Cleaning Underside of Deck on ZTR

Poopdeck Pappy · Jun 5, 2014

Hey folks. I'm looking at buying a ZTR and one of the things I'm wondering is how do you clean up the underside of the mowing deck on them? Do you remove the deck? Is it a PITA?

I thought about getting a front-mounted mower for the ease of cleaning the deck and replacing blades, but they are really seriously expensive.

Also, do any of you ZTR owners have any clogging issues in tall grass (12" or so). I mow 2.5 acres with a garden tractor and the deck clogs up really bad. Sometimes I have to remove the deck 2 or 3 times in one mowing session and dig out the caked on goop underneath. I can remove the deck and put it back on quickly, but cleaning out the crud takes a long time and is a pain.

xtn · Jun 5, 2014

I'm no professional mower, but my experience is this:

To clean the bottom of the deck, I lift up the front of my ZTR and put jack stands under it. I use a chain on my tractor's FEL to lift it. You could just use a jack if it's stable enough. Before thinking of this I just drove the front wheels up my trailer ramps.

Clogging mostly seems to depend on the moisture content of whatever you are mowing. Wet stuff clumps and sticks. Dry stuff doesn't. I've heard some people spray some kind of coating under their deck after cleaning it that is supposed to reduce the sticking of the clippings, but I've never bothered. I just try to mow in the evenings after a couple of sun-shiny days. Also my ZTR's discharge opening is almost full length of the deck (along one side, from front to back) so I think that helps the clipping get out sooner, having less time to stick. Probably the opposite of what you want if you're trying to mulch, but maybe helps with less build-up under the deck.

xtn

Gary Fowler · Jun 5, 2014

I didn't have any clogging issue with my Ferris till all the #$%^% crawfish mounds start appearing in the lowland area. They seem to be mostly wet clay and it sticks firmly to the deck. I have to wash it out after every mowing. The easiest way is to pick it up with the FEL and hose it out while it is still wet. After it dries, it takes some scraping or high pressure washer to get out the concrete like mixture of clay and grass. The deck still sheds the grass out pretty well even when large stalagmites are built up under the deck from the crawfish mounds. I don't have any problems with the mounds after the spring rains cease and they dry out. They just become a cloud of dust when I hit them, but they don't do the blades any good.

I do the same thing when I change out the blades. I have never removed the deck to work underneath, just raise it to about 45 degree angle with the FEL and impact the bolts off, put on the sharp blade and move to the next one. Takes me about 5 minutes to change out all three blades, then drop the mower back down. I let it set while I put away the tractor so all the oil gets to run back down before starting the mower.
On my Craftsman, I just wrap a chain around each axle and lift, but my chain hooks would go thru the frame on the Ferris, so I just installed a permanently mounted piece of chain in one of the existing holes in the front end and now I just hook a chain hook to it and raise it up.

Poopdeck Pappy · Jun 5, 2014

Thanks for the info, guys. Gary, I've got the $#%^ crawfish mounds in my low area also. They make for a really rough ride on my garden tractor.

By the way, I test drove a Ferris IS2000Z today. It was like driving a Lazy Boy. I was stunned at how smooth the ride was. I'm gonna be very tempted to trade in my garden tractor. I suspect it would cut my mowing time in half.

Ken45101 · Jun 6, 2014

My Kubota ZD321 has a facility of twisting the front wheels to lift the front off of the ground.

I have never cleaned under the deck. The ONLY clogging problem that I have had is when cutting 2' grass , the discharge itself clogs up if it is trying to through it into high grass (no where to go). It's just the discharge shoot that clogs up. If I am mowing the other way (discharging into the already cut area), it doesn't have a problem.

BTW, I have some haystring permanently attached to the discharge shoot to hold it up somewhat. The normal down angle causes too much clogging.

Poopdeck Pappy · Jun 6, 2014

Ken, I'm looking at a couple of Kubota ZD's right now. I think I've decided just to get a new mower, and I would really love to have a ZTR with a Kubota diesel in it. I think I'll start a new thread on my ZTR search.