Ceramic coating for mower deck

[dadohead]

Some pro cutters have the bottom of their mower decks sprayed with bed-liner material. The first coat is smooth and then they splatter coat the 2nd... you request the smooth finish be left of course. The reports were that it provides an incredible non-stick surface. More importantly though, it prevents the abrasion wear some regions are known for.

As a tractor/mower engineer I took a prototype mower to a bed-liner shop and had it coated. $600ish? They took the drive parts off and masked the spindle pocket areas. That's where all the costs went. I ran the machine at our Florida test site (the sandy soil wears blades to nubs in several hundred hours). At end of test most mowers have the beginnings of at least one wear through area. This deck had none; the bed-liner was completely intact. The mower deck then ran another full field test in Wisconsin... it stayed much cleaner than any machine we had ever tested.

Enough interest was generated by leadership that I put a team together to investigate adding this process to the factory. Ha! Manufacturing wanted NOTHING to do with it... a nightmare material to incorporate into a production facility. Costs would have been wild too. Impressive solution though!

 

[5030]

600 bucks... Why not buy a gallon of Herculiner at HF and do it yourself? It's like 80 bucks a gallon. Gallon should do it multple times...

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

A couple years ago I bought this 2000 Deere 455 the owner took care of it. He decided to rebuild mower deck so removed it, completely disassembled and had the deck sandblasted and powder coated JD Yellow. Then new spindles, blades hardware & belts. The deck stays clean top and underneath probably since it was powder coated.

 

[5030]

Obviously, you don't have sandy loam like we do. Nothing can stand up to the sandy loam sandblasting. Have to renew the blades every year as the kick up on the backside wears away.

 

[dadohead]

Nice Fuddy! 60" deck? I worked on that machine. JD Ecoats & powders everything since the '80's.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Nice Fuddy! 60" deck? I worked on that machine. JD Ecoats & powders everything since the '80's.

Yes, 60" deck. It was painted from factory, the owner had it powdercoated.

 

[masscity]

My arthritis made it difficult to change implements on my B7100DT so I retired my Woods RM48 and bought a Husky zero turn, now I just keep my box blade on all the time.

Bought and started using the zero turn in 2022, in the fall every year it's loaded with grass stuck to the bottom. That's with a nicely painted deck underside.

My Woods RM48 is now 47 years old and the underside of the deck has been rusted for years. While I was still using it, in the fall I would remove it from the tractor under my hoist. Pick it up with the hoist so it is hanging at 90 degrees. I would clean it good and spray it with Fluid Film, now the following fall there would be very little grass stuck on the underside. I think that Fluid Film would soak into the rust somehow and prevent the grass from sticking.

 

[solo machine]

Masscity, I have since used Fluid film under the deck. The ceramic (wax like thin coat coating) worked like magic.
It didn't hold up very long though. The fluid film is working fine for protection, but I liked the ceramic better.
But I'm not taking the deck off every 3 or 4 mowing's.