Mower mounted backwards on 3-point ....

We have an "interesting" (maybe not the correct word) situation here. We came across a 3-blade 60" Kubota mower deck that was originally a belly mower for a yard tractor. Someone converted the mower to a 3-point hitch (class I size) and did a reasonably decent job fabricating everything. We just noticed that when operating behind our 3-point tractor moving forward, the mower itself is "backwards" (front to back), that is the rear of the mower deck is facing forwards as it is pulled behind the tractor. The guy who fabricated it had no choice since it is tractor PTO driven and the way the mower gearbox is facing he had no choice. So right now, the middle mower blade (which usually is at the front of the deck) is at the rear and the two outside blades (which are usually to the rear) are positioned at the front. It is designed to be a right discharge but because it is backwards, it is now a left discharge (well, I guess it's still a right discharge located on the tractor's left side really).

Question is this ..... what sort of cutting performance can we expect? Can we expect to use this with any success? I suspect it might have to be pulled more slowly, not sure about that. Just don't know what to think about all of this but someone with a lot of mowing experience can probably shed some light on where we are and where we are maybe going with this set up.

Thanks, Crazy Horse

IMO, the performance will be harmed slightly. The grass is being fed into the mower deck from the rear instead of from the front. I am guessing here but IMO you will have to slow down your rate of travel initially to see how well the deck cuts and discharges the clippings. IF all looks good, increase your ground speed to see when the quality of cut is noticeably poorer.
This "fabricator" should have looked at decks designed for 3 pt hitch operation and them copied it. He also had the option of installing large swivel casters on the front of that deck that could be vertically adjusted. Then the hitch could be put into FLOAT and the deck would ride on the casters and the gauge wheels at the rear. I hope you got it cheap.

Well for what its worth Power King had a tow mower deck that they turned backwards attached a hitch to to pull it, they used their 48" or 60" deck how well it works I can not say but I'm thinking of fabricating one.
GB in MN

Put your riding mower in reverse and mow for a bit. You will see it doesn't do well. It will end up not throwing clippings at all. My zero turn is a three blade. If I mow backing up at anything above a crawl it just wads the clippings up in the void between the blades.

Think about it - it is designed so that when that front blade cuts grass to throws it towards the discharge. Any it spits the wrong way are rethrown where they belong by the trailing blades. In essence they clean up the mess as they mow. If you go the other way that front (now rear) blade is left to make a mess on either side that doesn't get cleaned up - especially in thick mowing.

My woods belly mower is set up with the leading blade at the back, but the deck is designed for it. All of the makers design their deck to work best for how they are using it.

Some good replies here including yours. It was a no-cost item so no financial issue, the guy just threw it in with a tractor purchase and that was a pretty good deal. He was probably glad to have someone haul the mower away for him, I'm sure he had problems. We'll do some experimenting but I'm not expecting much success after reading all the replies.

By all means, try it out and see what happens. Then come back here and tell us about what you discovered. It is an interesting topic. As long as the blades are spinning in the correct direction, they will cut the grass. My concern is whether or not the clippings will exit the deck fast enough to prevent clogging the discharge chute.

Can't you open and fabricate a new discharge on the 'now' forward right side?

I thought of that, the two sides are not real mirror images of each other though and the discharge side is a bit more complex looking. To be honest, I really haven't lifted the whole deck up high and had a real good look underneath to see the under-deck design and fabrication or if a guy could figure out the routing of the cut grass as it is trimmed off when the mower is working. First thing would be to get the blades sharpened and put back on, then take it out and see how it works. Right now the blades are quite dull so doing a test run as it is would leave a guy in doubt as to what exactly the problem was. Having sharp blades would eliminate that possibility I guess. The grass mess that is left behind is of no concern in the area where this mower would be used as long as the grass gets cut occasionally.

You could just turn the 3 point lift and the center drive pulley around 180 degrees .. would it not be pointing the correct way then ??

Yes, the fabricating that the original guy did on this thing for the 3-point is welded on the upper surface of the mower deck, so it would require cutting it all off and then reattaching everything so the mower deck is facing properly when attached to the 3-point. There might be a bit of a clearance issue with turning the center pulley gearbox 180 degrees but it could be done I think. Would certainly be a project, I do know a friend who could probably do it in a few hours, he's handy with doing those kinds of things and it would be a freebie fix.

I am sure you have found it mows pretty poor backwards. The 60" Kubota mower on the BX looks as though the gearbox can be turned around by just unbolting and turning 180 degrees. The other issue you might run into is the mid PTO for the belly mower on a Kubota BX is 2500 rpm. If your tractor PTO is the standard 540 or 1000 rpm, the mower deck will run awfully slow.

Our PTO in high speed is about 1150 RPM's at maximum engine revs ... still slow if your 2500 RPM figure is accurate which I'm sure it is. We ran a few test runs, it could work for light mowing, nothing too heavy. Right now the blades are dull, we are sharpening them today and that will help. Turning the gearbox around is easy but clearance with the deck when pointing in that direction is marginal considering we need a u-joint on the shaft which drives the mower. Also some issues with the linkages there now for height adjustment when pointed that way plus the 3-point hangers, etc would have to be removed and repositioned. We'll try it as is for now, after that we'll see what happens.