Cleaning Under Zero-Turn Deck After Every Session: Really Necessary?

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

if all you are really wanting to mulch is leaves and you are afraid it will not have the power to mulch grass for the rest of the year, you can use a chute blocker. I have used them with success in the past. That way you can have side discharge most of the time and block off the chute when you don't want to just throw clippings out the side. It will not recycle and really "mulch" grass clippings. But, it will hold leaves in long enough to cut them up pretty well. You will get a light windrow on the chute side that you may have to go back over but it will do the job.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

That is an interesting idea.

The only reason I got the mulch kit for the JD was to get rid of--literally--tons of hard little oak leaves that were a nightmare to move and burn. I haven't paid any attention at all to what it does to the grass. Given the poor quality of grass here, I am not shooting for a fancy lawn. I just want to keep it from getting out of hand.

I just checked prices for products that block chutes, and they're right up there with mulching kits, so it seems like a bad idea to buy one. Maybe I could fabricate one.

 

[kozal01]

if all you are really wanting to mulch is leaves and you are afraid it will not have the power to mulch grass for the rest of the year, you can use a chute blocker. I have used them with success in the past. That way you can have side discharge most of the time and block off the chute when you don't want to just throw clippings out the side. It will not recycle and really "mulch" grass clippings. But, it will hold leaves in long enough to cut them up pretty well. You will get a light windrow on the chute side that you may have to go back over but it will do the job.

This is exactly what I do in the fall and spring to deal with leaves. I take the high lift gator blades off and throw on the low lift gators, then close my grass flap when I want to mulch up the leaves, works just as you describe and does a great job. That grass flap is the best thing I bought for my Exmark.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

This is a suggestion I will follow up on. I don't have the new mower yet, so I can't see how hard it is to make a chute blocker. I don't want to pay $300 for a metal flap.

So I guess I could combine this with mulching blades and see what happens.

My leaves are amazing. I piled up tons of them and burned them. They burn for a week or more, and pouring 100 gallons of water into a burning pile has zero effect.

 

[mjonesnh]

That is an interesting idea.

The only reason I got the mulch kit for the JD was to get rid of--literally--tons of hard little oak leaves that were a nightmare to move and burn. I haven't paid any attention at all to what it does to the grass. Given the poor quality of grass here, I am not shooting for a fancy lawn. I just want to keep it from getting out of hand.

I just checked prices for products that block chutes, and they're right up there with mulching kits, so it seems like a bad idea to buy one. Maybe I could fabricate one.

My chute blocking device is a 5/4x6 deck board about 14" long with a hole drilled in each end. rubber tarp straps hooks threw holes in board , other hook in pully covers or 1 of holes in deck from factory. Raise chute and secure with bungee, mount board. works great for me. Had a neighbor that used an old license plate secured with couple of bungee. He seemed happy and said worked fine

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Hmm...$340, or waste a perfectly good old license plate. I'll have to think it over.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

This looks bad.

 

[RjCorazza]

You can't beat the convenience of a commercial chute blocker. That said, if you're a good fabricator I see no reason why a similarly easy to use blocker couldn't be made.
I'm not that good a fabricator, so I bit the bullet and bought one.

 

[sandman2234]

Geez. Knives? You must have some serious crud up there in Tennessee. I have never noticed much of anything stuck to my deck here in sizzling Northern Florida.

We seldom mow early morning, but if we do, we are still mowing by the time the grass dries out, so the dry grass should clean under the deck.
Our biggest problem is not wet grass building up under the deck, as much as grass clippings, leaves and such getting caught on top of the deck and rusting it from the top down.
I just brought home a JD mower that had a lot of crud on top of the deck, but it was stored on a concrete slab inside a barn. While it had been sitting for 2 years with that crud on the deck, there is no rust. The mower was covered with a LOT of dust from the horses walking around in the pens adjacent to the barn. Surprisingly, I jumped it off to see if it would spin over, and it did. I splashed a little gas in the carb and it actually started and runs like a top. Automatic tranny wouldn't move, dang it!
Blow the deck off with a leaf blower and store it inside is my suggestion.
David from jax

 

[Cycledude]

I’m a Kubota ZD21 owner, currently a little over 1400 hours on it with very little trouble, still using the original belt, did replace the original starter because it often wasn’t engaging properly , a brand new starter cost less than $100 from Amazon, local Kubota dealer wanted $215 plus my old starter because Kubota supposedly rebuilds them. The brand new one I installed myself so far has been working perfectly .
My local Kubota dealer does sell a mulching kit for the ZD21 but it would cost about $350 and takes about a month to get so I didn’t order it. But I did see one being used to mulch leaves in a county park and it was almost unbelievable was a great job it did grinding up those leaves ! No windrows left when they were done and the ZD21 seemed to run it effortlessly, everything was very dry that day so that probably helped.
I do usually clean the deck inside and outside when I’m done mowing, scraper used to clean the bottom and leaf blower to clean the top.

 

[Fixastuff]

To do it right you MUST stop at 20min intervals while cutting to clean the deck.

 

[kozal01]

The foot controlled Grass Flap is worth the price in my opinion. I can operate the chute blocker and deck lift without taking my hands off the controls or my eyes off of what I'm doing. Besides mulching leaves in the fall its most useful for keeping grass from discharging into flower beds, cars, houses ect. Sure I could build one but once I spent the money on the components and materials plus my time the $300 was easy to justify. Buyers remorse disappeared after the first mow with it. Will never own another ZTR without one.

 

[RayIN]

The foot controlled Grass Flap is worth the price in my opinion. I can operate the chute blocker and deck lift without taking my hands off the controls or my eyes off of what I'm doing. Besides mulching leaves in the fall its most useful for keeping grass from discharging into flower beds, cars, houses ect. Sure I could build one but once I spent the money on the components and materials plus my time the $300 was easy to justify. Buyers remorse disappeared after the first mow with it. Will never own another ZTR without one.

Check out this one.

 

[Topzide]

If you so wish, you can add perks to the Gravely spindles. When I worked at a Gravely dealer, at the 250 hrs mark, we'd offer to drill and tap for zerks. Those spindles are or were rated for 1500hrs!

 

[richheyn]

Consider finding a used Grasshopper with a front mount deck. The deck raises up electrically and you can scrape the underside using a putty knife on a broom handle while standing up. Before I bought my Grasshopper I was constantly under the old machine with a putty knife after almost every use. When I decided I had enough of that I evaluated 7 or 8 different brands using them on my property under typical conditions. I learned that deck design was a bigger deal than I thought, both in terms of staying clean and ability to cut tall grass. The Deere 7 iron deck is very good in terms avoiding accumulation. Grasshopper, Skag and Kubota were tied for second place and the rest followed. I finally chose the Grasshopper because of the ride quality, ease of getting on and off, and the easy-to-clean front deck. After 400 hours, I'm very happy with my choice. By the way, the OP mentioned a preference for Kubota, but understand that the solid rear axle makes for a very rough ride.

 

[Cycledude]

Consider finding a used Grasshopper with a front mount deck. The deck raises up electrically and you can scrape the underside using a putty knife on a broom handle while standing up. Before I bought my Grasshopper I was constantly under the old machine with a putty knife after almost every use. When I decided I had enough of that I evaluated 7 or 8 different brands using them on my property under typical conditions. I learned that deck design was a bigger deal than I thought, both in terms of staying clean and ability to cut tall grass. The Deere 7 iron deck is very good in terms avoiding accumulation. Grasshopper, Skag and Kubota were tied for second place and the rest followed. I finally chose the Grasshopper because of the ride quality, ease of getting on and off, and the easy-to-clean front deck. After 400 hours, I'm very happy with my choice. By the way, the OP mentioned a preference for Kubota, but understand that the solid rear axle makes for a very rough ride.

I believe that electric raise-lower-tilt for cleaning is a $500+ option, one of my brother in laws bought one after using his Grasshopper for a couple years with the manual deck.

 

[fidowanttobe]

I too have an old Grasshopper 725 mower and after having a front mount flip up deck, you will never go back.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Sounds great, but I bought a Kubota. Thanks for the info.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Sweet!

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Yeah, I can't tell if it's a great mower or it just seems like one after a John Deere 430.