Cleaning Under Zero-Turn Deck After Every Session: Really Necessary?

[Fixastuff]

To do it right you MUST stop at 20min intervals while cutting to clean the deck.

 

[kozal01]

The foot controlled Grass Flap is worth the price in my opinion. I can operate the chute blocker and deck lift without taking my hands off the controls or my eyes off of what I'm doing. Besides mulching leaves in the fall its most useful for keeping grass from discharging into flower beds, cars, houses ect. Sure I could build one but once I spent the money on the components and materials plus my time the $300 was easy to justify. Buyers remorse disappeared after the first mow with it. Will never own another ZTR without one.

 

[RayIN]

The foot controlled Grass Flap is worth the price in my opinion. I can operate the chute blocker and deck lift without taking my hands off the controls or my eyes off of what I'm doing. Besides mulching leaves in the fall its most useful for keeping grass from discharging into flower beds, cars, houses ect. Sure I could build one but once I spent the money on the components and materials plus my time the $300 was easy to justify. Buyers remorse disappeared after the first mow with it. Will never own another ZTR without one.

Check out this one.

 

[Topzide]

If you so wish, you can add perks to the Gravely spindles. When I worked at a Gravely dealer, at the 250 hrs mark, we'd offer to drill and tap for zerks. Those spindles are or were rated for 1500hrs!

 

[richheyn]

Consider finding a used Grasshopper with a front mount deck. The deck raises up electrically and you can scrape the underside using a putty knife on a broom handle while standing up. Before I bought my Grasshopper I was constantly under the old machine with a putty knife after almost every use. When I decided I had enough of that I evaluated 7 or 8 different brands using them on my property under typical conditions. I learned that deck design was a bigger deal than I thought, both in terms of staying clean and ability to cut tall grass. The Deere 7 iron deck is very good in terms avoiding accumulation. Grasshopper, Skag and Kubota were tied for second place and the rest followed. I finally chose the Grasshopper because of the ride quality, ease of getting on and off, and the easy-to-clean front deck. After 400 hours, I'm very happy with my choice. By the way, the OP mentioned a preference for Kubota, but understand that the solid rear axle makes for a very rough ride.

 

[Cycledude]

Consider finding a used Grasshopper with a front mount deck. The deck raises up electrically and you can scrape the underside using a putty knife on a broom handle while standing up. Before I bought my Grasshopper I was constantly under the old machine with a putty knife after almost every use. When I decided I had enough of that I evaluated 7 or 8 different brands using them on my property under typical conditions. I learned that deck design was a bigger deal than I thought, both in terms of staying clean and ability to cut tall grass. The Deere 7 iron deck is very good in terms avoiding accumulation. Grasshopper, Skag and Kubota were tied for second place and the rest followed. I finally chose the Grasshopper because of the ride quality, ease of getting on and off, and the easy-to-clean front deck. After 400 hours, I'm very happy with my choice. By the way, the OP mentioned a preference for Kubota, but understand that the solid rear axle makes for a very rough ride.

I believe that electric raise-lower-tilt for cleaning is a $500+ option, one of my brother in laws bought one after using his Grasshopper for a couple years with the manual deck.

 

[fidowanttobe]

I too have an old Grasshopper 725 mower and after having a front mount flip up deck, you will never go back.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Sounds great, but I bought a Kubota. Thanks for the info.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Sweet!

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Yeah, I can't tell if it's a great mower or it just seems like one after a John Deere 430.