mahindra 60" belly mower run gearbox upside down?

zzvyb6 · Jun 12, 2020

Be sure you check out the amount of travel on the front prop shaft. As the mower rises and falls over bumps and valleys, the shaft will extend and contract. Why not just go forward to reach the J-hooks up front to push the mower forward and use some side chains to keep it straight ? You'll need to close off the J-hooks when it's attached so you can back up with it.

I also suggest you have a way to keep the loader in float, too. If you raise it too far, your driveshaft will be going on vacation.

spirostats · Jun 12, 2020

Thanks for your thoughts ZZ. The shaft is about 1/4 out at that point, I thought it might be good to leave some slack both ways. Good idea on the j hooks, will explore that tomorrow. My loader valve has a lock on it, I can also limit travel by other means (have some ideas but will need to think it over some more). I was gonna fabricate quick connect brackets for the deck but Now you got me thinking that it might be better to just hang the deck in the front (j hooks) and back (like with the belly hardware) this way instead of leaving the loader on float, I can lock it to a certain height, just enough for the deck wheels to touch the ground so that I don't add the weight of the loader on it.
I will run it like this to test and then I will have to fabricate a swivel wheel deck. Does anyone have experience with these wheels? Amazon.com : High Grade Manufacturing 1" Laminated Finish Mower Wheel Assembly w/Needle Bearing- 2 Pack : Garden & Outdoor or theese ones? Fork Assy w/Tire Wheel 13mm Axle Spacers & Lynch Pin | Agri Supply 8433

spirostats · Jun 12, 2020

I also suggest you have a way to keep the loader in float, too. If you raise it too far, your driveshaft will be going on vacation.

LOL .....

flying parts usually end up picking my head as a favorite vacation spot!

spirostats · Jun 12, 2020

So I put the loader bucket on it to keep it from flying around and tested the PTO. It sounds good with the motor at about 1000 rpm, smooth and balanced, no vibration. I like to run the tractor around 2000 rpm and when I tested it at that speed it sounded like it was gonna take off and fly away!. I checked the mahindra emax22 specks and it looks like the mid pto for that tractor has 2000 rpm rotation speed. Mine is 2500rpm. Do you guys thing the deck will self destruct at that speed? shroud I be thinking of a speed reducer? should I just run my tractor at lower rpm? how much does this 500 rpm add to the blade rotation on the deck? Is it bad for the gearbox?. If anybody has any ideas please enlighten me. In retrospect I should have checked the rotation speed before I bought this or at least before I fabricated the brackets....

spirostats · Jun 13, 2020

Made some progress

aczlan · Jun 14, 2020

My only concern with that would be that if you drive up to a steep slope or over the edge of a ditch or something like that the mower could pivot down far enough to hurt the u joints.

Aaron Z

spirostats · Jun 15, 2020

aczlan said:
My only concern with that would be that if you drive up to a steep slope or over the edge of a ditch or something like that the mower could pivot down far enough to hurt the u joints.

Aaron Z

Yeah. I have the same concern but yesterday I rigged it up with some chain and mowed about a half acre. It does a really good job so now I'm more motivated to figure out a safe setup that limits accidental damage. I want it to pivot a few degrees but will have to find a way to prevent pivoting past it's limits. I could always just hook it up to the loader arms and put them on float but want a little more flexibility to follow the (not so flat) ground I have more evenly.

spirostats · Jun 23, 2020

Made progress, Works good. Self limiting height on loader arms. made a brace to eliminate pivoting out of the shaft. Need to fabricate swivel wheels prob about 5-6 inch to clear uneven ground. I think I will use the guides for the existing ones to adjust the height and connect them in pairs with a bar. Connect/disconnect is a breeze.