Walker's F Series Thread

[walker450]

Well, the title says it all. I plan to share my story and experience with my F series. This is my first out front mower. Brought home on 3.31.23
Some of my mowing history:
Kubota BX 60" MMM 2008 to present
Kubota GR2120 2021 to present
Kubota Z726X 60" zero-turn for two seasons (sold)
I've operated several other zero turns and mowers owned by others over the years, but never a front mount. Deere 455 and 757, a few Bad Boy zero turns, and I have demoed Grasshoppers. I prefer a steering wheel and pedal over levers so I will sacrifice some maneuverability for that.

This F2880 machine was bought new by a park service and traded into a Deere dealer with 2300 hours on it.

Repairs needed, etc.:
-Front lift arms are bent, so deck is angled slightly to the left, i.e. the left side is about 2" from the front tire and the right side is about 5" away.
-Hood lower plastic piece is broken
-Suspension seat adjustment knob is frozen, will not turn by hand
-New blades needed
-Anti scalp rollers are in bad shape
-Missing deck belt guards
-Missing deflector shield, I may build a block off chute

I plan to flush the cooling system and change all fluids and filters. I will also clean the exterior of radiator. I am debating if I should remove the fuel tank and clean it out good just to be proactive, it is nearly 20 years old, there could be some buildup.

I prefer to adjust the mowing height on the fly, from the seat if at all possible, so I will be entertaining fabricating a mechanism to accomplish this, if anyone has ideas please post them.

I have read through just about every F series post on this forum which only affirmed my decision to purchase one.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to document properly. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Doug Vee]

Congratulations on the new to you machine. I have had my F3060 for less than a year. It is a good mower. After using a zero turn mower for several years, it is taking some time getting use to the new maneuverability paradigm.

I had the deck driveshaft rebuilt, I overhauled a couple of the deck spindles, bought a couple sets of blades and changed all fluids. The only out of the ordinary work done was to replace the steering shaft support frame.

Apparently the structure is not strong enough for decades of climbing onto the machine, pulling on the steering wheel. The part was a little speedy, but the cost did not make me choke. The broken part was probably weldable, but since not overly expensive, I bought the replacement. Was not very difficult to change.

The rear wheel drive gear box drains were stripped. They are Allen head flush plugs and after years of not having the wrench fully engaged, they were not removable with the standard wrench. I was able to get them out using a Torx bit, driven into the plug with a hammer. I replaced those with new ones.

The best part about the mower is it is comfortable to operate. The old short wheelbase, small wheeled zero turn had neck snapping, tooth chipping ride!

As far as adjusting the deck on the fly, I don't have any ideas...yet. I look forward to seeing if you come up with a mod. Changing the greasy spacers is not very convenient.

Doug

 

[walker450]

Thanks for the info Doug.

My idea for on the fly adjustments is going to be a community effort, I will have to draw on some people's engineering expertise for sure. The front castors shouldn't be too bad, they are set at a specific height. The rear is a different story. I'll probably go to a few mower dealers and study other mechanisms to get ideas and go from there. And for whoever is wondering, it's more of a challenge than anything, if that makes sense. Just trying to improve on simple and rugged but not user friendly design. I have a CNC plasma table and welder and my brother has access to a lathe, I bet we can come up with something that will work!

I used the mower for about an hour today, the deck gearbox is leaking fluid onto the top of the deck. It is not coming from the horizontal input shaft seal so I'm assuming it is the lower vertical shaft output seal, so I'll be digging into that soon.

 

[walker450]

The baffles under the deck are beat up. I don't know if they are required or not, can someone provide some insight?

 

[Doug Vee]

Walker,

Another member on the forum is very knowledgable regarding these F-machines. Arto98607 is his user name. He has an extensive thread concerning the gearboxes and their parts.

Also, there is not much capacity for gear oil in these boxes, so be sure to check often until you can get it taken care of. My brother in law ruined a debris blower gear box on his Kubota F mower last year before he realized the box was dry!

Concerning the baffles, I assume they are designed to help with efficient discharge of clippings. My baffles are in very good condition, but a prior owner installed a plate at the center rear of the deck and rubber flaps on each end of that plate to inhibit discharge. I assume this was to help keep the chaff out of the radiator and engine compartment. I understand the rear discharge decks do a good job of spreading the discharge evenly behind the deck, at the cost of heavy accumulation of debris on the radiator screens and on the engine.

I am going to remove the plate and rubber flaps sometime and see how it works. As the deck is set up now, heavy cutting leaves a clumpy mess behind the mower, which I do not care for.

Have a great day,

Doug

 

[Rip]

G'Day Walker... welcome to the F-Series club!! Both my machines are ex-municipal units so had lived hard lives before I took them over, but have turned out to be quite robust on my very steep 4 acres of 'mowed paddock' (definitely not lawn)!

The mower deck is not symmetrical so do not be too quick to assume the lift arms are bent (they are perhaps the most solid parts of the machine) and the left side will be closer to the tire than the right.

I did fully rebuild the underside of my 72" deck with three Kubota parts plus custom fabricated guides.... not too hard and work fine. I made a temporary side discharge block-off plate for occasional mulching duty. Keep blades sharp and always mow at full throttle.

No experience with main gearbox, but do keep eye on spindle bearings before they eat up the aluminum spindle housings. Also regularly grease, but not over (one pump plenty).

On my air suspension seat the knob near front-middle is Push (to inflate with power on) and Pull to deflate, but is quite stiff.

Your desire for a height adjustment while underway is understandable, but I do not see any practical way even with more machine shop gear and expertise than I.

When driving near fences, walls, trees, etc, think FORK-LIFT in terms of how the machine manouvres.... called mine the Mad Croc at first for its widely swinging tail end!

Good Luck!!! Cheers, Rip

 

[Hay Dude]

I have been in my main gearbox on the mowing deck and rebuilt my deck driveshaft, too. They seem to be the main areas of wear that need attention on my F3680

 

[Tinhack]

Both of my ZT mowers handled very differently. My first was a Woods Mow'N Machine 1850 (Grasshopper). I still have it but one of the Eaton transmissions went on a permanent vacation. I really liked that mower because of the low front end and extended deck. I could get way under shrubs and trees, and it cut really nice. My current ZT is the Bad Boy Maverick with a 60" deck. It's good but your feet pretty much sit over the deck. I can't get under the shrubs or trees (Mesquite) without getting impaled by the thorns. And it handles totally different than the Woods--Kind of "squirrely". It took some time to get used to the Maverick. Both are easy to change cut height on the fly though.

Mow'n Machine

Bad Boy Maverick

 

[walker450]

Thanks everyone for all the replies and advice!!

I just got off shift yesterday (7 12s), so today I pulled the lift arms off, straightened them in a press, and re-installed. The deck is now square with the machine.

I installed new blades and dust covers, and blew the machine off really well while I had it lifted up and the front wheels off.

I took the baffles off and beat them straight again and reinstalled.

Greased everything I could find. The seat suspension knob loosened up and I was able to make the proper adjustments, feels much better now, I guess it just needed jostled around a while.

I topped off the gearbox and ran it for about 15 minutes, I don't see much gear oil like before, so I'm proceeding with caution and will check it frequently. I have a seal ordered and it should be here next week.

To do:
-Rebuild front castors, need pin and bushings for swivels and also pin and bushings for wheels.
-Replace guage wheels and pins
-Replace all fluids

Pictures of arm is before straightening.

 

[walker450]

On the left side there is 4.25" between deck and tire and 4.5" on the right.