Hello everyone,
I set the blades on my Deere 62C to the manual spec of 50 ft/lbs and lost one blade this week! Fortunately, I can find no damage except a bald spot in the yard. I am going to tighten a little more than the spec and look into some thread seal.
Tips from my experience:
1. Perhaps check the bolts to see what their grade is. I *think* it might be alright to tighten mower blades a little more than the factory specification. Especially if your torque wrench is not calibrated like mine. I use a mid-priced wrench from Northern Tool.
2. Occasionally, remove any ear protection or headphones just before you disengage mower blades. My Wife later told me she heard a strange sound when I had disengaged the blades on at least one occasion before the blade came off. In her defense she did not know I could not hear it. I could not hear it due to the combination of noise protection and music headphones.
3. Try to disengage blades over grass as opposed to a hard surface like asphalt or concrete. I think if I had "dropped" a blade on asphalt it would have traveled much further from the tractor potentially injuring someone or something. The grass took most of the energy as evidence from a scalp trail.
Unsure if MythBusters is still doing new episodes. In a large empty parking lot, I would like to see someone rig up a way to quickly loose a mower blade bolt on asphalt or concrete and see what happens. I bet it would not be good.
