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

[Suburban Plowboy]

Web thinks both of these mowers have 7-gauge decks.

The Gravely seller is asking $2400 more than the Kubota guy, so if I can manage to get to the Kubota before someone else, I will take it. Says I can see it Friday after lunch.

 

[mjonesnh]

Web thinks both of these mowers have 7-gauge decks.

The Gravely seller is asking $2400 more than the Kubota guy, so if I can manage to get to the Kubota before someone else, I will take it. Says I can see it Friday after lunch.

That sounds like a very heavy duty deck. Mine has been trouble free for 20 years but sure that it is nowhere near that gauge, should wear the mower and engine out before deck a problem due to rust and corrasion

 

[Carl_NH]

Putty knife once a year as needed - mow when its dry and usually in the fall the deck gets cleaned just with the leaves. I use my hyd jack under front frame and jack stands just in case.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Now I'm reading that the Kubota doesn't have enough manliness to power a mulching kit. If so, Gravely it is, I guess. I cannot survive without mulching to get rid of these oak leaves.

 

[Carl_NH]

If you want the Kubota tell the seller if everything is what they represent, you will take it and bring cash and get the commitment they wont sell it out from under you.

 

[oldnslo]

I clean my deck whenever sharpen blades or cut when grass is wet and gummy. I can hear when deck is clogged it gives off a strange whup , whup sound.

Always scape them off in fall for winter storage.

 

[Carl_NH]

Get Gator blades - they mulch up leaves, and I can't believe the Kubota doesn't have the HP to run a mulching kit? They put mulching kits on the standard ZT all the time.

We have 15 large red and white oak trees and lots of leaves - I mulch into windrows then vac them up.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I'm seeing complaints that the Kubota bogs down with a mulching kit. The Gravely has a stronger engine, though.

 

[kozal01]

It completely depends on mowing conditions (wet vs dry) and grass type. Sometimes I have to scrape daily, sometimes I can go weeks. Either way it takes me about 5 minutes to do it if its really caked on. As for sealed bearings, I would worry less about them than the ones with grease fittings, especially if buying used. Often times people don't clean the grease fittings good enough and they pump dirt into the bearings, or they just don't grease them at all. I complained to my Exmark dealer when I bought my Exmark that it didn't have greaseable spindles and he said he replaces far more greaseable spindles than sealed ones due to improper maintenance. I'm at 10 years and several hundred hours on it now with only one spindle that needed new bearing a year or so ago, it cost me $12 for a set of Timkin bearings and a few minutes to press them out and back in.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I don't know why a Kubota with 25 horses would bog when a JD with 20 does all right. The Gravely may have a 30-horse Kubota, but it's possible it has a 25-horse job, which means the Kubota is no worse. I will have to confirm the Gravely's specs with the dealer.

I wonder if a zero-turn delivers power to the deck in a way that sucks more energy than a garden tractor like my John Deere.