Re: (ET) Front deck roller wheels

["joeaverage frontiernet net" <joeaverage frontiernet net>]

Thanks for everyone's deck wisdom. I'd love to see the pictures David. I'm on the FB group now. 

I may have completed the last mow of the season. That gives me much time this winter to re-engineer the deck a little. 

No snow here to blow or scrape during winter. Maybe I'll give it a paint job over the winter.  

Chris

On Friday, September 24, 2021, 10:49:23 PM CDT, David Tiefenbrunn <davidtief comcast net> wrote:

What I did with my mower deck -

My major problem was the rear roller thing often catching while backing up, flipping the deck up vertical.  Looking at the geometry, the brackets that hold the bar for the rollers stick way down, close to the ground.  Also, sharp turns really drag those rollers sideways across the grass.  My yard is nowhere near golf course green smooth.  I bought 3" diameter caster wheels from McMaster Carr.  I welded up frames similar to what GE made for the front casters, and made brackets to mount them on the rear corner brackets that the bar brackets were bolted to.   Each caster uses 2 wheels side by side, to get some of the wide effect that the old rollers would have.   I used the same diameter shaft and sleeve and nylon bearings and spacers as they used for the front casters.  I also made a 3rd one for the center, to act like the center front roller, so it doesn't scalp a high spot / point.  As part of this caster's mounting, I added a stiffener angle iron across the rear of the deck.  I also added a 1" square tube from front to back over the side exit chute to make the deck more structurally sound.

I get far fewer flip ups while backing now.  I do occasionally get a scrape from the middle caster, if I'm on a high spot, but I am ok with the trade off.. 

I do have pictures of this stuff, don't recall if I can post them via this group.  I also have them on my facebook, since I'm on an ET group on there also.

Dave

On Sep 24, 2021 3:54 PM, joeaverage frontiernet net wrote:

Hello again,

On my maiden voyage with the E15 last night I saw a few maintenance issues and a design issue I want to try to address. 

When I try to turn hard on a slope, perhaps the grass is a little slippery - and it understeers. 

No sweat, I can imagine once I have my lift back together with a new strap, I can lift the deck a little and get my steering back. 

However the ends of the roller rod has these brackets that scrape the ground and they are surely part of the reason the tractor is not steering well. 

Has anyone put rear deck wheels on these front mowers? I recall a Sears (MTD) lawn tractor I once owned had deck wheels that had rounded edges that could be adapted to fit this deck I think. 

Surely this has been addressed already but I did not check the archives. 

Looking forward to your wisdoms.

Thanks,

Chris in Tennessee 

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