When is your last grass mowing and what is fall mower maintenance?

[Capricious]

I remove the 42" deck from the 1978 Sears 11 hp garden tractor and clean it out and grease the spindles and sharpen the blades ever few times I use it, but it gets very rough use, more as a "brush hog' than a finish mower:




The rest of the mower gets greased at the same time.


This is the first year of use for the rotary cutter, and I put fresh oil in it back when I bought it (used) in July. It has seen about 10 hours use so all it will get is a blade sharpening:




Nice thing about little 42" cutters is they are (relatively) easy to move around.

 

[Bird]

Living in the Dallas area, for 17 years before I retired, we went to Port Aransas and spent the week of Thanksgiving with my parents. So we drove down there the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the last mowing of the year was the Saturday before that. Of course in those days I had 2 cycle Lawnboy walk behind mower, shut off the gas every time I mowed and ran all the gas out of the carburetor.

But now that we no longer make that trip, well, I still usually mow for the last time in mid to late November, but some years even mow once or twice in December. If I'm lucky, I don't have to mow in December and January, but not that lucky some years.

I have one of the MoJack EZ lifts to pick up the front end of my ZTR, so on September 27 this year while the weather was agreeable, I removed and sharpened the blade, thoroughly washed the bottom side of the deck, changed the oil & filter, cleaned the air filter, and even washed the top side of the mower. However, I've mowed twice since then and will probably mow again sometime next week.

But as someone else has said, I'll take the battery out, take it into the shop/recreation room and put it on the maintainer sometime next month. I'll just leave the gas in it, but use a double dose of Stabil.

 

[kebo]

Still mowing away down here in SC. Cut my front yard yesterday with the push mower (1/3a yard), cut the back yard today. Got to cut my parents 1a yard with the rider either this weekend or next (and it hasn't rained in almost two weeks here now). One of their neighbors has 3 acres and I bush hog 2 acres of it a few times a year called to ask me to cut it one more time. So, the grass & weeds still growing some, the only disadvantage to such a LONG growing season here in the south.

 

[xtruckerbob]

I mowed 8 acres today with my BX2670 and our 2 acre yard with the Z121S. Then mowed the ditch with my old G 3200 thats 9 round trips at .3 miles each way. I grease each mower and blow out the filter before mowing each time, I wash out the deck on the BX and on the Z every other time. It seems I have become lazy with the G3200 I only clean it out 3 or 4 times a year. Living in Louisiana we MAY mow though November and sometimes we mow the winter grass and weeds in December. You gotta love living in the south.

 

[xtruckerbob]

So it frosted early this year and then frosted again. The BX 's, Z121, G3200 decks and the land pride are all cleaned top and bottom with high pressure washer. I went on today and sharpened the blades, and grease everything. I changed the oil in the Z121, L2600, and the G3200 and on the RTV and BX I changed the oil and Hydro. I think I will wait till late next year on the Ford 3000 cause I only put 12 hours on all year. I took my time but it still took 2 days. I washed the BX,Z121, and the G3200 the L and the RTV are used all winter so I wash them later.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Let's see. I put on a new high lift blade after bending one on a stump. Vacuumed the lawn one last time. Drove it up a pair of ramps into the back of my truck, and brought it over to my sister's house and put the lawn mower into her garage where she has space. There I pulled the battery out and dumped the float bowl, thereby completing the winterization process.

The fuel in the tank is always non-oxygenated so I'm not worried about storing it over winter with gas.

 

[sixdogs]

If you just run the thing out of gas is it the same as dumping the fuel bowl? For some reason, I never thought of that.
Great idea.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

If you just run the thing out of gas is it the same as dumping the fuel bowl? For some reason, I never thought of that.
Great idea.

Better to dump the float bowl. That way, all the gas in the carb is removed. Really easy to do on the Kawasaki V-twins as no tools are needed.

 

[TomSeller]

Some carbs have a drain screw or nut on the bowl, check before removing the bowl to dump it.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Some carbs have a drain screw or nut on the bowl, check before removing the bowl to dump it.

On Kawasaki V-twins, pull the wire off of the fuel shutoff solenoid and unscrew the solenoid (righty-tighty, lefty-loosey). The solenoid holds the bowl on. if the bowl doesn't pop off, fine. If the solenoid is loosened, all the fuel in the bowl drains out anyway. Good enough. Screw the solenoid back in hand tighten, connect the wire again and you're done.