John Deere rider deck always cloging up with caked material

[chriswheeler]

Well, parts got in and installed. Sandblasted the underside of the deck, very little yellow paint left under there. 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of epoxy floor paint. Tested and worked much better with the high lift blades, filled the bags better than it had ever had. After cutting, I parked it on a concrete slab and lowered the deck to the bottom. I installed the water hose on the new fitting I'd installed on the highest part of the deck 6" from the outside OD of the deck. ( on the left side of the deck facing forward Started the hose, started the mower, engaged the blades. You could hear the water being agitated by the blades, you could also hear the cake breaking loose and chunking through the blades and being discharged. Ran it for 3+ min. The water had broken loose more than 95% of what was under there and discharged it. I'd have to say adding the water wash out port was a success. Contributing to this was the fresh paint and high lift blades.
Chris

 

[pacerron]

Well, parts got in and installed. Sandblasted the underside of the deck, very little yellow paint left under there. 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of epoxy floor paint. Tested and worked much better with the high lift blades, filled the bags better than it had ever had. After cutting, I parked it on a concrete slab and lowered the deck to the bottom. I installed the water hose on the new fitting I'd installed on the highest part of the deck 6" from the outside OD of the deck. ( on the left side of the deck facing forward Started the hose, started the mower, engaged the blades. You could hear the water being agitated by the blades, you could also hear the cake breaking loose and chunking through the blades and being discharged. Ran it for 3+ min. The water had broken loose more than 95% of what was under there and discharged it. I'd have to say adding the water wash out port was a success. Contributing to this was the fresh paint and high lift blades.
Chris

That's a good report. Thanks for posting.
Do your deck spindles have grease fittings and greasable bearings?
Some do, some don't.
There are cautions written about your water method potentially damaging the sealed non-greasable bearings in the spindles.
I have a John Deere L120 with a 48" deck purchased from a John Deere dealer and it does not have greasable spindles, which surprised me.
The L120A models purchased from the big box stores may not have them either.

 

[chriswheeler]

Yes, they both have grease fittings under the drives. Lost a spindle this spring and the replacement has a larger nut and threaded shaft than the original. Seams like Deere had some trouble with the smaller threads stripping that hold the blade. Replacement works better than original. Cost was very reasonable, the whole assembly was less than $60. Every spring all fittings get a healthy dose of grease. Thinking the epoxy paint will need touch up every spring as it gets chipped off during normal use.
Chris

 

[Daronspicher]

L120 with 48" deck here.

9 years ago when it was new, I was more disturbed by this caking thing.

Somewhere along the way I figured out that if I'm mowing some junk like broad leaf stuff, I will see a bit of a spray of green coming out the discharge and end up with a plugged up deck.

If I go about 3/4 throttle, I see it chunking out more of the whole leaf and I get almost no build up.

One down side to running the deck slower like that is also running the transmission slower. This will surely ruin your tuff torq tranny extra fast.

So, there's no win, just an observation that the wet discharge comes along with the caking up of grass and junk under the deck. Left there for about 2 days in the heat in the garage and I get a fantastic rotting grass smell in the garage.

 

[DrBill]

I've been a part of this thread a page or two back... Everybody has talked about some decks that were clean, opposed to some that clogged and caked.

I was in Mexico a couple weeks ago, eating pollos asadios (fire grilled chicken) at a local lunch place, and I talked to a guy in marketing with a major mower brand.. (Everybody in the mower business is there) ... I mentioned this forum post and the subject, and wondered what he thought about it..

He said yes they had problems and so did everybody else.. He said the complaints happened after the manufactures started changing their decks several years ago for mulching availability and add on kits that seemed to be the latest rage..

He said however, the number one most complaints came from people who did baggers and grass collectors.. He mentioned that those customers complained the devices would not work at all..

I just nodded,,, what else to say...