Deere 455 mower deck travel

steve74 · May 22, 2016

I recently acquired a new to me 2001 deere 455 with 700 single owner hours on it. The guy mowed with it, then his son in law mowed for him until he moved out of the acreage. My question relates to the deck lift. In my case, full travel on the deck seems to only be about 1.5 inches. Before I start taking anything apart or digging in to it too deeply, is that typical, or is there something obvious I should be looking for - some kind of well known fault?

Thanks
Steve

jcummins · May 22, 2016

I had a 455 many years back, and I recall that same limited deck lift. Have a hunch, that's as designed.

tk tom · May 23, 2016

Are you adjusting the height of cut at all? Max height is usually around 4" and if yours is set at 2.5" there will only be 1.5" of travel.

steve74 · May 23, 2016

tk tom said:
Are you adjusting the height of cut at all? Max height is usually around 4" and if yours is set at 2.5" there will only be 1.5" of travel.

I haven't really messed with anything yet - it just came off the trailer yesterday. The height adjustment knob is gone, there's just a big hex bolt (maybe 1.25 in) in the hole where it should be so I really have no idea what it's set to.

with the deck down it's at a reasonable mowing height - probably about 2.5 in. Mostly I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to draw the deck up higher for non-mowing tasks - there are definitely things I do with my 345 that would result in gouging or general deck abuse if I tried them with the deck that low. For that matter, if I can't raise the deck more than that I'm probably going to end up grading some hills in the lawn with the mower.

I suppose as long as I'm not hitting the stops under the tractor, I can tighten the yokes up a bit, maybe even adjust the lift arms. Are there interferences (other than the stop) that I should be concerned about under the tractor?

steve74 · May 23, 2016

To close this up (perhaps) I popped the deck off, which went better than I thought, and discovered 1) it would appear the bar that runs from the rear to the lift lever is jamming on the rod for the brake. But in any even the lift arms weren't coming to full lift. So I pulled the arms off, rotated them about 30 degrees, reinstalled so the arms are at the top of travel, and everything seems fine. We'll see how things work.

Steve

brasco426 · May 23, 2016

I remember one of my first jobs was at Nashua Outdoor Powerequipment. Back then the 455 was the biggest Deere they sold. Fast forward now and they sell upto the 5 series family. I remember prepping all the units and got to do a few of those 455 units, even put a loader on one. Those were very nice, and extremely well built. It's nice to see there still going out there, I'm not surprised though

. Good Find!

steve74 · May 23, 2016

brasco426 said:
I remember one of my first jobs was at Nashua Outdoor Powerequipment. Back then the 455 was the biggest Deere they sold. Fast forward now and they sell upto the 5 series family. I remember prepping all the units and got to do a few of those 455 units, even put a loader on one. Those were very nice, and extremely well built. It's nice to see there still going out there, I'm not surprised though . Good Find!

My other tractor is a 950... Also running like a champ.