The most reliable way to keep the grass from sticking under the deck is to take it off the tractor before it is ever allowed to come into contact with the dirty green lawn stuff, and then leave it covered in the garage until you sell the tractor. Everthing else is way less reliable.

Some people use PAM cooking spray. Some POR15. Some have tried graphite paint. Some rub on used motor oil. Some try truck bedliner. I have read a myriad of other recipes. In the end, I have yet to learn of anything that really works for anything other than the shortest time.

Personally I just experimented with PAM because some swear by it. I cleaned my deck, let it dry, them sprayed it on. The next week I mowed. I did not clean the deck afterwards. I waited a week and mowed again. I checked the deck and it had just as much crud under it as it always has in the spring with moist grass cutting. What I would say is that it was slightly easier to get the crude loose, but it did not prevent anything from sticking. My next try will be a thick coat of paste wax, just for the fun of it.

So far the second best thing I have found is to take the deck off after each use and clean it immediately. But that is no where near as fun as mowing.

 

Pam does work for the white stuff (snow). Quick spray on the shovel when I open the garage, give it a minute to dry, and off I go. When the snow stats to stick again, I give it another quick spray. I don't worry about the residue transfering to the garden in the spring since its just pam. (Silicone spray works a bit better, but more people I know have pam.)

I think I remember a few people with truck bed liner saying that the rough texture caught more grass clippings and tended to clog their decks more.

I figure just hit it with a pressure washer now and then, then over the winter prime/re-paint anywhere the water takes the paint off with the grass.

 

A jack and painters tool for the inbetween cleanings. End of seasion remove the deck, clean / inspect / replace / grease / paint...... repeat.

 

This winter I plan a repaint on the deck, any paint that holds up long term or just use $1 a can Walmart flat black?

 

the deck on my z turn does pretty good as long as the grass is dry have some places where it sticks a little

 

the deck on my z turn does pretty good as long as the grass is dry have some places where it sticks a little

That right there is the ultimate bottom line. As long as I've been reading on lawn mowing forums, IF there is anything man made or otherwise that would keep normally moist grass from building up under mower decks... neither NASA, 3M or DuPont will tell us. The natural fact of nature is that "grass juice is sticky"! Sorta like the natural stickyness of wheat paste. Grass is sticky because it contains a naturally occuring sticky substance called "grasspoxy" and there's no cure other than sheer force or simple neglect.

So relax folks and take comfort that the grass clumping and glued on under your decks is preventing stick nicks, stone dents and dog bone dings in that area. Look, I'm smiling so much because my deck is probably a lot more "dent protected" than most. I like to leave an adequate layer of protection under there. Remember, this protection is absolutely free!

 

WD 40 works pretty good.

 

Opinions are like armpits--we all got'um.Myself,I know that a certain amount of sand,dirt,rocks,sticks,etc.will remove the paint in time.So I don't use it,instead I scrape, wire brush it then wipe a lite coat of transmission oil (cause I have a bunch)on it.Holds down the rust,kinda slicks down the surface and it works well for me.And most of all wait till the grass is dry before cutting,as mentioned.:trink40:

 

Never tried it myself-

 

Never tried it myself-

View attachment 209412

i tried it this spring and have mowed twice and the under side still looks pretty good.not much build up.but like said mow when the grass is dry helps too.

 

You know, someday I am going to take a look under there and just see what is there be sides the blades.:sidelaugh

 

Me too ! I usually do a little "spot" cleaning when I take the deck off to put on the snowblower; but it's never been too bad. However, I'm retired so I ahve the luxury of waiting for the grass to dry before i mow.

 

Forkz and Hydro are right on the money. Wet or damp grass will always clump up under there. I try to mow in mid to late afternoon, after the dew is dried up. Never mow after a rain. If I have to mow when the lawn is damp I use a plastic scraper to remove grass before it dries out. In the Fall, I remove the deck and use the scraper to clean up any grass that is stuck underneath. then touch up with paint if necessary, followed by a good coat of automotive polish. After three years the bottom of the deck looks almost as good as it did when it was new.

 

Mo-Deck, I've got a can, or 2, it smells bad, and mostly sits on the shelf!

 

You know it is always good to swing over and hit a few rocks or good size tree branches and that will knock that crap right out of there. :sidelaugh
Plus I don't think I have ever had a tractor for more than a year. :dunno:

 

To answer your question of grass build up under the deck--Just don't cut the grass--as simple as that.

 

Polished stainless steel...

Nah, just kidding. That's regular steel. Was only shiny for a short time before I coated it with graphite paint.

Check the "deck" link in my sig for the whole adventure.

Conclusion: yeah, nothing really prevents buildup. You just need to keep at it. Good old elbow grease.

 

Ya gotta mow when ya gotta mow. My z turn has a hose attachment on the deck that works pretty well. Takes about two beers to get her clean. Three for a really good job. Any more than that I take a chance on joining the other fellows that have gotten a DUI on their lawn equipment.

 

They all get grass build up, some more than others. It seem like well designed decks accumulate less.

I find gator blades seem to cut down on build up also.:fing32:

 

I have an aluminum 3 blade deck on my Ford. I seem to have really good luck with doing a few things.

1) Spray the entire bottom of the desk with Lithium grease. Really tends to keep the buildup to a minimum.
2) If you mow when the ground is wet (a problem for me bc of the high water table where i live) you need to do a quick clean up to remove the big stuff.
3) At the end of the season take the deck off and do a fully scrape and wash.

 

I just found something that works great for me. I just had the deck powder coated and before I put everything back together I waxed the under side with Turtle Wax Ice. It's a very easy to use liquid wax. I just mowed 3 acres for the second time and another acre once which I had let go so it was about 6-7 inches high and full of weeds. Looked underneath and was very happy. Not much at all to clean and most of it came off with just a regular garden hose. Most of what was left was mud so i'll have to clean that later but this worked great for me. I'll have to play around with how often to pressure wash and recoat the wax.

 

My deck was clogging up. I mowed about an acre (afternoon- no dew), I raised the Cub Cadet with my Mojack EZ. It was stuffed with grass. This was causing a bad mowing job. Also, the belt came off a couple of times in the past because of the clogs. I think part of the problem is the screws holding the deck covers and idler arm, etc. are portruding below and that starts the grass buildup.
If I can't reverse the screws then I will have to scrape the deck after each mowing. The hose attachment for the auto wash doesn't remove the clogs. I'm not trying to make a sales pitch for the Mojack, but raising the deck is way easier than removing it.

 

Fluid film. They sell it at the Deere store. One coating will last about 4~5 mowings with a light rinse off after each mowing. I use it on the snow plow too, two storms and slick as can be.

 

Hey Toolin',

I know you didn't start this thread, but I was impressed with your replies. You seem to have taken one of the more aggressive approaches to keeping the underdeck clean. How much work is it to pull the deck off your Cub? Your posts seem to indicate you have it off for inspection quite frequently. Later in this post I would like to suggest a possibly easier alternative.

I don't know the size of your yard, or how often you mow it, or what the grass type is, but as others have said here, the amount of underdeck buildup depends largely on what kind of turf you're mowing. I used to mow a ranch property in rural central TX, which was composed mostly of sparse dry grass and gravelly areas. Many times after a day of mowing out there, my under deck would be scoured so clean it looked very much like that 'stainless steel' photo you posted.

Alternately, my own pasture at home here is composed of alternating areas of succulent grass and dry dirt spots. After not even 1 hour of mowing this, my deck is packed up with something resembling adobe -- a very hard and tenacious stuff, that is difficult to remove even with a hammer and screw driver. When the deck packs up with that stuff, you can hear the blades just roaring as they grind against it -- 'grind' being the operative word since if you run long enough like this it will actually grind off the 'wing' on the back of your blades (see Blades picture attachment on the left below).

We all seem to have our Holy Grails: Jason and the Argonauts sought their Golden Fleece. Nuclear physicists seek cold fusion. We here, seek a means of preventing underdeck buildup. I was quite impressed with the extremes you went to in treating your mower deck (and how well you documented it). And I expect by now you may have realized, that completely preventing the buildup is practically impossible. All we can reasonably hope to accomplish, is to find various ways to mitigate it and deal with it.

Which brings me to, let me tell you how I deal with this. In the commercial / large private property environment, removing the deck frequently is not a very practical option. I will lift the mower using the Pro Lift T5300, which quickly hoists up the front end, giving about a 2 foot area underneath. Then I use an inexpensive air hammer (Cambell and Houseman, $15 from Home Depot), coupled to a plastic "emblem removal tool" ($40 from Amazon): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K2S6FO/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00.

Here's what it looks like together (see Air Chisel attached picture on the right). With the mower lifted, I dial the air down to about half pressure (40psi), so the chisel doesn't blast, it sort of buzzes. With this I can go under there and clean out the worst underdeck buildup in about 10 minutes, whether at home or out on a job site. And as a plus, the process gives me a bucket full of very rich clumps of stuff I can use as top dressing, for which there always seems to be a need somewhere.

I don't suggest this as 'the best' way, just as what works for me. Submitted for your consideration.

 

Hey Toolin',

I know you didn't start this thread, but I was impressed with your replies. You seem to have taken one of the more aggressive approaches to keeping the underdeck clean. How much work is it to pull the deck off your Cub? Your posts seem to indicate you have it off for inspection quite frequently. Later in this post I would like to suggest a possibly easier alternative.
[...]

Hi James,

Sorry for the slow reply. I'm not on MTF as frequently as I'd like lately...

As you suspect, I've pretty much resigned to the fact that there is no way to really prevent this issue, only to treat it.

Pulling the 50" deck off (and getting it back on) is a bit of a bear. I will admit I don't do it as often as I did in the first year or two of ownership. I guess the honeymoon's over. It's only a 5 minute job, but it involves a lot of knee and knuckle scraping, and horsing things around until the spring pins and hangers will line up. I do have a winch (of sorts) that I use to get the deck up on sawhorses for easier work access, so that helps. But the removal/reattach part is definitely no fun.

My yard is about 1/2 acre, and very sandy, mostly moist but sometimes dry in patches. This last season wasn't bad at all with build-up; I suspect because it was such a dry summer... true of most of the U.S. this year.

The air chisel idea has crossed my mind. I do have an air chisel but not a suitable attachment like the one you linked to. Instead, I did buy a chisel-like attachment that has a 3" wide blade and fits in a sawzall, but it was very flat, straight, and hard, and there are no flat surfaces under the deck..everything is a curve. So instead I drilled a couple holes in the chisel blade and bolted a wooden paint stirrer to it, and beveled the end of the paint stirrer to make it into a (soft) 1" wide chisel of sorts.

That worked for all of about 2 minutes until it hung up on something and snapped, which I was kind of expecting anyway. The stroke of the sawzall is significant (1/2 to 1") and what's really called for is a much shorter, vibrating like stroke, which your idea of an air chisel seems to fit nicely.

I'd go out and buy that attachment you link to except the $40 pricetag seems a bit steep, seeing as my air chisel is, like yours, only a $15 item. Seems ridiculous to have to pay 3x the price of the tool for the attachment.

I'm curious, what material is that emblem removal tool made of? Is it metal or something softer? Have you rounded off the sharp square shape or left it flat?

 

Dump a couple ton of sand in your yard and put highlift blades on the deck...
It will stay very clean...

 

I definitely have the sand already.. my soil is almost 100% sand.

For blades I use Gators. Sort of high-lift (well, lift and push to center).

Unfortunately even with all the sand, I still get gunk. I think it's the moisture content that causes the problem.

 

I knock off any chunks of hardened crud with a putty knife when I pull the deck before winter duty. Other than that, it's more or less self cleaning. I think the deep design helps it clear itself, and gives it plenty of airflow. My main mower has the original, 44 year old deck, which was repainted in 1997. No rust yet....probably due for a set of blades. Not much left to sharpen =]

 

Cutting wet leafs really cleans out the deck well for me...of coarse now that the rain has returned I can 'hoover' over a good puddle and skim a quarter inch or so of water too.

Good to see you Toolin :howdy:

 

I sand blasted the deck preped it then por 15 and paint its been 2 yrs and still looks good I clean it with water through a garden hose cleans right up