How long does it take to remove the deck from a BX?????????????????

[My Hoe]

Thanks. Yes I was removing the PTO shaft at 22 seconds on timer on the tablet.

The PTO shaft does come off with the tractor. I prop it over on the right side deck mount.





I can have it back on in less than a minute. I made a video reinstalling it but it did not turn out as good.

94Bullit,

Thank you. I can see from the pic that the PTO shaft stays WITH the deck. Without getting into a "grammar lesson" myself , I was initially confused by what you wrote, when you said "The PTO shaft does come off with the tractor." That made me think it came off OF the deck, and stayed "WITH" the tractor. But you pic clearly shows it comes off WITH the DECK. I appreciate your clearing this up, as PTO-driven MMM's are brand new to me.

I thought your video was very helpful, and well-done. :thumbsup:

Does anyone have an opinion (or, even better) a video of, say, a 5' MMM coming off of a B-series? And going on? I'm assuming that, being heavier, it's not as easy as on a BX, but I'd love to be proven wrong. (I'm looking for a B2630, but I suppose the new B-series are similar?)

Thanks again, 94Bullit, for your very helpful video.

 

[aczlan]

Does anyone have an opinion (or, even better) a video of, say, a 5' MMM coming off of a B-series? And going on? I'm assuming that, being heavier, it's not as easy as on a BX, but I'd love to be proven wrong. (I'm looking for a B2630, but I suppose the new B-series are similar?)

Our B7500 60" deck is almost identical to the 60" BX deck in how it goes on and comes off. The deck for the B goes in a little faster because it has a loader on it, so I can pick the front wheels up off the ground and roll the deck right under the front wheels, but the procedure is the same on both decks.

Aaron Z

 

[k0ua]

It always amazes me that something that takes seconds to actually do, can take minutes to explain, and even then 50% of the people are not going to understand what you meant:laughing:

That grammar and sentence structure thing gets to us all. And then throw in the human frailty, brain lag thing, and it is a wonder we can communicate at all. Especially over a medium like this.

 

[94BULLITT]

Finally, after 1 1/2 years of owning a 60" MMM for the BX25 I installed it in early September and removed it last week. I cut 4 acres of grass with a little JD 210 garden tractor until it broke a valve or valve spring, so I was forced to use the BX. I was using the BX with a 3 point hitch and the backhoe so much that the mower wasn't necessary. After reading on this forum about how difficult it could be installing the PTO shaft with the Bro-Tek skid plate installed I was expecting a difficult time. It went well to say the least. I made sure that everything was very clean and lightly greased. I also made sure to set the PTO selector to rear PTO only. This allows the Mid Mount PTO tractor shaft to spin easily. I aligned that spline to have a vertical rib sticking straight up and a slot on the PTO shaft to match. I pulled the collar on the PTO shaft back, it stayed in place, then gently fit it onto the tractor shaft through the Bro-Tek opening. It went right on the second try and I locked it in place. The rest of the install is easy.
Removing it last week wasn't too bad. There is not much room to pull the collar back easily so it can be removed. I struggled for about 2 minutes clawing at the collar and not being able to feel if it moved or not. I guess I got it without knowing because I tugged on the shaft and it fell off. The rest of the removal was by the book. This is much easier than the deck removal from the old JD 210.
I was actually surprised at how well the mower cut and how maneuverable it really is. Except for needing to keep the ROPS down in my small orchard and breaking off a few small branches, I didn't lose anything mowing with the larger tractor. I will still manage my use of the mower, 3 point hitch, loader and backhoe to avoid as much as possible unnecessary swapping because at 65 crawling around on the ground is not something I look forward to. I'm pretty sure it will get easier the more often I do it. However, I'll be getting older as it gets easier so it might end up being a wash! :-D

I wonder why they did not make the hole for the PTO shaft larger on the skid plate?

94Bullit,

Thank you. I can see from the pic that the PTO shaft stays WITH the deck. Without getting into a "grammar lesson" myself , I was initially confused by what you wrote, when you said "The PTO shaft does come off with the tractor." That made me think it came off OF the deck, and stayed "WITH" the tractor. But you pic clearly shows it comes off WITH the DECK. I appreciate your clearing this up, as PTO-driven MMM's are brand new to me.

I thought your video was very helpful, and well-done. :thumbsup:

Does anyone have an opinion (or, even better) a video of, say, a 5' MMM coming off of a B-series? And going on? I'm assuming that, being heavier, it's not as easy as on a BX, but I'd love to be proven wrong. (I'm looking for a B2630, but I suppose the new B-series are similar?)

Thanks again, 94Bullit, for your very helpful video.

Thanks for the kind words. Sometimes it is hard to explain stuff so I thought I would post a picture of the PTO shaft on the deck.

I think the B series have drive over decks. You have to fold down a little ramp to run over it. I can see some advantage to this like it would take less space to remove or install the deck.

I have a "instructional" video on the BX deck removal. You can check it out since Aaron said they are similar to a B series.

It always amazes me that something that takes seconds to actually do, can take minutes to explain, and even then 50% of the people are not going to understand what you meant:laughing:

That grammar and sentence structure thing gets to us all. And then throw in the human frailty, brain lag thing, and it is a wonder we can communicate at all. Especially over a medium like this.

Yes simple thing can be hard to explain. Hard to tell how many steps there are in the owners manual on removing the deck on a dynamo:laughing:

 

[paulemar]

I wonder why they did not make the hole for the PTO shaft larger on the skid plate?

I imagine it's because they had to make it big enough to fit the PTO shaft knuckle through, but it wouldn't be too big to allow sticks and other foreign objects to squeeze between the shaft and skid plate. That plastic transmission cooling fan has to be protected. After all I have put my BX25 through, when I removed the MMM and glanced up, I was glad to see the fan was intact and like new. I plan to get the Bro-Tek middle skid plate this Spring just to make that 1 in a thousand chance of a stray stick even less and to protect the fuel filters and other exposed stuff.
The hole is of adequate size. The problem, at least in my case, is old bones and joints that don't stretch and flex too well anymore. But I did it and was impressed that it wasn't bad at all.

 

[94BULLITT]

I imagine it's because they had to make it big enough to fit the PTO shaft knuckle through, but it wouldn't be too big to allow sticks and other foreign objects to squeeze between the shaft and skid plate. That plastic transmission cooling fan has to be protected. After all I have put my BX25 through, when I removed the MMM and glanced up, I was glad to see the fan was intact and like new. I plan to get the Bro-Tek middle skid plate this Spring just to make that 1 in a thousand chance of a stray stick even less and to protect the fuel filters and other exposed stuff.
The hole is of adequate size. The problem, at least in my case, is old bones and joints that don't stretch and flex too well anymore. But I did it and was impressed that it wasn't bad at all.

I might make a fan protector out of expanded metal for mine.

 

[Toolguy]

I have a 60" mmm on my B3030. It is not bad to r&r. It helps to have a concrete surface. I would hate to try it on uneven ground. It is HEAVY! The 60" is not a driveover.

 

[paulemar]

If you can fab one yourself, more power to you, I'm jealous. I consider it a necessity for the BX's because once you figure out that that the tractors can really do a lot of stuff, you will do it. It would only take a few seconds to trash the fan even though the Kubota improved protection is better than the original, it is still seriously inadequate. I don't have that metalwork capability, so I'll just buy mine from the folks that provide this much needed improvement and be grateful to them.