Who knew? Reading and actually following the directions does help

[ustmd]

Since we moved to the sub-rural zone 14 years ago, every time I needed to change the blades on the riding lawn mower, I drove it up the small ramps I have, laid on my back and spent the next 2 hours cussing, complaining and injuring myself while getting the blades off.

This time, I actually read the direction that came with the ZTR. They told me to take the mower deck off . While skeptical at first, low and behold, I had the deck off, blades changed and deck reinstalled (and working :thumbsup within 30 minutes.

Maybe there is something to reading these directions.

 

[Threepoint]

That's sure one way to do it. Instructions do come in handy once in awhile. It's what I did for years with my Kubota GF1800 front-deck 4WD diesel, that's a bit heavier than the zero-turn mowers. This season I took a page from a local equipment dealer, who uses a chain hoist in their shop to lift the front end high enough to get under the deck comfortably. No ramps to get in the way of access. I put a chain under the deck's lift arms and used the loader on my larger tractor to do the same thing. Blocked up the deck once lifted, of course, for safety. Much easier for me than disconnecting the spring-loaded pins and the PTO shaft, flipping the deck on its back, then muscling and realigning everything back into position and hooking things back up. Whatever works. :thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

While I realize what I have is not the same mowing machine you guys are talking about, here is what I do to take the blades off of my little JD La135. I drive it into my basement shop, and I keep a hook eye bolt handy with washer and nut. Takes a couple of seconds to put that on, then lower the hook of my cheap chain fall's to the eye. The chain falls are attached to the floor joist over head. The chain falls make it extremely easy with practically no effort to raise the end of the mower way up off of the floor to get to the deck with the air impact. 1/2 a second later the blades are laying on the floor. I put them in the bench vise and and use the 4 1/2 inch angle grinder with a flap disk to sharpen them. The key takeaways of this dissertation is that the whole operation is a no strain no pain deal. The chain falls also came in handy when I put the head of my bandsaw on the stand. It was way more than this old man needed to be lifting, but chain falls make heavy lifting nearly effortless. And they are so cheap and easy.

 

[Wagtail]

All right... I'll admit (but only to you blokes) that I do read the directions & manuals.

But anywhere else and I will flatly DENY it!

 

[4570Man]

I drive it up on the car ramps, and use my trusty impact wrench to remove the blades. I can remove the blades and put them back on in less than 10 minutes on my ztr. Sharpening takes a little longer. The front mount mowers are even easier. What are the instructions for anyway.

 

[drizler]

In most cases though, who can make heads or tails of the directions. By the time you get done bypassing the pages of insane safety warnings you hit the translation issue. I'm not going to say the owners manual for my Massey 1736 says to operate the machine at FULL THROTTLE for the first 50 hours. No, naw, just can't happen, impossible. Yea sure I must have dreamed it:shocked: When I called the dealer and told him about it he heartily agreed it was absolutely stupid.
I do glance through them from time to time, especially if I have something in my hands unfamiliar but I always remain wary of foolish mistakes, translation errors and just plain non existent editing. Thank goodness for Youtube. :thumbsup: That's the best place to get real life procedures that actually work that I know of. Even some of those are poor but boy, some of those guys find some slick ways to get things done far better than the engineers.

 

[bigtiller]

If all else fails, read the instructions.

That is about the same as Winston Churchill's comment; Men and nations can be counted on to do the right thing, after exhausting all other resources.

 

[dmccarty]

You sharpen mower blades.....

Who Knew!

:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[dusty3030]

Its the taking something back apart 17 times unnecessarily that makes you an expert, not the words on written on paper.

Reading is for entertainment, it is sweat and blood that enlightenment is made of.

 

[Trkrd]

By the time you leaf through the instruction book to find what you need in ENGLISH the blades could be changed and the lawn mowed !