Righty? or Loosy?

[deepNdirt]

I might not go to all the trouble your going to. I mean once you tighten the gearbox and everything up to keep from moving around and replacing the blades or cutting them down to a 4 fter size i would just leave the deck larger, unless is super heavy duty the tractor will still pick it up, may need more weight, but it will cut 4 ft with a 5ft deck on it. Only problem i can see is judging your last pass may take some getting use to so you don't leave strips in it as well as you could not trim within a foot and a half of a fence with it but one pass with a riding mower would cover that? I would save the hassle myself and leave the deck oversize and just mark the top of the deck the cutting width, maybe some reference marks, for a quick look?

-Nate

If the deck would have been in just a little better condition I might would had simply used it as a 5 ft'r, But this thing was banged up pretty bad, Besides I have already cut the 2 sides and the rear off, all I need to do is remove the A-lift and cut down the front and re-locate the A-frame .......
I'm not sure what has happen in the past with this cutter but it looks like one of the blades tried coming thru the deck in a couple of places shearing gashes in the sheet metal, another reason for wanting to go ahead and cut it down, the previous owner said he loaned it out and this is the way it came back, The person who borrowed it must had a very strong tractor to had been able to do this much damage to it,

 

[deepNdirt]

I still haven't found the large socket I need to remove the gearbox, although spent most all day today welding the new apron back on all the way around the cutter, reinforcing it better in a couple places, All I found at the scrap yard to build the aprons from was 3x5 angle iron, which work out good, the old apron I removed was 6" so I lost 1 inch there, but from the looks of the side of the cutter it spend a lot of time banging up on hard objects, by using angle iron I'm sure It will have add strength along with some weight, but with all I removed probably reduce the weight 50 lbs. when cutting it from 5 ft. down to 4 ft. actually it wound up being 4 ft. 4" wide....... my plans are to do the chain curtain guard on the rear discharge,........... does anyone know if the cutter blades are suppose to have lateral movement on the swing pivots? these blades move about 1" up as well as 1 inch down giving a total of 2" lateral movement,
Yet still does to hit the underside of the deck or the ground either,
here is a pix I took the day I cut off the sides, you can see how much abuse this thing must have been though, I'll get some soon of the way it currently is now,

 

[winston1]

I have a 5' fmc sidewinder. I replaced bolts and blades on it awhile back. It does not have much up down movement at all. Blades are just loose enough to allow swivel and that's all. I suppose a little movement might not hurt, sounds like at one time yours had a little to much.

 

[mus302]

I have a Howse bush hog and the blades have very little lateral movement. I got the bush hog at the same time as I bought my tractor and from the looks of it, it hadn't been used much. The blades are tight to the point that just a little grass will stop the blades from slinging out like they should.