OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Foreign Ride-on Mower Frames John Deere rideon

This looks like a good repair kit for a JD rideon but it is a sad fact that there is such a problem with their decks that somebody needs to resort to making a repair kit. There obviously is a problem with them
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JOHN-DEERE-RIDE-ON-MOWER-REPAIR-WELD-IN-RINGS-PAIR/264048869239?

Strange in the 9+ years that I have been working on ride ons I have yet to see a John Deere deck broken out like that.

AVB, maybe our conditions out here are different, or maybe they get abused a bit more

Now that might be the cause as these mowers are meant to be lawn mowers and not Farm type bush hogs. Now I did scrape out a Bolens MTD mower that the deck was beat up so bad that sections were completely cut out by the blades and with the hangers completely ripped off. I even had a Craftsman where the one of the hanger was ripped out the deck like an old beer can pull tab. Most this was caused by hitting tree roots at high speeds.

Biggest killer of decks over here is rocks, the thin steel just cracks I've seen it in MTD's JD's etc etc. Hence why all Aussie built mowers have Discs on them. Though even greenfield alloy bases couldn't hold up to the severe stuff, most don't care, just mow it all!

Now that would explain the damages. Here we pickup and keep our lawns clear of the rocks. Sometimes we use to build rock fences; other times we used for back fills to provide drainage. Beside we use our lawns for playing and other activities where rocks, trees limbs, etc can cause avoidable injuries.

Personally I have weak ankles and need support for them. Even with the support there are times I nearly sprain them just walking across my lawn or stepping off a parking lot raised lip.

Now I do have a 48" rotary cutter with swing arm like those disc cutters used over there. They take a beating with heavy blades but even get damage from constant rock impacts and we need anti sail covers in place especially to protect the operator. I personally seen rocks swung up to 50+ feet by my cutter which is why I make sure no one including my farm animals are around when I am cutting an unknown area. Rock do have a habit of showing up at times in the pastures too where their were none before.