I honestly find removing the deck on my X740 really easy and quick. However, I am coming from using a Craftsman machine which involved 7 cotter pins that had to be removed. The only way to do so was to lay down on the ground and use pliers. Also, you can't get to all of them from one side, so you end up getting up again only to lay down on the other side.
I love that the gauge wheels turn. I simply pick up one end of my mower deck like a wheelbarrow and push it to where I want to store it.
At first I was wondering if I was going to regret getting the 54 inch deck over the 62, but now I am very glad I opted for the 54 inch. It's 50 pounds lighter than the 62 inch, has a substantially better cut quality, so I hear, and obviously does not scalp as much. The 62 inch is too wide for that kind of deck design, and it cannot handle large volumes of tall grass, hence the bad reports of cut quality. More or less, it's just too big. The 54'' also fits through all of my gates but one, and gives me enough room in my garage to walk by the machine without kicking the mower deck. I still have a good amount of deck sticking out on the left side for cutting close to trees and stuff. Unless your ground is nothing but flat straight mowing with no obstacles, I think the 54 is a much better way to go.
