John Deere rider deck always cloging up with caked material

[buickanddeere]

The bottom of the deck needs to be glossy smooth. If it's rusty, she's gonna stick grass to it. There are some really robust paints out there.
This glyptal stuff is some of the toughest paint on coating I've ever used.

403 Forbidden

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Have you tried coating the underside of the deck with something like WD40 or FluidFilm?

I also have buildup on my JD 48" but it rarely is bad enough to present a problem with the discharge.

 

[Copperhead]

I have found that spraying a light coat of Motorkote spray seems to lessen the sticking on my 48" deck underside.

 

[beenthere]

I don't think the gator blades will help, nor the painting of the underside of the deck.
Nor do I think it is a Deere design problem.
It's the sticky material you are trying to mow. It doesn't behave like our blue grass we have in the north.

But jumping through those hoops or changing to a different brand are things you may just have to try in order to evaluate the different options.

 

[dieselbob69]

I've had the same problem w/ my new Cub mower-I've sprayed that Mo-Deck on it a couple times-helps w/ first mowing some,then after that back to build-up city. John Deere has a dark gray graphite coating-I think it's called slip-coat or something like that-use it for gravity grain boxes and other things where you need a slippery surface. I also have a can of E-Z Slide-same thing as the JD stuff,but I bought it at Tractor Supply.When I've used the graphite before on previous mowers,it stayed on for a few mowings. I've come to conclusion that all Cub Cadet decks suck. JD 62X decks that my neighbor had were pretty decent for not clumping and buildup. The Kubota I had last the deck was pretty good on it regarding buildup.

 

[DrBill]

It is a problem and I don't have the answer. I'm posting because I don't think it's always the types of material we are cutting either.

I have a gt245 with the 54 inch deck, and it's standard procedure every couple of mowings to jack it up and use a putty knife and remove about 15 pounds of green goo from the deck.

I have a 755 with a 60 inch belly deck that is used on the same grass at the same time and it never clogs or builds up debris.. I peek under it and it's clean metal.. Also, being a bigger tractor it actually mows more area of the wet nasty weedy grass than the smaller gt245..

It's for sure a design difference affecting air flow.. Both tractors have a strong discharge (when clean) and both are running around 3300 to 3450 on blade rpms, and there's not much difference in blade length between the mowers, so tip speed is similar (in range), and they both cut extremely clean with a smooth finish.

I also have a IH Cub Cadet 1450 with a 50 inch deck that I restored years ago. I make it mow sometimes
for fun or if I'm working on one of the deeres.. It's an old design of course but the deck on it never clogs up either..

In comparison, something's not right with these recent deere consumer decks..

 

[Yellowfever440]

Oregon makes the gator blades and John doesn't own any of woods. Just an fyi.

 

[sklunk]

There are a lot of deck coatings out there but I've had GREAT experiences with POR-15:

POR-15 Rust Preventive Coating

It's expensive but once it's on the deck it's like armor!

 

[GPintheMitten]

You really need to hose off the bottom of the deck after each mowing before the stuff dries out. If you don't have or want to purchase a power washer then use your garden hose and one of those nozzles that produce a jet of water.

It should only take 5 to 10 minutes after each mowing.

 

[chriswheeler]

After careful consideration, think I have a plan. Going to weld a 3/4" hose connection to the top of the deck. With this I can hook up a water pressure hose to the top of the deck and run the mower stationary with the hose pressure running and I'm thinking this might keep the grass cake down some. Also this winter will remove the deck when winter service is done, sandblast the underside and coat with the Devcon epoxy ceramic coating for a slick surface. Although I do mow a mix of weeds and grass, it's mostly grass. Talking to other owners of John Deere riders, this seams to be a universal problem ?? When mowing larger areas that are almost all weeds, I use a 5' brushog and it never has had any buildup in 10 years of use. Leads me to beleave that Deere riders have some sort of airflow problem with their decks on most of their riders. I have a bagger unit that I removed because even with the high lift blades, the bagger unit always plugged up in the discharge hose, even when mowing in shorter grass. This also backs up the idea that these riders just don't have the airflow in their decks to keep the underside of the deck clear. I refuse to remove the deck for cleaning after every use, their has to be a better way. Thanks for the ideas.
Chris