New Mower Decks

Shinny · Apr 13, 2018

Just purchased a couple of riding mowers. As they are new, felt this would be the best time to apply some type of coating to the underside of the decks, to help prevent grass from sticking.

I have been surfing and found numerous products, Slip Plate, PB Blaster, Fluid Film, DuPont Teflon, MoDeck etc. However, most comments are conjecture and offer little help.

Any suggestions, based on actual experience, will be greatly appreciated.

Kansas4010 · Apr 13, 2018

Best thing I've found is just clean the deck out and sharpen blades after every mowing. Anything else just seems to come out.

Crazy Horse · Apr 13, 2018

Did you hear someone say that there was some sort of application for that, or maybe you just thought of that on your own as being a good idea. Never heard of that but maybe someone has.

Dean · Apr 13, 2018

Grass will collect on the underside of mower decks, and coatings, paint or otherwise, will fail.

Dean

glennster · Apr 13, 2018

i have a hustler ztr with a 72 in deck. the deck got a little rough and would load up with grass clippings and got a little rusty. i wire wheel cleaned the bottom of the deck and painted it with 2 coats of por 15 rust conversion primer. i can get a couple two three years out of it before it wears off. the deck doesnt pack up as bad with grass.

gab · Apr 13, 2018

I'm still using a 1969 Wheel Horse 48 inch deck. I don't mow wet grass and I blow the grass out of the belt shield and hose it out the bottom side after each use. I have a rebuilt deck hanging on the wall if I ever wear out the old one.

4520BW · Apr 13, 2018

I have used slip plate graphite paint on decks before will good luck. My new Deere does not seem to build up with grass.

kevinecwi · Apr 13, 2018

Graffiti paint.

Leroy · Apr 13, 2018

slip plate, same as used on gravity wagon boxes to help grain slide out. will have to do it every year. PB Blaster is a penetrating oil to free rusted parts. I think that fluid film is a penetrating oil but not sold around me.

johnlobb · Apr 13, 2018

I've had pretty good luck with Modeck. I just wirebrush the dried grass off as best I can and it seems to last a season.

kcm.MN · Apr 13, 2018

I haven't found [b:fd2ddd0fee][i:fd2ddd0fee]anything[/i:fd2ddd0fee][/b:fd2ddd0fee] that the ultra-wet grasses here won't stick to. I've been thinking about coating my entire mower deck (bottom AND top) with brush-on bedliner, as it seems this would provide the most moisture resistance.

Wish I could tell you whether this works, but still in the planning stages here.

jeffcat · Apr 13, 2018

Wellll....with low profile blades and mowing dry not wet grass my deck stays reasonable clean. Now every now and then, when I change the blades, every 2 mows. Do a little scrape here and there and then spray the underside with a coat of drain oil. Soaks into any little pits or dimples and stays. The rest scrubs off pretty quickly. But in the fall that is how I put them away. Cleaned and oiled. Has worked marvelous for many years. Only wore out one MTD deck and that had those blasted mulch blades. SJ Is all sand and it just eats decks alive. Literally sand blasted to death. I use the type blades called low lift, low profile, or sand blades just cut and throw the grass out. They don't act like a blender and juice everything up. Tryed the plow stuff from JD many moons ago but it only lasts awhile. Give the drain oil a try. Stuff and crud releases pretty well with it.

ss55 · Apr 13, 2018

Slip plate or any other graphite paint works well for me. Paint the whole underside of the deck and both sides of the blades too. Really wet grass will still stick, but not as bad, and cleaning the mower is much easier.

Bob Harvey · Apr 13, 2018

I've got a 42"-24hp Craftsman with about 80 hrs. on it - a lot of mowing. It has a hose attachment/wash out port. I use it after every mowing. Just used it a couple of days ago and after cleaning, ramped up and crawled under for a looksee. 95% clean. The worst part for me is the TOP of the deck. I wonder why they made so many dips and bumps that clippings end up in. Be nice it the top was flat-easy to clean. Takes longer to clean the top than the cutting area.

showcrop · Apr 13, 2018

I wouldn't use bed liner without a very thorough cleaning and an application of epoxy primer paint. In the under mower deck environment, moisture will get under it here and there, and since the moisture will be trapped in there it will be rusting away 24-7 until all of the metal is gone and all you have is a deck shaped sheet of bed liner.

OliverGuy · Apr 13, 2018

A lot depends on how the decks were made. Stamped thin decks will rust and pit quick, coatings won?t help a lot in the long run. Scrape some when sharpening blades goes a long ways. I have many fabricated decks that go 3 to 4000 hours and we just scrape, with a good cleaning and oil based left over paint brushed on in the winter. I have two with 4500 hours, exmark and toro made fab decks really good in my opinion. We did use modeck many moons ago, it was ok but a little drain oil might work the same. My 2 cents

Hoenes · Apr 13, 2018

My experience has been: Take the deck off, now and then, scrape, wire brush, and oil it. If it eventually rusts a hole through, weld a patch over it. Worst case scenario, buy a new deck!

jacksun65 · Apr 13, 2018

I have a JD Lx188 same deck since new still going strong. I use graphite paint and clean once a year blown off after mowing. Mows 4 acres a week since 96.

jeffcat · Apr 13, 2018

You need to go to a car show some time with a really good flea market. They sell air hose wands that are just a heavy duty air g7n with a heck of a long nozzle and a big strong rubber tip on the end. A 4 foot long goes for about 23 dollars. You can kneel down and stick that thing under and blow everything from one side right out the other. I have just the regular air guns, 18 inch, four foot, and six foot long. My big Husqvarna with a 54 in. deck needs that long one to clean it. Wonderful tool. Amazon sells them too. They are pretty darn heavy duty.

kcm.MN · Apr 13, 2018

Showcrop -- Thanks for the tips. Besides usually mowing extremely wet grasses most of our seasons, the skeeters are so bad at times that you have to wear a dust mask just to keep from swallowing any or having them fly up your nose. Usually only that bad for about a month each year, but sure seems like the longest month of the year!

Jeffcat -- I have an air gun like that, but also have another that is even stronger! Bought a set a few years back. One part hooks up to garden hose, the other is for air. Both are made very heavy duty. I'd have to use my knee in order to bend the tubing! Only drawback is, it shoots out at almost a 90-degree angle, so whatever you're aiming at better be a large target. *lol*
https://www.amazon.com/Radiator-Gen...r0&keywords=air/water+radiator+flush+wand

Kansas4010 · Apr 14, 2018

You sure must've had better luck with that
thing than I did. I bought a set last year
and the first time I hooked the air gun up
the metal tube part blew out of the handle.
Never tried the water version. Figured if
it's as well made as the air gun I'd just
end up getting an unscheduled bath.

Two Dogs · Apr 14, 2018

I made a small crane from a couple of four by fours and a 20 dollar boat trailer winch and lift the front by the axle until nearly straight up. I hose it off after every mowing (wet or dry)and let it hang and air dry. The mower is nearly twenty years old and not rusted at all. That also makes blade changing easy and convenient instead of crawling around trying to fit them underneath. To each his own. TDF

tech5201 · Apr 14, 2018

kcm,
Demo a Deere 7-Iron; Deere Edge HC; Scag Velocity Plus; or Husqvarna Z500X Series deck.
Use high-lift blades.
Their open design will process wet grass & not pack up.
They don't chop the clippings up like a tightly baffled deck.
Oregon G5 blades will reduce the clippings? size.

Shinny · Apr 14, 2018

Thanx to all that replied. I have decided to give this a try...............
Slip Plate/Mower Guard

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