mower deck cleaning

[cheesegrader 433]

I have two strange questions.

First, I have a 180 degree curved attachment for power washers that I use to clean gutters, and I am wondering if this would be useful for cleaning out the mower deck regularly, or is the regular use of water under the deck going to do more harm than good?

Second, an elderly member of my family swears that years ago on the farm, he would just run the mowers through hard organic waste (corn cobs, walnut husks) to knock down grass build-up.

There has to be an easier way to try to prevent deck rot from stuck grass between mowings.

I'm not crazy enough to take the 60" beast off to clean every week!

Thanks!

[Foozerush 40]

I don't see no problem using that attachment to clean under the deck, heck even pulling a 42 off is heavy work sliding them from underneath!! I power wash mine only at end of season, my yard is small, but everyone who mow acres probably clean theirs more than I do...

[diesel cowboy 263]

In my experience the water doesnt hurt it unless it sits for months at a time with no use. The gutter cleaning attachment is a good idea. Cub Cadet has a nozzel that bolts onto the deck and a quick connect adapter for a garden hose so when your done mowing you can hook up the hose turn it on and then turn on the mower to clean the grass out. It actualy works pretty good. The only downside is the mess it makes with the water/grass mix. Dont know how well it would work on an older deck as it was designed for the new high flow type decks for bagging and mulching but anything is better than taking the deck off every time to clean it.

[varosd 1,185]

case in point, in NC with all the sandy soil in the Ft Bragg/Sandhills region and the what seemed to be "drier" warm season grass (Centipede, zoysia etc grass) my deck was "cleaner" compared to the cool season grass (wetter?) Fescue etc of Central PA.

[hm12460 53]

I like to clean mine out really good at the end of the mowing season. I've always sprayed the underside of my decks with WD-40 and let them set all winter.

[Zeek 2,286]

I tried water on mine, but I find it just soaks cakes of grass stuck to the underside so they get nice and moldy .

Not sure which smells worse, moldy grass or running over dog crap. . . .I'm picky about sharp blades so the other option wouldn't be for me. Personally, I keep a putty knife on the tractor, raise the deck and run the front wheels up on something high enough so that I can reach under and scrape off when necessary. Takes me about a minute or less to clear it off :auto-layrubber:

[Duff 206]

At the end of each mowing I raise the deck up to full height, engage the PTO, set the engine at about half throttle with the parking brake set and the tranny in neutral, and carefully spray underneath the deck with a garden hose on high pressure stream. I let the spinning blades work with me to blast everything from underneath the deck. Usually comes out spotless! Now for those of you with safety switches still intact and working, this will require getting a helper to sit on the seat while you do this. Be very careful not to put the nozzle (or your hand!) up under the deck far enough to contact the blades. Takes about five minutes and is very effective. I does leave a mess, so you'll want to choose where you do your washing ahead of time. Twice a season and before winter storage I take the deck off, clean off any residual grass, then brush on clean bar and chain oil as a preservative. After four seasons my deck is still 100%.

Duff :thumbs:

[dcrage 628]

I can attest to the mowing "hard, dry (I added that adjective) organic or non-organic (again my addition) waste" will really clean the underside of your deck -- In my case it is either massive amounts of dry oak leaves or during dry periods in the summer just driving over my crappy lawn (well actually the deck cleaning gets done on the parts of my yard that no longer have any 'lawn' growing -- The dust, dirt, wood particles clean rather well