Tractor/mower modification

I have the same mower with the 36" deck.

I found the first cut of the year was always the difficult one, when the grass is long and damp. Then the chute would clog, and it does not like trying to mulch long wet grass!

Initially I got round it by defeating the collector present interlock and cut without it. That stopped the clogging if you took it slow on the highest cut setting, but did blow a massive fountain of grass out the back all over everything.

So a couple of years ago, I made up a deflector to hang over the exit port:

Nice one... I did consider trying to make a "cut and drop" exit - but at the time was thinking of a side discharge like you see on many decks, but figured that would not work as well with the counter rotating blades. TBH it did not occur to me to put the duct under the mower in the middle!

Mine is about 18 years old now. Fortunately it lives under cover, so corrosion is not too bad. The main problem I have had is just general metal fatigue on the deck, with cracks forming, and things like the pulley shaft mounts bending and moving. The front lip also wore very thin, and it would only take a slight catch on a stone, and a bit of path etc, to bend the front in enough to make the deck contact the blade and make one hell of a racket!

So every so often I take the deck off, hammer things back where they should be and weld up all the cracks.

In the end I "armoured" the leading edge of the deck by kerf bending[1] some 25x5mm flat bar all round the front edge, so it now has a very stiff "bumper"/

A while ago, I made up the very same curved duct, to fit on the rear, and it worked quite well, in depositing the cuttings back on the ground. I still though, suffered some problems with the deck choking with cuttings. I always kept a stick on the back, just to poke out the duct, when it choked up.

This time around, it had a several problems develop, all at the same time....

One of the two deck brackets, had become detached from the deck, where The deck had rusted through. I welded a bit of angle iron on the inside of the deck, to reinforce that, and reattached the bracket.

The front drive belt had snapped, and jammed itself in the pulleys. I managed to free that, source, and fit a replacement.

The thin sheet steel section of duct, welded on the deck, was like tissue paper, and needed sorting out. I decided what better time to test converting it to discharge straight from the deck, onto the ground behind it. The U shaped scrap stainless steel cooker hood, was the perfect width, to adapt to the job, with just a bit of modification.

Having sorted all that out, I then found out, that the 20mm steel shaft used for the brake pedal, had somehow snapped. What I found, was the shaft had been assembled in three parts, the section under the machine, and the right angled part, then the section coming up to the pedal. The two parts had been joined, with a weak spot weld, which had snapped. Getting the two parts out, to weld them properly, would have been a major disassembly job, so I welded them up in situ.

I didn't get the pedal alignment quite right, and pressing the brake, also pressed the accelerator. I solved that by unbolting the brake pedal, and bending it in the vice, using a scaff pole for leverage.

I still have a problem, with the brake sticking on, when you first try to move it, but that can wait until the better weather, when I have more time to play. For now it's working well.