley on top of the one on the right spindle drives the fan (my CC just required a longer spindle bolt, the Toro may require cutting the center out of the fan drive pulley and then welding the pulley to the existing deck pulley (the cut out section allowing a socket to get at the deck pulley's fastening bolt, or some other method, perhaps a longer bolt with a spacer between the two pulleys?)

What you are considering is doable. The hard part is locating a suitable fan assembly. I got lucky in my search. The expensive part is the high quality flexible tubing that is tough enough to take abuse without ripping or puncturing from stones, etc.. I paid just over $200 CDN for 10 feet (8 inch diameter) and then used just 5 feet of it.The rest of the build just takes a little ingenuity. I have pictures of my last setup if you're interested.

Gene

Gene,

Thanks for the reply back. Wow you certainly have taken this further than what I was looking to do. I basically just want to cover the discharge opening and then add the correct bracket and this grass catcher: https://www.ballard-inc.com/product/catchpro-aluminum-bagger/

The problem is I need to cover the gap with something strong enough to hold the weight of the bracket and the catcher itself. I have searched around a believe that there may be nothing available and I will need to fabricate a 1/4 inch think piece of steel and then attach to get this accomplished.

 

[GBHRPS]

MuskyGuy,

You're on the right track. Use 1/4 inch steel and bolt a fabricated bracket across the top of the deck in at least 3 or 4 places and down each side of the deck at least once. All that weight (even though aluminum) bouncing up and down presents a lot of stress.

I have to say, that's a gigantic hunk stuck out the side of the mower. That's really going to cut down on maneuvering around objects and openings.

Gene