Home made Load-N-Go brackets for 54C mower deck

[DanMc77]

One of the features seen with the newer mower decks is the auto-connect and the Load-N-Go brackets. I'll never have auto-connect with my older 54C deck, but Load-N-Go shouldn't be that difficult. One of the frustrations with the JD brackets is that they are incompatible with the Power Flow. I need Power Flow for picking up leaves in the fall and for the times when the grass gets too long to leave the clippings.

As I surveyed the situation, the thought of making brackets that are easily removable eliminated the issue of whether my stuff interfered with anything. So I settled on using the posts for the deck wheels. It's super easy to drop this onto the posts, slip in some pins, and I'm ready to pick it up with the loader.

Last night I cobbled together a wood prototype that I was thinking would be a pattern for something built out of steel. But this works so nicely, that I'll clean it up, add some reinforcements, paint it and this will become the final thing. Even without any reinforcement, this has no problems with lifting the deck, and I can yank and pull on the deck while its lifted, so it will be super solid after some additional blocking.

 

[KennyG]

That's a great idea. I've been picking up my 62D deck with a chain, but this would be much more secure when moving around.

 

[beenthere]

The wood block hook you show there is very likely to split out on you, being that both blocks show signs of decay and the tension perpendicular to grain is very low for wood.
Maybe use the steel hook seen laying there on the floor in place of the wood block, or make that wood block from laminated plywood scraps to avoid catastrophic failure when least expected.
The design is awesome and shows your talent.

 

[DanMc77]

You make excellent points about the wood grain and also your observation that the wood could be punky. I had to smile that you looked at the photo enough to notice the steel hook sitting on the floor. I grabbed this wood from my firewood pile, and although there is some spalting, the wood is not punky, or weakened. In order to avoid splitting with the grain, there are 4 very long screws that secure the block to the plywood that pass all the way through the block, and especially through the area where the block could split in the grain. I purchased a steel quick attach kit on ebay and at the moment chose to make my own blocks rather than spend the time drilling and tapping holes in the steel. Maybe I'll switch to the steel hooks as I work to reinforce things.

 

[DanMc77]

Found some time this weekend to make more progress on the HM Load-N-Go brackets.

The 3/4" plywood was reinforced with another 3/4" layer of oak wood. Corners were rounded over with a router and it has the first coat of JD green paint. Have to wait a few days for the first coat to cure before putting on the second coat. I learned the hard way that if you put on the second coat too soon, then the first coat blisters and you have to start over.

I wasn't happy with the wood hangers for various reasons, the most significant was that they were not properly spaced from the lower pins. So if the deck was in the vertical position, all the weight was being carried by the two pins.

To provide some adjustment for that spacing, a bushing with an eccentric bolt hole was made on the lathe. A slot makes it easy to adjust the spacing with a screwdriver if the bolt is loosened.

This steel hanger from ebay is made from 1/2" thick steel. Just a little bit of overkill.

Putting projects like this on the forum helps me to avoid the temptation to get the project to the point of "good enough" and then going with a partially completed project.

 

[DanMc77]

Finished up the load n go brackets.