Should I have detached the mower?

keegs · Jun 16, 2013

So I got the old Massey Ferguson Dynabalance 41 mounted on the tractor last week. Not a real hard job but it is a heavy beast to be moving around. After some trouble with the blade I got it running pretty nicely. Got a few days of mowing in ....shu shu shu shu shu shu ... :laughing: before it was time to head back home. But I'm < 1/4 done with the mowing and won't be back up to the farm for about a month or so. I didn't want to detach the mower from the TPH and so I dropped it down on a 8" x 8" x 32" block.

My question is, should I have detached the mower for the month I'll be away or is leaving it hooked up to the tractor with it down on blocks OK?

SPYDERLK · Jun 16, 2013

I cant think of any reason to detach it in the short term - a months not so long. Rainwater getting into the PTO shaft due to "storage" angle could be an issue long term.
larry

RoyJackson · Jun 16, 2013

I leave my mower on most of the mowing season. Although the tractor/mower is normally parked inside....not always.
Also, when we first moved to Vermont, we had no indoor storage at the rental house. The mower was rigged to the tractor all winter (lots of snow!) with no apparent problems.
Now, I'm a fluid film fan...if equipment is going to set for a lengthy period of time, I spray all of the part prone to rust.

keegs · Jun 16, 2013

Thanks, Spydr, Roy,

She's locked up in the garage. I wasn't sure whether the hydraulics were still engaged in this configuration and if left engaged whether that would cause problems.

I hosed everything down before I put it to bed and with a small $.50 paint brush applied a liberal amount of all purpose grease to the mower blade.

The old MF Dynabalance is still a pretty good machine.

joshuabardwell · Jun 16, 2013

As long as there is no weight on the hydraulics, I don't think it should make any difference whether an implement is hooked to the lift arms or not. It's good practice when parking to depressurize the hydraulics by fully lowering the FEL and three-point, and then pressing the FEL lever in all four directions to be sure that any residual pressure is released.