Mower deck quality

[Sutty 96]

Inspired by the thread by thehoz with regard to mower deck blades, I thought it was time to clean up my mower deck. I should explain that I use my cub cadet for mowing, with my wheel horse being used as backup, in case anything happens to the CC. As a consequence, in the last 11 or 12 years, the wheel horse mower deck has only been used a few times. It has always performed as it should, when required, but it was badly in need of cleaning. With what people said about keeping it clean in thehoz's thread, I suddenly felt guilty for letting mine sit there covered in grass, from seasons long gone by.

 

I know you guys already know such things, but I have to once again give a big shout out to wheel horse. More or less twelve years of sitting there covered in grass, and maybe 25 years of mowing prior to that, and in my opinion it came apart and cleaned up astonishingly well. Only one bolt gave me trouble, went very stiff after a couple of turns, but I just squirted some WD40 on it, and kept winding it in and out, getting it to come out a little further each time, until finally it just wound all the way out, and still looked fine when I got it out.

 

It's not going to win any competitions for its appearance, but after so long, still working freely, and cleaning up so well has amazed me. Unlike my cub cadet that already has areas of rust through, and weld failure, which I've had to repair, this deck is still solid, and I think it's as old as the wheel horse, which is around 40 years old. I could be wrong on the age, maybe it was a second deck, but it's still old. Even the belts all looked good, lol. I took the opportunity to pop some grease in with the grease gun, where appropriate, and have now put it away again, to rest in relative cleanliness, until the cub cadet needs some maintenance or repair, when it will step into the breach once more.

 

I've attached three shots. One without guards, then one from the bottom, and one from the top when reassembled. Okay, the bottom doesn't look great, but it isn't terrible.

 

 

 

      

[peter lena 8,031]

practically every deck I see for sale or not, is trashed from neglect. do you think its smart to regularly clean a service your deck? did you only w/d 40 the top side? the bottom side needs the most regular care, cleaning and oil spraying it down, let the sun get on that side , dry it out and suck in that oil. after cutting season , clean it and oil soak, leave over winter, upside down , soaking in that oil, kill off  the rot. regularly look at spindle pulleys , and belts, grease spindles, slide belt tensioner, what a concept. you can make your deck last, pete

[Sutty 96]

Yep, I think it's smart, no doubt, but I simply hadn't done it before. My point was that even with my shocking neglect, it's still in good shape. This time, before putting it away, I did let it dry in the sun, and then sprayed the underside with WD40, and greased up many parts, as appropriate, including the slider. I also sharpened the blades, so it's all ready to go, at the drop of a hat, when needed.

 

I'm fairly sure that had I treated my cub cadet deck in the way you suggest, at the end of each season, that too would be in much better condition, but I haven't, and don't. Didn't have the time in the past, but do now, so in future that deck will also be all swilled off and protected over winter as you suggest. Both have suffered an even handed amount of mistreatment and neglect, and the wheel horse deck is surviving much better, yet is three times older, and has done twice as much mowing.