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reinforcing mower deck

5K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  cdestuck 
#1 ·
I have a JC 325 with a 48c mower deck. I'm having a bit of a issue sometimes with the right side of the deck. The gage wheel on the right side of the deck is held by a bracket welded to the deck just in front of the chute opening. This appears to be a weak area as if I catch or hit the right side gage wheel on something, the wheel will bend in or back the portion of the mower deck right in front of the chute opening. It's bending the front of the deck here back in and under towards the blades. In fact today it bent back to the point where the gage wheel hit the blade, destroying the wheel. I then used a crowbar to bend the front of the deck back out into place.

So I was thinking about fabbing up some sort of a piece of metal to attach just in front of the chute opening to either the area above the opening or to the rear of the chute opening. Doing this I would think would really add to the strength of the front edge of the mower deck. Has anyone else run into this problem and how have you tried to keep this from happening. Tks in advance.
 
#2 ·
If it was me... I would take some 1/2-5/8 rebar.. And make sure the chute is bent straight close to factory dimensions. Cut that rebar and weld it bottom of chute.. Granted, planning needs to happen first, if it would get in the way for a powerflow bagger or something. If nothing like that, can start welding it.
 
#3 ·
Do you have access to a welder? Id weld some angle iron or plate steel all around it. Touch it up with a JD yellow aerosol and no one will know the difference. I've done this lots of times to reinforce truck frames and bodies. Mower decks take a real beating, luckily anyone with a welder and some basic fab skills can usually patch them up pretty easily.
 
#5 ·
I reinforced my deck by spot welding a 3/8" steel rod at about every 6" all around the front bottom edge. The side opposite the chute I welded a piece of 1" x 1/8". My deck was bending back into the blades if it hit an exposed root above ground. M
I have a 30" snapper I need to do the same to that I used for mowing around the edge of hay field to keep the weeds and briers down.
 
#7 ·
First of all, make sure that the deck isn't riding on the ground. The wheels and rollers aren't intended to roll on the ground. It's my understanding that they are only there to prevent scalping, should the deck bottom out on uneven terrain. Every tractor I've owned has specified in the owners manual that the deck is meant to be suspended while mowing. Setting the deck up this way has made for a much better cut - at least on my tractors.

It has always surprised me how many mower decks I've seen that have so many battle scars and weld repairs - lol. I know they do encounter a lot of impacts in their lifetime but under normal (careful ) use conditions, no mower deck "should" ever get bent up. But hey, it happens. As for repair and future prevention, I agree with the others about welding in some bracing. I've seen guys weld rerod along the entire front bottom edge to beef it up and, done carefully, it's practically undetectable. I'll be very interested in seeing how you resolve this. I hope you post back here once you have it fixed and let us know what route you took and include some pictures too. Trust me, many people, both before and after you, have had and will have this same problem so your experience could help a lot of people with at least one solution.

Good luck with this.
I'll be watching for your solution.
:thThumbsU
Be well.
 
#8 ·
Thanks guys for all the help and suggestions. Mowing like a son of a gun to keep up with the growth and I'm going to be super careful until the grass slows down a bit and then bring thee deck back to my shop and most likely use the rebar suggestion as it's strong as all get out and will block the exiting grass as little as anything else. Will be back in a few weeks with some pics to what I come up with.
 
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