GC1720 wheel spacers

[ChadsGC1720]

Hi guys and gals, new GC1720 owner here. I'm looking at getting a set of bro-tek wheel spacers to help with mowing my hills. I have the 54" mulching deck and according to bro-teks website, it looks like I'm deciding between the 1.25 and 1.5 spacers. The extra half inch probably doesn't matter that much and im just over thinking it, but I don't want to buy the 1.5" spacers and have them not fit. Just was curious who else out there runs wheel spacers and what size MMM you have and the spacers you chose.

Thanks

Chad

 

[mile9c1]

I don't know anything about spacers but it seems like people who want more stability like to fill their rear wheels with a heavy liquid. If you don't mind an extra 150 pounds or so this seems like a great solution to stability issues.

 

[ChadsGC1720]

I'm not against adding rim guard. My yard is a little wet at times, but hopefully it will dry out after I dig some drainage.

But which would be better for mowing sideways on a slope, fluid in my tires or wheel spacers?

 

[Fiziksgeek]

I didn't fill the rear wheels on my previous GC2400, but did get them filled with Rimguard when I upgraded to my GC1720 and I've noticed no difference in wear on the lawn.

Put the deck on and measure the distance between the rear wheel and the rear anti-scalp wheels on the deck. Should be pretty straight forward to figure out the max size spacer you could use.

 

[ChadsGC1720]

Would it be harmful to the axle to do both spacers and rim guard? Or is that kind of thing frowned upon?

Did you just load your rear tires? Should I load the fronts too?

For mowing I'll be taking the backhoe and loader off the tractor

 

[mile9c1]

I would go rim guard first. It puts the weight at the bottom of your tires, which is the best place for it. And it should help a lot with the loader work too.

 

[ChadsGC1720]

Would you load front and rears? Or just the rear tires?

 

[mile9c1]

I don't think you'd get much weight into the front tires.

 

[AxleHub]

ChadsGC1720

I have the GC1715 and the same 2315 deck and I have considerable sidehill and slope issues. I also will be adding spacers - I've just had more things on the list first LOL.

1. Loading the rears is a benefit for fel use etc. - however it doesn't effect your left to right stability (like on sidehills etc.).

2. On the other hand - spacers are used to improve your left-to-right stability. Spacers alter your "width platform" and changing that width by 3 or 4 total inches should be a noticeable greater sense of stability on sidehills.

3. Having more weight in your rears does not increase the weight on your frame or suspension because the weight is on the ground - not on the axle.

4. I'd like to have 2 inch spacers - but because I haven't been ready to order them yet I haven't actually measured to verify the size I can get by with. Now if I had the standard 54 inch Massey deck, I'd tend to take Bro Tek's recommendation automatically - because I can assume the 54 inch Massey and 54 inch Kubota decks are similar sized and roller wheels positioned. However the Massey 2315 deck is unique to Massey - and it is likely Bro Tek may never have seen one - that may mean it's ability to take a bit larger spacer is possible. The rear guide wheels are fixed in direction but can be set higher or lower - so if you use a 1 x 4 board you should be able to physically measure when your rears would hit the rollers or roller brackets with the deck up and with it down. Obviously you want some clearance. If 2 inch spacers give you clearance - then I'd go with 2 inch. If not then I'd go with 1.5 inch spacers. At no point do you want any part of your deck to be hitting the rears during operation - but big gaps doesn't help you very much. Also - you've probably noticed that there isn't much difference in price between sizes.

One of the advantages a scut like a Yanmar sc2400 had - was the wheels were reversable - so you could gain spacer effect just by spinning the wheels around. But I don't believe Massey GC1700 can do that.

Let me know what you find out.

AxleHub

 

[ChadsGC1720]

ChadsGC1720

I have the GC1715 and the same 2315 deck and I have considerable sidehill and slope issues. I also will be adding spacers - I've just had more things on the list first LOL.

1. Loading the rears is a benefit for fel use etc. - however it doesn't effect your left to right stability (like on sidehills etc.).

2. On the other hand - spacers are used to improve your left-to-right stability. Spacers alter your "width platform" and changing that width by 3 or 4 total inches should be a noticeable greater sense of stability on sidehills.

3. Having more weight in your rears does not increase the weight on your frame or suspension because the weight is on the ground - not on the axle.

4. I'd like to have 2 inch spacers - but because I haven't been ready to order them yet I haven't actually measured to verify the size I can get by with. Now if I had the standard 54 inch Massey deck, I'd tend to take Bro Tek's recommendation automatically - because I can assume the 54 inch Massey and 54 inch Kubota decks are similar sized and roller wheels positioned. However the Massey 2315 deck is unique to Massey - and it is likely Bro Tek may never have seen one - that may mean it's ability to take a bit larger spacer is possible. The rear guide wheels are fixed in direction but can be set higher or lower - so if you use a 1 x 4 board you should be able to physically measure when your rears would hit the rollers or roller brackets with the deck up and with it down. Obviously you want some clearance. If 2 inch spacers give you clearance - then I'd go with 2 inch. If not then I'd go with 1.5 inch spacers. At no point do you want any part of your deck to be hitting the rears during operation - but big gaps doesn't help you very much. Also - you've probably noticed that there isn't much difference in price between sizes.

One of the advantages a scut like a Yanmar sc2400 had - was the wheels were reversable - so you could gain spacer effect just by spinning the wheels around. But I don't believe Massey GC1700 can do that.

Let me know what you find out.

AxleHub

I went and grabbed a piece of 2x4 and took some pictures and measurements. Here is what I came up with, if I did this wrong let me know.

 

[AxleHub]

I went and grabbed a piece of 2x4 and took some pictures and measurements. Here is what I came up with, if I did this wrong let me know.

Greetings Chad,

Well, what you are showing maybe could work for measuring - but it isn't what I was thinking of. More importantly - you seem to have your rear deck wheels set much higher than mine and maybe its just the pictures - but your rear deck wheel seems to have less space to the tire than does mine.

As an example - my rear deck wheel on the right side is about 2 inches further out than my tire and it is set forward more. Now granted if I raise the deck up to its fullest height - that effects things some.

But the idea of the deck wheels is to have them set for just above the height of grass height you want because the deck is a suspension deck. Then you raise and lower your deck for fine tuning. It almost looks like your deck wheels are set so lowering the deck would cut it down to maybe an inch high. I don't know if turf tires are narrower than yours - but it seems like I have more space from the camera angle you have. Essentially - you want to be able to raise and lower your deck with your hydraulics - so that the roller wheels or brackets don't hit the rear tires.. then you measure outside the side of the tire to see how far out you'd still have clearance. When my deck is all the way down I'd have more clearance than when I'd pull it all the way up. And because the deck wheel sticks out further than everything else - I wouldn't want the deck wheel adjusted to the very very top.

Its raining now - but I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow.





I was thinking of having a 1 x running 90 degrees different from your's (in other words going in the same direction as your 2 rear deck wheels. Then you can see how close

 

[JWR]

Mr. Chad -- I basically agree with AxleHub. Let me add a couple of opinions. (My machines similar to yours are Kubota, not Massey but the principles are the same.)

1) Fluid in the tires is almost always rear only and is for traction, not helping on steeper ground. Wheels spacers or anything you can do to get a wider tread in back is a huge improvement in avoiding tipping over or getting close enough to tipping that it becomes an issue. Fluid in the tires may help a small amount but very small, I say negligible.
2) On one B2150 tractor I use 6" spacers of the Bora brand and find them to be excellent in quality and in the company having all the little subtle things figured out for compatibility and fit. With an added foot of tire spacing my B2150 is daylight/dark safer to use with a small bush hog on steeper ground -- actually feasible versus NOT feasible ! However, I cannot use my midmountmower at all with the spacers -- tires will not clear the deck.
3) I'm using very large turf tires and it looks from the picts that you are using ag tires or maybe industrial tread. You probably will have more space than I do because of tire type if everything else was equal. Your worst-case will be with the deck raised. As was suggested, run a 1" board or any handy straight object across the back of your rear tires , between the rear tires and the deck wheels. With that board in place, does it clear everything or are the mower wheels too far forward to even get the board in there ? If the board clears, even while you run the mower deck up to the highest point, you'll be OK running the rear tires out as far as you like. In other words if the mower wheels are too far forward, then at some point you'd have a conflict trying to widen the rear tractor tires. I think you can see that but obvious things are often hard to describe in English.
Again -- if you want to be/feel more stable on steep slopes then move the rear wheels out as far as you can. As Axle Hub said, you don't want tires and deck wheels colliding AT ALL but on the other hand you really don't need a whole lot of spacing either.

 

[ChadsGC1720]

Greetings Chad,

Well, what you are showing maybe could work for measuring - but it isn't what I was thinking of. More importantly - you seem to have your rear deck wheels set much higher than mine and maybe its just the pictures - but your rear deck wheel seems to have less space to the tire than does mine.

As an example - my rear deck wheel on the right side is about 2 inches further out than my tire and it is set forward more. Now granted if I raise the deck up to its fullest height - that effects things some.

But the idea of the deck wheels is to have them set for just above the height of grass height you want because the deck is a suspension deck. Then you raise and lower your deck for fine tuning. It almost looks like your deck wheels are set so lowering the deck would cut it down to maybe an inch high. I don't know if turf tires are narrower than yours - but it seems like I have more space from the camera angle you have. Essentially - you want to be able to raise and lower your deck with your hydraulics - so that the roller wheels or brackets don't hit the rear tires.. then you measure outside the side of the tire to see how far out you'd still have clearance. When my deck is all the way down I'd have more clearance than when I'd pull it all the way up. And because the deck wheel sticks out further than everything else - I wouldn't want the deck wheel adjusted to the very very top.

Its raining now - but I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow.





I was thinking of having a 1 x running 90 degrees different from your's (in other words going in the same direction as your 2 rear deck wheels. Then you can see how close

I'm thinking my industrial tires are bigger than your turf tires. I tried to put a 2x4 next to my rear tire and it will hit the tire on my mower. I took some more pictures. Let me know if this is wrong and I'll try again lol



And can you help me set my mower deck up? My dealer told me I could adjust my deck wheels up or down for my height and then lower my deck the whole way to the ground and it would basically become a floating deck. Or he said I could "fine tune" it with the adjustment knob and then lower it and it would become a suspended mowing deck.

Is one way better than the other? Or what's the correct way?

How tall should the lawn be after cutting?

Sorry I'm knew to all this. As a kid we just cut it short lol.

 

[AxleHub]

Yes I'll get numerouspictures tomorrow so you can compare. We all gotta learn lol.

One thing for me is I tend to adjust my deck for about 2.75 inch grass. When you start cutting shorter than that it's often hard to keep the weeds away because they grow faster and can handle wind and dryness better than the grass can. And because of mulching. . I don't use fertilizers at all so I have lots of worms near the surface. But the herbicides and a little pesticides help I grow we and thick it I don't need to cut every three days like all the neighbors either lol.

 

[ChadsGC1720]

So do you just set the bottom of your mowing deck 2.75" off the ground? Or is it not as simple as that?

 

[irvingj]

If you have the deck set low enough that it rides on the deck wheels, the wheels will wear more quickly, and they're expensive from Massey. I now keep my grass a bit taller than I used to, for reasons mentioned above, but use the deck height control to keep the wheels --mostly-- just off the ground, i.e., they touch once in a while only. That seems to be working better for me. I suppose my grass height is now around 2-1/2" or perhaps a bit more; I used to keep it closer to 1-1/2". (Keep in mind you can also change the height of the deck wheels as well.)

 

[AxleHub]

So do you just set the bottom of your mowing deck 2.75" off the ground? Or is it not as simple as that?

Greetings Chad,

The Massey mowing decks are really not designed to have the decks rolling on the ground - they are designed to be suspended from the tractor. On the 2315 mulching deck - the purpose of the rollers (most of them hidden) and the 4 exterior wheels - is to deal with ground irregularity (small knolls in the lawn or washboarding or hole or rut strikes by the tractor wheels. In addition, if you are sidehill cutting with the wheels riding on the ground - you'll get more of an angular cut because the deck wheels will rest more on one side of the ground compared to the other.

And as Irving mentioned - the rollers aren't too bad for price - but the deck wheels are a surprise unless you can find a compatible.

A final issue with the wheels riding on the ground is to remember that the 2315 deck weighs 220 lbs. And if the ground is wet - your cut would be shorter as the wheels would sink in more (much greater weight per sq. inch on deck wheels compared to the tractor's tires).

And I'll just mention that I don't know that your tires are bigger than mine - it could be your deck is adjusted "further back" than mine is (front adjustable U shaped mounting point bracket). By the way - that's one of the reasons why the deck pto shaft has a varying length to it. So the way I do it is to set the deck wheels for a distance to ground that would be the "shortest height" I'd ever consider ever cut any lawn surface (leaf chopping in late fall) - then I set deck drop to either 1. my slope cutting height or 2. flat lawn cutting).

Here are some pictures of my deck showing the deck resting on the wheels on the ground and at full up position. I also took shots showing where my pins are set on the wheel brackets - and the gaps to be considered when choosing spacers. All photos are labelled for direction and position.










AxleHub

 

[ChadsGC1720]

Axlehub,

Could you measure how wide your turf tires are? Cause I think my R4s might be a tad wider. But I'll measure mine to and we can see

Also how far forward on the U shape bracket do you have you mower set?

I'm at work all weekend, but I'll adjust my deck Monday and take new pictures and measurements to compare.

Thanks

 

[AxleHub]

Chad,

The rear turf tires on my GC1715 are 12 inches wide and 24 inches as a diameter - they are not worn. (yes, 24 inches - I measured 3 times even though the tire sidewall says 26 x 12 LOL

AS far as the u shaped front attachment bracket for the deck - I have 1 inch of threads exposed.



P.S. Also see page 32 of your MF 2315 operator manual for a different finish cutting adjustment using "floating method" instead of "suspension method".


AxleHub

 

[ChadsGC1720]

AxleHub,

My industrial tires measure 25.5" x 12" tread width to closer to 13" to outer sidewall.

My mower deck has the same 1" of threads showing in the u shape bolt in the front.

As far as setting up the mower deck, I'm not sure if I got the mower deck manual. I'll have to double check. But I set my deck wheels up to the diagram to give me a cut height of 2.6"

So what number on my turn knob should I use? The one that barely lets the wheels touch the ground in assuming?