Gary,
I had a 445 also for about 7 years with a 54" deck. I used it for about 2.5 years at my old house mowing about 3 acres. This being my first new tractor, and what I thought would be my last, I scrubed and cleand that deck after every mowing. I was disappointed about the paint wearing off the underside, but I kept it looking nice. I always creased it after washing and never had a problem.
I moved back to Indiana and bought 6.5 acres to build a house on. About 4 acres are mowed, the rest is woods. Again, believing this was to be my tractor for life, and the fact that this was an old farmers field, I bought a bush hog to save the MMM from damage until I had a real yard. I once said something to the local JD dealer about any type of spray that could be used to protect and make the deck easier to clean. They put me onto a product they sold called either Slick Coat or Slick Deck. It looks like a gray primer but contains teflon. They said many farmers would use it to coat equipment and that they had seen it used on mower decks. I tried it and it worked great. It will wear off after a while, but if you choose to not clean it often, it will offer some protection. One can will cover the deck twice.
Fast foward a couple of years. JD offers new X-series and then the 2210. Only down fall I had with the 445 was the lack of 4WD. So, I bought the 2210 with 62" deck. When I traded the 445 in, it looked nearly new after 7 years and 700+ hours.
Really wanting this to be my last tractor purchase, I really wanted this deck to last and be easy to clean. I did some investigation and contacted the local Rhino Linings dealer. He said that they often coated mower decks and that it worked very well. So I decided to try it, worst case it wears off like the paint. So before I ever mowed with the new deck, I striped the underside of blades and brackets and took it to the Rhino dealer. For $95 he coated it with the hard bed liner sprayed smooth instead of this texture. (They also offer a soft bed liner, but you'don't want that one.)
I've used it a 1/2 dozen times and it shows almost no signs of wear of any kind. I have one small spot about 3/8" round that chipped off do to a large #2 stone strike from the new driveway. It doesn't clean up any easier but it is holding up very well. I hope to have a power washer some day and look forward to spraying it out in just a few minutes. I still remove the deck after every mowing (Less than five minutes to do) but I'm not as concerned about geting it cleaned right away.
Other things I've noticed by accident. Mowing wet grass makes clean up easier! The wet grass stays moist and little scraping and the garden hose clean it right up. No scrubbing or heavy scrapping required if you do it just after mowing. Your cut yard may not look as nice do to clumping. I once mowed in a heavy rain because I had to get it done. I hit some standing water in the yard and notice a bunch of grass coming out from under the deck. So when I finished mowing, I went back to that puddle and ran the mower deck in it for a while. When I removed the deck it was almost completely cleaned. Just a few stray pieces of grass! A very long time ago, I had a push mower that had a hose fitting/port in the top of the stamped deck. After mowing, you would hook the hose up and run the mower. Did a nice job.
I highly recommend the Rhino lining or other hard and smooth bed liner material if you want ultimate protection. On used decks they will require sand plasting to bear metal. On brand new decks, they just scuff the factor paint and then coat them.
Good luck. I hope you find this interesting.
John /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
