Damage Finish Mower

[Alan L.]

Well I just got through putting my beloved finish mower on my trailer to be taken to the dealer in the morning. It appears the the deck area around one of the spindles is bent, and the left blade is digging into the ground. My 27-year-old nephew says he backed into a stump and then it started mowing bad. He was helping me out mowing my mother back 2 acres (his grandmother).

Basically the whole spindle is tilted toward the inside at the top of the deck. The spindle itself is not bent, as it does not wobble when you rotate the blades. Just looking at the deck I can't detect damage other than the misalignment of the spindle.

Please tell me there is something in there that can be replaced to fix it. I don't see how such damage could have happened. The pin didn't sheer (if there is one), the blade isn't bent.

If the deck is bent is the whole 1 year old mower shot? It is a Rhino FM60, seemingly very well made and sturdy, but obviously something is damaged.

[Anonymous Poster]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Three years ago I ran over a concrete block hidden in tall grass and it warped my deck in the vicinity of the left spindle. The flying chunks of concrete also dinged up the deck on the way out the discharge chute on the right side. There way no way to satisfactoically straighten the deck, so I ended up with a $900 bill to replace the deck sheet metal and the left spindle parts. Once you warp the deck you have very little possibility of making it work right again unless you replace the whole thing. It is a close call as to whether to scrap what you have and buy a new deck or replace most of the parts of your current deck. Not a pleasant prospect either way. Hope your problem is not as severe as mine was.

[PaulB]

Jack - this has nothing to do with mowers, but a lot to do about getting cooperation from a company if you go about it right. For my birthday my wife bought me a really good pair of sunglasses, Oakley, which were well over $100. After a year or so, I set a 50 pound concerete block onto an old jacket I had placed on the floor, an old jacket with my sunglasses in the pocket! Needless to say the frame was mangled. I wrote to the company, explained what a jerk I was, and asked if they could replace the frame (the lenses were uninjured). Not only did they replace (or maybe straighten) the frames, they only charged me shipping costs. This was a PR move on their part, and it worked - I will always buy Oakley from now on. Maybe if you talk to somebody at Rhino they can come up with some way of fixing the machine at a lower cost, maybe they have a scratched or dinged deck that got pulled out of production, or they would sell you an unpainted one at lower cost. Worth a phone call.

[Alan L.]

I took the mower to the dealer this morning. The service manager didn't seem too concerned about it. I asked him what if the deck was bent. He said "We'll just straighten it". He just wrote up the problem, took a look at and said "Yea that spindle is a little off isn't it?". He says people hit stuff all the time and they fix that problem regularly. I haven't heard back from them as to the cost of a repair, but I just hope that, assuming they do fix it, it will be aligned properly and will mow as true as it did before. I will keep yall posted. The deck is one year old this week, so I hate to spend the money for another one.

[Alan L.]

I got my mower back. They straightened the bent deck, replaced on blade and sharpened the other 2 blades. The cost of $108. I'm very happy. It mows as well or better than ever.

[Thomas]

Alan.
Glad to hear the good news.
Just look at it this way sort of,it shall be just another lesson of many to come while owning a tractor with attachments.
Take Care.

Thomas..NH