mower deck spray skirt

[RJR49 121]

It may be back pressure from the lawn vac causing it, but my 42 SD mower deck sprays dust and leaves out the front and sides when the blades are turning. A couple of years ago I said that I was going to put a skirt on it to stop or minimize the spray. I finally got around to doing it this leaf season and I can report that it works very well.

 

I bought a piece of black ribbed floor runner at the local hardware store.  Drilled 4 holes in the front of the deck, and using fender washers, and nylok nuts bolted it in place. I removed the front rollers and put slits in the rubber so the rubber is behind the rollers when everything is put back together.

 

The skirt hangs 4 or more inches below the bottom of the deck. I am concerned about the long term reliability of it dragging but so far there hasn't been a problem regardless of how high or low the deck is.  I installed the skirt with the deck mounted on the tractor. It would have been a lot easier if the deck was off. Scissors were adequate for cutting the rubber

[PaulC 341]

Post some pics!! I added a rubber flap to the rear of mine to help with the build up of stuff all over the trans

[ericj 1,576]

i have been using a 48" deck with a power-flo bagger for a couple of years now and it has some blow out the front but have learned to deal with it. then this year i added a 2nd power-flo bagger to my 42" deck up at my wife's grandma's house, and was very disappointed with the amount of blow out and very hard to counter. it just kept blowing the leaves out ahead and towards the right. the 48" is wide enough that when you get down to the last little bit you can just pick up with the right side edge of the deck, but the 42" deck isn't wide enough to do this. the only time it picked up was when i plowing leaves with the front of the deck lol. i think next year i will look for another 48" deck to use or have to add rubber flap.

  how did the flap work in deep leave did it plow them forward and build up under the tractor or how did you overcome this?

 

 

 

 

eric j 

[RJR49 121]

I have not had a problem with leaves scattered in the yard. There were a couple of piles I tried. Yes there was plowing. Backing up and hitting it again worked fairly well. Taking bite of about 1/3 the deck width worked better. The worst part of the big piles was that the stems of the maple leaves sort of wove themselves together and attached themsrlves to the impeller. The resulting imbalance crerated a pretty strong vibration.

 

I'll post some pictures the next time I have it out

[Mike Nelson 2]

Hello RJR49 Your last post on the deck skirt was last fall 2014. You wanted to send the pictures of the mower deck spray skirt the next time you had it out. Have you had it out yet for 2015? I would really love to see those pictures, I have the same problem, and need a fix. Can you help us out on this one?
Best Regards  

[JC 1965 1,528]

Yes, pictures please.     

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

My old mower was a cheap Yard Machines mower, and when mowing leaves, it started plowing them into a pile. I didn't think anything of it, until I started smelling burning leaves. The muffler is at the bottom front, I almost caught the pile on fire.
 

[RJR49 121]

I have to apologize! I'm just now seeing the request for pics. The rubber skirt I made worked fairly well but only lasted for a season or two. A friend is giving me 5 feet of fire hose. When I get it and get it installed I'll send pics. BTW the skirt did a good job of keeping down the blowing leaves but did tend to be a dozer blade if the leaves are piles up

[8ntruck 6,358]

I built a block off plate for my 42" SD deck a couple years ago to help mulch leaves.  I did notice that there was more blow out from the front left side of the deck with the plate on than when it was off.

 

Didn't let it bother me.  I just took smaller bites, or shifted into 2nd gear low range.