OT ish Toro WheelHorse 520H mower deck installation

[hubops]

Hi all - I've been having a terrible time re-installing my 48 inch side discharge deck after removal for maintenance. It invariably becomes a curse-fest. I feel like I must be missing some little helpful trick. Anyone here with experience with this line of lawn tractors ? Mine is 1990-91 but they were much the same from mid-1980s to - mid or late 1990s. I have the Owners Manual for the tractor - it says to refer to the attachment's manual for details .. which I don't have. The trouble is in aligning the deck's "Quick Attach" bar after hanging the deck on the raise-lower pin - I needed a neighbour's help today. Yes - the deck hydro-control is lowered completely ; When I first bought the tractor, I tried attaching the Quick-Attach first - but it made hanging the deck onto the raise-lower pin impossible. - Again - maybe there is some trick that I haven't yet figured out .. I'm going to youtube to search for some help - but I thought I'd also try here. < I once used a YahooGroup for vintage WheelHorse but I think it's dead now >

Thanks. John T.

[Dean Hoffman]

In case my search ended up differently than yours:

I didn't bother watching.

[hubops]

Thanks Dean - much appreciated -

- the video didn't answer my question - but it gave me some hints about my troubles. My deck attachment is identical to this video's model. but - big but - there's no way to lower my deck-height-pin to simply slide into the deck bar - on level ground -

- my lift pin is ~ 4 inches above that .. at its lowest.

ps: I got rabbit-holed by the 6 minute 1991 adverts and the rebuild & carb jobs on youtube .. it's amazing what's out there !

Again - thanks for your help. Regards ; John T.

[Dean Hoffman]

Remove front wheels?

[hubops]

Front wheels are not involved. in my problem. If I could lower my lift-pin another 4 inches - like the video - I think the Quick Attach would attach quickly ! ... but then I would be mowing golf greens ... John T.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked thru these websites for info ?

find the deck's model number and see if the PDF of manual is listed

[hubops]

Thanks - I'll dig into those forums. John T.

[Nick]

Neighbor had a chain hoist mounted in his garage rafters so he'd just pull the battery on his garden tractor, drain the oil and then hoist the front up until the tractor was standing vertical. Grease job, changing/sharpening the blades etc was easy-peasy.

[Dean Hoffman]

So the deck needs to be raised? How about a good, old fashioned shovel to use as a lever to raise it? Do you have some left over chunks of wood or bricks around to prop it up?

[trader_4]

If you can't lower the bridge, raise the river. Why is it so hard to put some pieces of 2x4 or similar under the deck, lift one side at a time, get it to the height it needs to be? Save the wood or at least record the necessary height for next time.

[hubops]

I had a buddy who owned a small loader tractor - a size bigger than a "compact" tractor - with front forks attachment - - he'd drive his lawn tractor onto the forks ; set the brakes ; raise the loader up to 7 or 8 feet and clean & maintain the deck. I almost bought a lawn-tractor-lift a couple years ago -

John T.

[hubops]

I'm able to lift the deck onto the raise-lower pin - it's a bit heavy & awkward but the problem starts after that - in aligning the deck's Quick-Attach bar - difficult to explain or picture it unless you see it .. Thanks anyway. I'll try the WheelHorse links that were posted. John T.

[Tekkie©]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2021 04:16:36 -0700 (PDT), Dean Hoffman posted for all of us to digest...

That's what I would suggest; some 2x4's shoved under the deck.

[Dean Hoffman]

I got diverted a few days ago. Something on tv reminded me of Credence Clearwater. One YouTube led to another. They let even Willie Nelson on that site.