any toro groundsmaster fans on here?

[MultiMow]

That’s too bad, cause this guy has a brand new deck shell for me for almost nothing.

If it's a good deck, and you can get the ENTIRE driveshaft, you can use it... but you have to have the rear portion of the driveshaft, as the splines are different. It's a simple roll pin holding the rear section in place. I did that to run an old Groundsmaster 72 deck on my '98 325-D until I found my flail deck.

 

[MultiMow]

Has anyone upgraded their old worn out seats with a suspension seat? I have a bad back and will need all the help I can get with my rough ground. Let’s see some pics of your seat upgrades.

It's a simple swap... but after having sat on one recently, AND having a bad back.... I'll take the bumps. The suspension seat was too high for me (I'm 5'10"). By the time I raised it up enough to absorb any reasonable amount of bumps... either my legs were dangling, or I was putting more pressure on my legs trying to stay stable.

You're experience might be different, but I didn't care for it.

 

[MultiMow]

Thank you for clearing that up. Have you ever noticed your 4wd kicking in on a steep slope or loose Ground? I would imagine it is almost transparent to the operator when it does start to work.

I found a picture of that strange side discharge deck with the removable front lip. It is in fact a groundsmaster deck, the one in this pic appears to be a 60”.

View attachment 573499

I have only "noticed" mine engaging a couple times... and that was because I had old 8.5" tires up front, going up a steeper hill than I should, and watched the back tires digging in to make up for lost traction. It only takes about an inch or less of front tire slip to engage the clutch on mine. Without looking, you'd have never known it. I'm sure glad I have 4wd with the new Carlisle AT101s... I'd hate to see the tracks they would dig going uphill without the rear helping.

 

[Turbys_1700]

If you don't see an appreciable difference in PTO load with the standard high lift blades... you have bigger problems (spindles, PTO bushings/alignment, U-joint wear, etc.).

It's worth noting... if you have the Guardian Recycler mulching deck (pardon me for not scrolling back to verify), you will always have problems when cutting more than 2 or 3 inches of growth. They simply can't process the clippings into small enough pieces to fall out of the vacuum, through the blade path, and back to the ground. Mulching decks process clippings 3 to 8 times as much as side or rear discharge. Furthermore, unlike other decks which will force evacuate clumps... mulching decks simply load up in the top of the blade chambers, increasing turbulence and load on the blades.

It is the regular 72" deck. The gator blades lift and re-cut the grass very well but pull the motor down a lot in thick grass. I hope the regular lift blades pull easier. There is no comparison to the quality of cut with my 6 foot Woods RFM. The Groundsmaster grooms the yard. Grass dispersion is excellent. My yard has never looked better. I can imagine the load a mulching deck would put on the unit to be extreme in thick grass. Thanks to you and Xfaxman for your knowledge on these units.

 

[MultiMow]

I tried gators on my mulching deck before I knew better... not good

 

[jrsavoie]

Post a pic of your snow blower. It may be like the one I helped sell last year. I'll see if I can find pics.

This is what I have on the computer for starters. I can try to get more pics

 

[JohnBuffaloMN]

SNIP -

Again, this might be late... but it's my experience with the issue. Hope it helps!

Thank you for that extensive list of details! I appreciate it. It's going to snow here soon, and I think I'm going to go with the 23×10.50x12 turf tires and rubber tire "chains". I've seen a set on CL for about 1/3 what I'd pay, so I think I'm gonna see if the rims will fit

 

[MultiMow]

Thank you for that extensive list of details! I appreciate it. It's going to snow here soon, and I think I'm going to go with the 23×10.50x12 turf tires and rubber tire "chains". I've seen a set on CL for about 1/3 what I'd pay, so I think I'm gonna see if the rims will fit

23x10.50x12 is a guaranteed fit on factory Toro wheels. That was the optional tire size available from the factory. You should have no problem at all.

 

[jrsavoie]

If it's a good deck, and you can get the ENTIRE driveshaft, you can use it... but you have to have the rear portion of the driveshaft, as the splines are different. It's a simple roll pin holding the rear section in place. I did that to run an old Groundsmaster 72 deck on my '98 325-D until I found my flail deck.

I would think that if his gear box is good, he could use that and his drive shafts or if the U-joints are the same, he could use them as a coupler if he wished.

If they are dirt cheap, I'd be on it.

 

[Asymair95]

Whew...that was an education. Thank you multimow for all that info, it will surely come in handy in the next few weeks.

I picked up my new/used deck today from Craigslist. It is in pretty good shape, some cracks, dents, bends...the usual abused equipment issues. The good news is there is little to no rot, lots of rust, but no cancer issues.



The deck as received.



Standard 72” SD. 30721 model number.



Going to have to spend some quality time with the mig to fix the cracks and reattach various skid pads and such.



Spindles pulled. Not looking forward to doing this on the rotted decks I’m going to be using for parts. These were hard enough to get off and there wasn’t much rust.



Straightening the front and back lips with a couple plates of steel and a pipe wrench. The back lip is bent bad and going to take some engineering to straighten out. Will weld some thick plate steel to the outside that sticks out past the deck so I can get a leverage arm on it to bend the lip back in.

I might start a new thread when I begin going over my 322 and 325 getting them ready for front line service...or should I do that here? What are the sop’s for that?

Multimow, I’m beginning to worry about this driveshaft issue you brought up. I think I might have a problem, will find out on Friday I guess.