Mower Deck

[H2OFwlKlr]

There is a water hose fitting you can buy, that you install on your mower deck on the left side, it stays there. When you are finished mowing, connect water hose, turn it on, and let blades run for a while and it self cleans the underside of your mower deck.

I would make sure to grease bearings if you have them on your blades every time.

[Matt G]

Originally Posted by H2OFwlKlr

There is a water hose fitting you can buy, that you install on your mower deck on the left side, it stays there. When you are finished mowing, connect water hose, turn it on, and let blades run for a while and it self cleans the underside of your mower deck.

I would make sure to grease bearings if you have them on your blades every time.

I saw that on the Toro mowers when I was looking. I've been thinking about putting one on my Gravely. Seems like a good idea in theory.

[PaulMyers]

Originally Posted by Matt G

I saw that on the Toro mowers when I was looking. I've been thinking about putting one on my Gravely. Seems like a good idea in theory.

Just make sure everything has cooled down before spraying the water like that. Those spindles will soak up water like a sponge and at $400~$550 per spindle it can be costly.

[keakar]

Originally Posted by PaulMyers

Just make sure everything has cooled down before spraying the water like that. Those spindles will soak up water like a sponge and at $400~$550 per spindle it can be costly.

a little known fact is the spindles are easy and cheap to replace the bearings in.

the bearings (2 for each spindle with spacer between them) are an average $10 each and simply drop in place, they are not pressed in or anything but can seam stuck from dirt and junk that collects over time so you remove the pulley first, using the blade to keep it from turning, then remove the blade (assuming your going to sharpen it)

its obvious the shaft can only come off in one direction (the blade end) and the shaft with both bearings can be gently tapped out by replacing the pulley nut and tapping it out and then push the spacer to one side to tap out the top and bottom bearings and clean the bearing seats and rub some grease in the spindles before the bearings are replaced and everything gets reassembled. you don't even need to remove the spindle from the deck so this avoids snapping off those "one time use" bolts they get installed with

its very easy to do and only takes a few minutes to do this after you do the first one and see how everything works.

there are youtube video that show the process, but in most, the guy is beating on the bearings but its not a very tight fit so there is no reason to "beat it" into place and a gentle tap such as when installing grease seals is all that's needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBlvT95hbWI