Hi Guys & Happy Fathers Day!
I've read some posts about people inquiring how much of a hassle it is to remove a 72" mmm on a 2520/2720. I had to do a mower blade change today and wanted to share. Unless you have a jack, you will want to keep the loader on. To get the deck out, the front tires need to be lifted off of the ground. You do not need the bucket on as the loader itself is capable of making the front wheels airborne. I had the bucket on today as I was moving mulch and left it on to wash it too.
The Removal Process:
#1. With the 3pt hitch raised, shut off the tractor. Get off and pull the pins on the rear wheels on the mower deck and turn them 90 degrees so the deck can roll out from under the tractor to the right if you were sitting on the seat. Put the pins back in when they are in this position. Pull the pins and take the springs off of the front wheels on the mower deck. Like the rear wheels, turn the front wheels 90 degrees as well and put the pins back in.
#2. Lower the 3pt hitch all the way and pull the two pins attaching the mower deck to the 3pt hich arms.
#3. Remove the mmm driveshaft.
#4. Under the front of the tractor remove the front mower deck attaching part.
#5. Start the tractor and raise the front wheels with the loader. Once the front end is in the air, turn the steering wheel so that the front tires turn left.
#6. Shut off the tractor and slide the deck out to the right hand side if sitting on the seat. Be careful not to get too much momentum as the deck weights approx. 448lbs.
This whole process takes about 5 minutes and requires no tools.
Once the deck is out, (this is the nice part, but heaving lifting part) lift the mower deck up and once you get it to a point, it will balance itself so that you can scrape/clean the underside of the deck and remove the blades (see photo). If it is windy out, I recomend that you raise the bucket over the deck and run a safety chain from the bucket to the mower deck so that the wind will not blow it over. To remove the blades, you do need a tools. I use a torque wrench with socket and a block of hardwood to remove my blades. Once the blades are off, I sharpen them right in the bucket while clamping them in at a comfortable height (see photo).
While the deck is off, this is a great time to grease the 2520. There are 2 fittings under the right floor board, 3 under the left, 1 under the front of the tractor and 1 on each front wheel.
8 grease fittings total on the 2520 tractor I've found.
The 72" mower deck has 11 grease fittings.
When reinstalling the sharpened mower blades, torque them on to 94 ft.-lbs.
Once the greasing, sharpening & washing is done put the deck on in the reverse order.
The 2520 in the photo's will be 5 years old this August & hit 360.0 hours today.:thumbsup:
The 2520 is the smallest Deere that you can fit the 72"mmm to. This is a beast of a deck. For those of you concerned that the 2520 may not have the HP to turn this sucker, you need not be. This tractor can turn mower this till the cows come home and the 2520 is not underpowered. I've cut grass, woods & marsh grass with this. I've done things with this mower that should only be done with a brush hog (but I don't have one). I've never noticed any scalping issues and this gives a fantastic cut when running the 2520 at 2600 rpm (rated speed)
I couldn't image life without it as I cut about 5 acres with it each week.
I couldn't image life with a smaller deck either:laughing:!!
I've read some posts about people inquiring how much of a hassle it is to remove a 72" mmm on a 2520/2720. I had to do a mower blade change today and wanted to share. Unless you have a jack, you will want to keep the loader on. To get the deck out, the front tires need to be lifted off of the ground. You do not need the bucket on as the loader itself is capable of making the front wheels airborne. I had the bucket on today as I was moving mulch and left it on to wash it too.
The Removal Process:
#1. With the 3pt hitch raised, shut off the tractor. Get off and pull the pins on the rear wheels on the mower deck and turn them 90 degrees so the deck can roll out from under the tractor to the right if you were sitting on the seat. Put the pins back in when they are in this position. Pull the pins and take the springs off of the front wheels on the mower deck. Like the rear wheels, turn the front wheels 90 degrees as well and put the pins back in.
#2. Lower the 3pt hitch all the way and pull the two pins attaching the mower deck to the 3pt hich arms.
#3. Remove the mmm driveshaft.
#4. Under the front of the tractor remove the front mower deck attaching part.
#5. Start the tractor and raise the front wheels with the loader. Once the front end is in the air, turn the steering wheel so that the front tires turn left.
#6. Shut off the tractor and slide the deck out to the right hand side if sitting on the seat. Be careful not to get too much momentum as the deck weights approx. 448lbs.
This whole process takes about 5 minutes and requires no tools.
Once the deck is out, (this is the nice part, but heaving lifting part) lift the mower deck up and once you get it to a point, it will balance itself so that you can scrape/clean the underside of the deck and remove the blades (see photo). If it is windy out, I recomend that you raise the bucket over the deck and run a safety chain from the bucket to the mower deck so that the wind will not blow it over. To remove the blades, you do need a tools. I use a torque wrench with socket and a block of hardwood to remove my blades. Once the blades are off, I sharpen them right in the bucket while clamping them in at a comfortable height (see photo).
While the deck is off, this is a great time to grease the 2520. There are 2 fittings under the right floor board, 3 under the left, 1 under the front of the tractor and 1 on each front wheel.
8 grease fittings total on the 2520 tractor I've found.
The 72" mower deck has 11 grease fittings.
When reinstalling the sharpened mower blades, torque them on to 94 ft.-lbs.
Once the greasing, sharpening & washing is done put the deck on in the reverse order.
The 2520 in the photo's will be 5 years old this August & hit 360.0 hours today.:thumbsup:
The 2520 is the smallest Deere that you can fit the 72"mmm to. This is a beast of a deck. For those of you concerned that the 2520 may not have the HP to turn this sucker, you need not be. This tractor can turn mower this till the cows come home and the 2520 is not underpowered. I've cut grass, woods & marsh grass with this. I've done things with this mower that should only be done with a brush hog (but I don't have one). I've never noticed any scalping issues and this gives a fantastic cut when running the 2520 at 2600 rpm (rated speed)
I couldn't image life without it as I cut about 5 acres with it each week.
I couldn't image life with a smaller deck either:laughing:!!
