I'm No Crook!

[deepNdirt]

I'm No Crook! -score on a Mower deck-

I do think I kinda stole this thing, I was at the local salvage yard today and found a JD Commercial mower being parted out, I looked it over and started seeing what I thought could be made into a 3-ph finnishing from the deck of this commercial mower, it has a gearbox and a drive shaft very similar to that of a tractors PTO shaft, I went to ask the person about how much it cost, he said any mower deck would cost 10.00/ Yes! TEN /5+5=10 ,I ask him would be the same for commercial type mower decks? he said yes all mower decks 10 bucks. OK I got back there as fast as I could and started pulling the easy remove quick connecting pins, and had it off in 5 minutes,
they even load it with the fork lift for me, ofcourse I've been doing business with these folks for over 20 years, and have always felt I have been given great deals, But I almost think I stole this thing,
It is all intack only thing is missing is 1 wheel, the blades are still good, the sheet metal has surface rust but not rusted thru anywhere, the gearbox and pully's move freely,........................ So I guess I got me another project lined up to work on, But I still got to get the ROPS for my tractor built first,
anyone ever converted or customized anything like this? can help with some
pointers? it came from a mower like in the picture below, and the other pix is the actuall mower deck,

Thanks

 

[Ductape]

My biggest concern would be the gearing. Would the front mower deck be running at 2500 RPM, or 540 RPM? But for ten bucks, no doubt you can get it running affordably.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Gearing and which way it turns would be my big questions? I have a feeling its set up to spin the opposite way your pto does unless your in luck and you have a reversible pto which I know some of the imports have. At worst a new gear box and blades to spin the right direction and you will be off and running.

Chris

 

[Johndeere3720]

Your right about a good deal.

 

[zzvyb6]

Since I have the same type of mower you stole this from (F935), here's what you are faced with:
The PTO on these mowers is engine speed, so its 2150 rpm. Your gonna need a new gearbox if you stick with a rear 540 PTO drive. Currently its 1:1.

It's from a front mower, so the grass tunnel path is back azzwards. It has to be the same as the front driver in order to work decently. It would be the same as me backing my 935 up. The grass cut will be terrible.

If you want to impress me, put it on the front of your loader arms and run a hydraulic drive up to it. Even better, replace the gearbox with a hydraulic motor with a drive pulley instead of coupling a hydraulic motor to the gearbox input shaft. (still up front, though). Run a hydraulic pump off the rear pto that is sized to drive the 1:1 pulley ratio up front. Better include a tank, small cooler and a pressure relief valve just in case you stall the mower on a rock or tree branch.

Shoulda held out for a 72" version IMHO. With a set of Gator blades, it's as good a groomer and mini-hog as you could ever wish for.

Otherwise, you will be in great shape to run a rear snowblower, with your neck twisted 180 degrees around from running your rig in reverse. Fewer gears to chose from , though....

I wouldn't mind having those lift arms from it if you're not gonna use 'em. Make me a snow plow mount or a fork lift outta them.

 

[deepNdirt]

My biggest concern would be the gearing. Would the front mower deck be running at 2500 RPM, or 540 RPM? But for ten bucks, no doubt you can get it running affordably.

I'm not sure of the highest rpm range my tractor has, but it is a 3 speed PTO
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( Diamondpilot )
"Gearing and which way it turns would be my big questions? I have a feeling its set up to spin the opposite way your pto does unless your in luck and you have a reversible pto which I know some of the imports have. At worst a new gear box and blades to spin the right direction and you will be off and running."

( DeepNdirt )
Actually you got my curiosity up so I had to go take a better look, I reached in the shute and spun the blade in the cutting direction and watched the gearbox/driveshaft turn in the clock rotation from standing behind, or if standing in front facing the shft side of the gearbox it turns
counter clockwize, in any case it seems that the PTO would turn it in the correct rotation, but will turn it fast enough? I wouldn't know,


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( zzvyb6 )
"The PTO on these mowers is engine speed, so its 2150 rpm. Your gonna need a new gearbox if you stick with a rear 540 PTO drive. Currently its 1:1.

It's from a front mower, so the grass tunnel path is back azzwards. It has to be the same as the front driver in order to work decently. It would be the same as me backing my 935 up. The grass cut will be terrible."

( DeepNdirt )
This is a very good point made, and another one I have not concidered,
however knowing the blades turn in a 360* one half of the blades revolution will turn 180* forward while the other half revolution turns 180* backwards,
would this not be the case in any mower blades? I have cut grass myself for many years riding & pushing/pulling in reverse and haven't notice much differents in the cutting of the grass, although the grass deposites do seem to gather up under the mowers deck while pulling/cutting in reverse, so in my thinking it will either discard the grass forward out the shute... or gather under the deck
and not disperse at all,...... if it's not worth the effort then I'll just re-sale it to someone who might could use it, because I'm certainly not going to do all the hydraulic front connection this & that just to use it on my tractor, heck we got 2- 42" riding mowers we keep grass cut good with,
I'm in more of a need for a brush cutter then a mower, its just one of them deals I couldn't pass up
if I do dicide to try converting it, i will be removing the arms, I can't think of anything I would need them for when doing the conversion,...............

 

[zzvyb6]

Don't give up just yet. You can still turn the gearbox around 180 degrees so the input shaft is facing forward instead of rearward. This means turning it around from how its shown in your pictures. Then all you need is a way to add some lower link pins to hook up to your 3pt hitch. Don't worry about an upper link. This deck is self supporting. As long as you can spin the gearbox fast enough, you can make it work. All you really need is a coupler to a 540 type tractor pto.

 

[Willl]

Your kinding,,,10 bucks,,I'm going to have to turn you in.

 

[Kays Supply]

Your high speed should be between 950 and 1050 on your PTO. I made a bush hog fit my father in laws offset tractor by taking two sets of bearings and a two sprockets offset to the PTO. I just had to put a new chain on this year. It only lasted 27 years.

You could do the same only go up and use sprockets that would double your PTO speed. Belts would work, but it would take much more room/height.

 

[deepNdirt]

Your kinding,,,10 bucks,,I'm going to have to turn you in.

Yeah! I was thinking about turning myself in but with the Holidays and all coming up I wanted to be near family...............
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( Kays Supply )
"Your high speed should be between 950 and 1050 on your PTO. I made a bush hog fit my father in laws offset tractor by taking two sets of bearings and a two sprockets offset to the PTO. I just had to put a new chain on this year. It only lasted 27 years."

( DeepNdirt )
I have looked on the gearbox to find some indication of gear ratio although cannot find anything that will reflect on the rpm speed,
I can see that there is a large pully on the bottom of the gearbox that drives the other pully's with belts, perhaps this is where the rpm speed can be adjusted? by reducing the size of this main pully will decrease the the rpm speed, I do realize it will effect the efficiency of the mower cutting, but by how much? or am I simply thinking wrong?