Beefing up Mower Deck AR-500

[MF243RedTop]

Getting lots of sand abrasion in the high wear areas, trying some AR plate welded under deck..the blade shrouds/baffles will get 1/8" AR plate, the flat deck is getting 3/16
What y'all think?

 

[mikester]

It'll work. I have sandy soil and my blades get blasted paper thin. My mower decks are fabricated and don't seem to have any wear issues after many years of use. I tend to get more grass clippings build-up under my ZTR deck with the higher blade speeds than my 3PH mower.

Based on my experience I'd go with 1/8 as 3/16 would be overkill and a lot of extra weight.

 

[MF243RedTop]

I cut quite a few bahai grass yards before I retired it to only my home use. Those yards are terrible for sand abrasion under the deck, I think that's where most of the wear came from.. it's an 04 Dixie with approximately 500 hrs on it .

 

[MF243RedTop]

Got all the plate rolled to form for the shrouds.. was challenging in a couple places to get a tight fit. Cut it up into smaller pieces in a couple of places and clamped it tight.. got it all tacked/welded in places..
waiting on another 10lb roll of wire to come in to finish up...I'm all but out of wire.. been a fun project..

 

[MF243RedTop]

For anyone wondering this is what the deck looked like before I started. I sand blasted across a sandy section of dirt with blades engaged at full rpm.

The middle shroud was toast in the middle and discharge shroud.. well you see that hunk and chunk of a hole..
Deck was fabbed with 1/8 plate originally and it was wore to at least 1/16 or less in places

 

[MF243RedTop]

Repaired both places in shrouds before replating with AR-500 plate

 

[MF243RedTop]

Ar-500 welded in place and given a bath of Ospho

Sprayed a little paint under deck . Just what I had in shop, don't expect it to last long... but the grey is bedliner sprayed on smooth. Held can about 8 inches from surface to achieve more of paint look than bedliner, so stuff doesn't stick as bad.. I was only concerned with the areas around spindles. Had some pitted rust forming there.

Repainted black and grey is Raptor bedliner

The black on OCDC punch plate is bedliner and handle is black paint.

Pulley guards and OCDC got a fresh coating as well.