do you paint underneath your finishing mower?

[passgas55]

I just got a used finishing mower. It was free of grass but under it was a light coat of rust. should i wirebrush it, prime and top coat it? Just keep grass from sticking after mowing or do something else. Thanks.

 

[Hematite]

It would be a good idea to clean and paint under a mower deck. Kind of a nasty job, but it would certainly lengthen the life of the deck by slowing rust through. I don't know what would be a good paint. It would have to be a pretty tough paint to hold up under there.

 

[greg_g]

I just got a used finishing mower. It was free of grass but under it was a light coat of rust. should i wirebrush it, prime and top coat it? Just keep grass from sticking after mowing or do something else. Thanks.

Not necessary - unless you're the type that paints the underside of your riding mower too. If so, then go ahead and paint. But avoiding the temptation to cut wet grass - and operating at the correct RPMs and groundspeed - should be sufficient to avoid accumulation underneath.

Alternatively, save the oils you drain from your vehicles. Use it to coat the underside of your mowers just prior to winter layup. Farmers I lived and worked with over in Scotland coated all their implements with used oil just prior to winter storage. Come spring they just hit them a lick with a pressure washer - and went back to work.

//greg//

 

[WantedWolf]

Not necessary - unless you're the type that paints the underside of your riding mower too. If so, then go ahead and paint. But avoiding the temptation to cut wet grass - and operating at the correct RPMs and groundspeed - should be sufficient to avoid accumulation underneath.

Alternatively, save the oils you drain from your vehicles. Use it to coat the underside of your mowers just prior to winter layup. Farmers I lived and worked with over in Scotland coated all their implements with used oil just prior to winter storage. Come spring they just hit them a lick with a pressure washer - and went back to work.

//greg//

yep I might buff off the rust if its so bad that the original coating was gone, but I wouldnt bother to paint it, just oil the metal. great use for your used fluids. Get one of those cheap engine cleaning guns from H.F. and modify the lid on a 'typical' oil jug so you keep the lid and toss the empty jugs.

 

[ToadHill]

I use one coat of POR at the end of each season.

 

[suncoast]

If there is rust underneath the mower it must be for some reason. It is unprotected. I keep the underside of mine touched up as needed and I wax the exterior surface. The fellow who owns the property adjoining ours gets a chuckle out of it. The life of tractors and implements are greatly increased if you take the time to care for them. Look at the pictures on the site here, most of the folks have their tractors kept very nice. Why not the items that are used with them. Oil can be used under the mower (might need to be applied frequently?) I grease the coulters and bottoms of my plow to keep the rust away in between usage. Mowing when dry is definately a plus. I wish I always had that luxury. I have seen a graphite spray at TSC, don't know how/if it helps. Painting it would be a great benefit (oil paint, and not spray cans).

 

[RedHawkRidge]

Answer to question: Yes. But it is of little value, just makes me feel like I'm doing good things to the machine.
I use a paint-like coating available at tractor supply stores (e.g. Farm&Fleet in midwest) called EZSlide or something like that. It's graphite loaded and is quite thick and when dry is very hard to remove. (Try scraping off some from unwanted slash-over with a putty knife...)

The reason it's a waste of time is because almost any yard has some debris, sand, pebbles, branches, etc -- after a few hours of use, the deck's under surface, where the abrasive stuff is thrown will be completely worn down to bare metal in a nice circle.
And even this wonderful, expensive goop I'm using does not prevent clippings from sticking to those little edges and nooks and bolt heads that you'd think could be engineered out of the deck surface. Even cutting my best fullest grassy areas, I still get a buildup of dirt/dust, grass, and moisture (even on dry days).
So rust is inevitable -- just buy a good deck with thick steel and clean periodically. If you use it until the deck rusts thru, then you'll be the first person I know of.

 

[demoman357]

Many of the new riding lawn mowers have a quck-connect type fitting intended to be attached to a garden hose. Turn on the water, run the blades, and it is clean as a new whistle. Only problem is, it dosn't work.
I hooked up my pressure washer to it but that did not help. With the help of a local hydraulics shop I manages to have a wand from a pressure washer bent at the tip to have a seep of 75% in a 2-inch radius. This work great. Of course one does not run the mower during this operation. I do not have to get under the mower, turn it on its side, or even bend over much. Just stick the nozzle under the deck and was away until the stuff is gone then put the mower back in the barn. I will tell you that even if you leave the accumalation on, it will not rust much as long as it is kept indoors and dries out. We found out that leaving one mower outdoors over the winter and the other inside (due to floor space limitations) that the machine left outside rusted rapidly. (duhh). Besides, if you leave the stuff on and it dries out in your building, you will unwittingly be providing rodent habitat materials.