Mowing Rustproofing mower decks

bfabricant · Jun 28, 2005

I recently purchased a B7510 with a 60" belly mower, and friends have suggested undercoating the mower to protect it from rusting. I am wondering if anyone has done this, and if so what effect it has on discharging grass, as undercoating is not as slippery as the current painted surface. Thank you in advance for you input.

beenthere · Jun 28, 2005

Welcome to the forum.

Do your friends have mower decks that this has worked for them?
I am thinking not, but curious as to their experience.

Don_Sullivan · Jun 28, 2005

I have a BX1500 w/48" mower deck, 200 hours. At the suggestion of my K dealer I used Fluid Film Rust&Corrosion Preventive when I put the deck to bed last fall. The underside of the deck was showing a lot of bare metal and my experience has been that once the paint is gone it's gone forever (goes for snowblowers too). Came Spring, this stuff was there just as slimy and ugly as it was in October and looks about the same in June. I seem to recall from Internet searches it is a "woolwax" product.

Don Sullivan, NH

Tom_H · Jun 28, 2005

Welcome to the forum.

I saw a guy on a lawn care TV show recently who recommended including this in your yearly maintenance. Turn deck over, remove & sharpen blades, use plastic scraper to remove built up layer of thatch, check belts, spray a spray can lubricant onto the underside to both prevent rusting and to prevent grass buildup, grease zerks, reattach blades, flip upright. Some spray can type things could be WD-40, Pam, etc. You could also wipe on a low viscosity oil: a vegetable type cooking oil, machine oil, etc. This would prevent Oxygen from getting to the iron and keep clippings for sticking. He recommended once a year, but I would think it wouldn't stay that long. I'd also have concerns about getting it on belts for those decks that have them.

DHD · Jun 29, 2005

I use old crankcase oil.
After about two mowing sessions (about 8 hours of steady mowing) I remove the mowing deck, take off the blades for sharpening, scrape off the built up grass clippings from the bottom of the deck, and paint on a layer of used crackcase oil, and grease the zert fittings.
I probably should scrape off the grass clipping build up after every every mowing session.
I do this same procedure at the end of mowing season.
Come spring there is still a layer of used crankcase oil on the mower deck.

Tom_H · Jun 29, 2005

All the lubricants I mentioned are biologically safe. Crankcase oil comes off with the clippings and gets into the soil. This is very toxic to the environment.