Mower Blade Shear Screws

[NoTrespassing]

My first encounter with mower blade shear screws was on my Walker zero turn. When I bought it used, I had no idea what a great engineering design they were. That was before I tried to mow a 30 pound rock in tall grass. The Walker has a geared deck out front and when the deck wheel hopped the rock and the blade came down on it I thought for sure I trashed the gears. To my surprise, the only thing I had to replace was the two 10-24 screws and nuts that act as shear bolts on the blades. What a relief that was. I have to hand it to the engineers at Walker, this mower is one of the best engineered units I've ever seen.

Do other manufactures have the same feature or similar ones to protect mower deck components?

Kevin

 

[NoTrespassing]

10-24 screw detail

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have seen blades with those holes in them, but never a mower with anything that fit in them. Most mowers just break the spindle or blade if they encounter a rock or root.