The 14bl. Vacuum With Power Flow Is gone

[KEYBEAR]

Thank God The Vacuum Is sold Never again . I cost me 150 Dollars an hour to use this and happy days it is sold . I bought this 14bl. three bagger and Power Flow last summer used it last fall it did a great job .
But the power flow housing got a hole in it John Deere did not stand behind it at all . I used it about 8/10 hours and it failed big time . Well I bought a new housing and fixed it now I got half my cost back and feel I did ok .

 

[jonsstihl]

I'm in the process of modifying mine. I have 54HC mower and I can't believe that JD does not have a leaf kit for it. the leaves keep blowing out the front even with the bumpers. Luckily the previous owner had a mulch kit on it so I modified the baffles and installed it and it solves the problem of the leaves blowing out the front but now I think I will have a problem with flow under the deck as the amount of leaves on the ground goes up.

I drew up a template and am going to make a baffle instead of the modified mulch kit. I never thought I would have to design and build my own leaf kit for a 20,000$ john deere mower. I'm pretty sure I'm done with deere from now on. when this one wears out in 30 years I'm not buying another deere.

 

[KEYBEAR]

I like my X-758 it does a great Job Mowing but That Power Flow was junk . For the new cost total not worth it . John Deere Makes different attachments for only each tractor and or mower deck . It is a money pit . Now it is sold but I still have parts for the Power Flow I will never use and can,t sell .

 

[beenthere]

I'm in the process of modifying mine. I have 54HC mower and I can't believe that JD does not have a leaf kit for it. the leaves keep blowing out the front even with the bumpers. Luckily the previous owner had a mulch kit on it so I modified the baffles and installed it and it solves the problem of the leaves blowing out the front but now I think I will have a problem with flow under the deck as the amount of leaves on the ground goes up.

I drew up a template and am going to make a baffle instead of the modified mulch kit. I never thought I would have to design and build my own leaf kit for a 20,000$ john deere mower. I'm pretty sure I'm done with deere from now on. when this one wears out in 30 years I'm not buying another deere.

jon
Can you post some pic or two of the mod of the baffles? Sounds like an interesting fix.

 

[jonsstihl]

this is a work in progress since the leaf season is upon us and it will only get worse. I basically just cut off the part of the mulch kit that was blocking the exit. welded on a tab to bolt down the loose end then cut off the plates that prevent flow of material between each blade section. But like I said it works great right now because the leaves on the ground are not dense but as the season progresses I think I will have issues with there being too much material under the deck with not much area for it to flow towards the exit. The real solution should be to come up with a leaf kit like JD sells for other mower decks which is just a baffle plate similar in shape to the mulch kit but that doesn't block off airflow under the deck.

i have a piece of 1/4 inch plate I just need to find the time to get it cut out to the shape I need and then weld it up.

I can actually suck leaves off my asphalt driveway without too much blowout which was not possible before. my mower would just blow all the leaves around before the mod and nothing would end up in the bags on the driveway.

 

[jonsstihl]

I will try and post pics of both mods next time I have the mower off to confirm the size of my templates but it may be a while.

 

[crazyal]

Do you know if you have the mulching blades or the high lift blades? My x500 came with mulching blades even though it didn't have the mulching kit. Without the high lift blades it really didn't throw anything out the chute. I don't have the powerflow so I don't know how well it will work with mulching blades.

 

[jonsstihl]

here are some pics without the mulch kit and with the mulch kit installed. you can see where the baffles need to go to mimic the mulch kit without restricting flow under the deck.

I bought the mower used with the mulch kit installed but the previous owner had standard lift blades on it. I had to change them before I could use the mower because one of them was bent.

 

[jonsstihl]

there are even pre punched holes for carriage bolts where I need to mount the baffles so its as if JD knew they had to develop something for it but just never got around to it.

 

[jonsstihl]

here is a pic of the modified mulch kit

and a pic of my cardboard templates taped into place

the left side mulch kit baffle only needs to get the baffle between sections removed but the right side mulch kit baffle needs to have the baffle between sections and the end plate cut off then adjust the angle so it exits right and have a tab welded to use an existing hole in the mower deck to bolt it down. There is even already a notch on the underside of the mulch kit that let me slide the tab under the baffle and weld it to the outside of the baffle so it wouldn't disrupt the flow of air under the deck. I used a piece of 3/16" angle iron for the tab.