How often to grease mower deck?

[bellweather]

The manual is a little unclear on this. Seems to indicate that greasing should be done each time the mower is used? I grease mower deck & drive shaft CV joint at the start of the mower season...is that adequate?

 

[ccsial]

Depends how many hours your mowing season is. My Woods mower says every 20 hours. If I remember right I think my John deere mower is every 40 hours. Since I only use the Kubota/Woods and JD for mowing in the summer I just lube off the tractor hours.

I have never had a Kubota mower but I would think they should have an hourly schedule for it.

 

[harpoonalt]

In a word.....No. Some of the linkages that don't move a lot may be fine, but spindles and joints I try to do every 10 hours. Grease is cheap insurance on a very expensive part and really easy and relaxing to do. I'm a bug on maintenance,but I tend to keep stuff a long time and I see a difference.

 

[art]

Kubota machines are meant for commercial duty if any mowers are and the greasing should possibly be done about every forty hours of mowing on an average lawn. That doesn't include the time spend with the loader or just driving but while the mower is running.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

FWIW here is the info from the JD Manual for 7-Iron MMM.

Service Intervals

Every 10 Hours

If operating in dry conditions, clean debris from mower.
Every 25 Hours

Lubricate spindles
Lubricate driveshaft
Lubricate wheels
Lubricate mower lift kit
Inspect mower blades
Inspect mower belt
Every 100 Hours

Check gearbox oil level
Wash mower
Inspect rollers
Every 500 Hours

Change gearbox oil

 

[Dargo]

I have a 11 year old Grasshopper mower with just over 2000 hours on it and I've not replaced a single gauge wheel, bearing or spindle. I cannot detect even the slightest slop in the spindles even with that many hours. I've absolutely, positively never run it past 8 hours without greasing it. It's easy to remember; it will run 8 hours on a tank of fuel and it gets greased every time I fill the fuel.

Based on this fact, all of my mowers get greased every 8 hours. I've never had a spindle, wheel bearing, pillow block bearing etc. ever fail on any of my machines. I run the same schedule on all of my equipment; dozers, excavators, skid steers, track loaders, tractors etc. You can say I'm wasting grease all you want, but I've never had a failure or wear issue on any greasable component. It seems that any machine I don't own I operate feels loose and sloppy to me. My machines all feel tight and I have no slop.

 

[Thomas]

Grease is cheap insurance..parts and down time=$$$'s

 

[TripleR]

It is just easier for us to grease ours every time we use it than to track hours and stop in the middle of a job. It averages out to about every six or seven hours.

 

[sixdogs]

I sure would like to get the definitive word on this as it applies to my Kubota B7800 with belly mower. I asked this question before and got answers all over the place from every use to 100 hours. The owner's manual makes no mention of it.
In defense, I grease the spindles every six or eight hours but would like a better guess. Surely someone must have mention of it in some Kubota manual or maybe someone has first hand info on this topic?
Someone told me overgreasing can blow out the seals?

 

[bellweather]

Thanks guys. Based on what I'm reading, I'll grease more often. It's easy enough to do and like I read, it's cheap inurance.

 

[jcato]

On a related matter, I wouldn't mind the discussion morphing (a little bit) on including *how much* grease to do (for the spindles).

Background: recent (last spring) acquisition of a B7500 (380 hrs) with a RFM-60 rear finishing mower (+ a few more implements). This is my first piece of equipment of this size (altho we live on the old family farm - no acreage in cultivation anymore).

Had to rebuild two spindles immediately - and I pestered the local Kubota dealer on not only greasing intervals (which I ultimately solved after getting the owner's manual) - but also gauging my brain on how much??? There's always this talk about not 'blowing out the seals' (which makes sense) - but it is almost impossible to gauge how much grease 'space' there may be (after packing the spindles during rebuild) - and, thus, how many pumps on the typical hand pump grease gun would be enough and not risk blowing those seals.

Anybody our here that could lend some insight into this?

TIA (Thanks in advance),

-- john.

 

[sixdogs]

Is it possible that your deck has sealed bearings? If that were the case, it doesn't need greasing.

It's got grease fittings.

 

[Dargo]

Someone told me overgreasing can blow out the seals?

You can generate around 60,000 psi with a hand pump grease gun. That's what I use to adjust the tracks up on a D6 Dozer. It's really mind blowing to see the dozer move with simple pumps on the handle of a grease gun. With that in mind, how can you possibly know if you are "over-greasing"? I don't now of many seals that will stop your grease gun at those pressures. Excess grease generally squirts or flows out a built in overflow. On the spindles of my Grasshoppers, after a decade of greasing them, I know that I don't drip any grease on my barn floor with 4 pumps but I drop a glob with 5 pumps. So....all these years I've just given each spindle 4 pumps every 8 hours.

Being that none are showing any wear, stupid logic or not, it sure seems to work. On my JD tractors, the ball joint rubber bladders have a weep hole that releases excess grease. I suppose if I pumped away really fast I could split the rubber cover open, but what would be the fun in that? Then I'd have to work on the dern thing. Greasing it every 8 hours is to keep me from having to work on it.

With backhoes and excavators and FEL articulating joints, I stop when I see grease oozing out. There is no seal to blow out. I do go through a lot of paper towels wiping up all my excess grease (yeah, I'm one of those guys), but just like on other things, the practice has served me well. And, yes, I do get grease by the pallet in combinations of 5 gallon pails, cases of tubes and quarter barrels.

 

[sixdogs]

You can pump 30 pumps on a B7800 Kunota mower deck and nothing comes out. So how much is too much or not enough and how often?
Mine was factory new.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

I grease mine about every 10 hours when I grease the loader and backhoe.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Oh, and that is usually done on a Friday night when I blow the tractor off with air, fill the tank, and check the fluids...

 

[rdsaustintx]

You can generate around 60,000 psi with a hand pump grease gun.

LOL. Sorry, but that is plain preposterous. Unless your grease gun comes with a cannon barrel.

I grease MMM spindles every use, 6-8 hours, 5-6 squirts each. Everything else gets greased when deck comes off, never more than twice a season.

 

[Dargo]

LOL. Sorry, but that is plain preposterous. Unless your grease gun comes with a cannon barrel.

I grease MMM spindles every use, 6-8 hours, 5-6 squirts each. Everything else gets greased when deck comes off, never more than twice a season.

Late, typo, a typical grease gun puts grease out at 6,000 PSI. The same applies for what I said. If you never grease anything but the spindles on a routine basis, that is preposterous! It's nothing less than neglect that will shorten the life of the mower. I certainly wouldn't want to buy anything from you. You'll never get equipment to last as long as those of us who grease all grease fittings on a frequent basis.

 

[fredhargis]

I have to admit the manual is a little fuzzy...it does say every day, but then somewhere else it refers to every 10 hours. I don't find it all that easy and it's messy as well, so I've taken to greasing it every other mowing. For me that's about every 3 hours of use or so.

 

[corey9212]

All my attachments get a few good shots of grease each time I use them. Grease is way cheaper than replacing parts. Every 10 hours I go over everything clean them up and thoroughly grease everything and have never ran into any problems and my terrain isn't exactly mower friendly.