Well crap..

[mowin]

My main mower is getting old. 2015 with about 1600 hrs. I maintain it well, but this crazy wet last month hasn't helped. I grease the spindles every other week, but I guess this wet crap hasn't helped, and I should have greased every week if not twice a week. I've got two stationary idlers (no grease fittings) that are making noise, and at least one spindle, but probably 2 that are starting to whine bad. The idlers and less the $100 for both. The spindle assemblies are $400 each.  I've rebuilt a few over the yrs, but they never last long. 

[Lawdwaz]

21 minutes ago, mowin said:

My main mower is getting old. 2015 with about 1600 hrs. I maintain it well, but this crazy wet last month hasn't helped. I grease the spindles every other week, but I guess this wet crap hasn't helped, and I should have greased every week if not twice a week. I've got two stationary idlers (no grease fittings) that are making noise, and at least one spindle, but probably 2 that are starting to whine bad. The idlers and less the $100 for both. The spindle assemblies are $400 each.  I've rebuilt a few over the yrs, but they never last long. 

All business owners feel for you and have BTDT............get 'er fixed and mow on!

[mowin]

17 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

All business owners feel for you and have BTDT............get 'er fixed and mow on!

Parts are on order.  

[phade]

1600 hrs in that time for your house? Or is that a business workhorse? My JD Z42 is at like 550-600 and I think is a 04 or 05. 

Working on these things has gotten expensive in past few years. I had a carb go bad. Replaced it, a small part on the replacement was bad. Was a nightmare to figure out. Had to phone a friend. Ended up having to swap a third carb….

Good luck w repairs.

[mowin]

13 minutes ago, phade said:

1600 hrs in that time for your house? Or is that a business workhorse? My JD Z42 is at like 550-600 and I think is a 04 or 05. 

Working on these things has gotten expensive in past few years. I had a carb go bad. Replaced it, a small part on the replacement was bad. Was a nightmare to figure out. Had to phone a friend. Ended up having to swap a third carb….

Good luck w repairs.

Landscape and property management is what I do. I have a 2010, 60" with about 2400 hrs. This 72” was purchased new in May of ’15. I've been nursing these along as I don't want to purchase another $14k mower. I've got 2yrs 3 tops before I retire and only keep only a few high end clients that I can complete in 2-3 days. I'll purchase a used mower at that point. 

Currently I've got 22 clients. I average about 16 acres mowing and trimming a week. 

 

[sbuff]

2 hours ago, mowin said:

My main mower is getting old. 2015 with about 1600 hrs. I maintain it well, but this crazy wet last month hasn't helped. I grease the spindles every other week, but I guess this wet crap hasn't helped, and I should have greased every week if not twice a week. I've got two stationary idlers (no grease fittings) that are making noise, and at least one spindle, but probably 2 that are starting to whine bad. The idlers and less the $100 for both. The spindle assemblies are $400 each.  I've rebuilt a few over the yrs, but they never last long. 

Man I bought a ferris in the fall of 2020 and haven't greased nothing this year , non commercial use . About 1.5 to 2hrs a week mowing.  Maybe ill grease asap.

Edited July 22, 2021 by sbuff

[wolc123]

That's a lot of mowing.   I only cut an acre and even that can be a pain.  I picked up a 3rd, low-hour used riding mower this year, and that has eased my pain considerably.  The two that I have been using the last 8 years have been needing considerable work the last few years, but all 3 are currently operational. 

I did pull the deck off the roughest one, because it could use a bit of welding.  I also like having  a deckless one for pulling the sweeper when the grass gets too thick or for leaves.  I may just leave the deck off of that one and build a rack for the back and use it as a "cheap" atv to get back to the range, check traps, etc..  The deck fits the newer one and has all good spindles and bearings, so it will make a handy spare.

All three of mine are 15 hp with 38" decks, two hydrostatic John Deeres (150LT & 155 LT), and an old Poulan 4 speed manual shift.  I only use that one when the grass gets too thick that it bogs down the JD hydro's, and for mowing around a row of pines that would put the plastic hoods on the JD's at risk. 

 I can usually knock off the acre in under an hour. I have cut it 19 times, so far this season, without a single significant breakdown.  I wonder who owned the latest JD that I picked up.    It is actually a few years older than the one I had been using but can't have more than a couple hundred hours on it.  All of the safety stuff still works on it.  I got it from an old guy who buys, fixes and re-sells broken ones.  He said this one needed a carburetor.  It starts and runs like a new one.

Edited July 22, 2021 by wolc123

[Swamp_bucks]

Just talked to my BIL the other day about this. He's a landscaper out of southern PA and was telling me he bought a mower in February for 10k went back because he had a different mower crap the bed on him and that same mower he just bought went up $4k.  So he decided to rebuild his older one and hope prices go down soon and the rebuild will get him through the season.

[rob-c]

I would like to make a recommendation for grease , not sure what type you use but  Valvoline crimson  is a very very good grease. When I was the head mechanic at the bus garage our fleet supervisor had all the terminals switch to this grease and across the board in all terminals ( about 1500-1600 busses ) we saw a huge decrease in parts replacement using  this grease. 

[mowin]

17 hours ago, sbuff said:

Man I bought a ferris in the fall of 2020 and haven't greased nothing this year , non commercial use . About 1.5 to 2hrs a week mowing.  Maybe ill grease asap.

Wouldn't be surprised if there's no zerks on the ferris. I know toro went to sealed spindles about 3 yrs ago because they were replacing so many under warranty. No way to tell if they were maintained or not. Now that there sealed, the amount of spindles replaced under warranty dropped considerably. The replacements have zerks.

[mowin]

10 hours ago, rob-c said:

I would like to make a recommendation for grease , not sure what type you use but  Valvoline crimson  is a very very good grease. When I was the head mechanic at the bus garage our fleet supervisor had all the terminals switch to this grease and across the board in all terminals ( about 1500-1600 busses ) we saw a huge decrease in parts replacement using  this grease. 

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely try it. 

[sbuff]

1 hour ago, mowin said:

Wouldn't be surprised if there's no zerks on the ferris. I know toro went to sealed spindles about 3 yrs ago because they were replacing so many under warranty. No way to tell if they were maintained or not. Now that there sealed, the amount of spindles replaced under warranty dropped considerably. The replacements have zerks.

I've seen the zerks on the underside when I scrape the grass off weekly.  You think I should hit every other week ,kind of look to be a pain to access unless I lift up with floor jack. I researched long and hard before going with ferris and kawasaki engine ,  its toro country mostly but ferris seems to be close 2nd for commercial mowing in the capital district 

Edited July 22, 2021 by sbuff

[mowin]

1 hour ago, sbuff said:

I've seen the zerks on the underside when I scrape the grass off weekly.  You think I should hit every other week ,kind of look to be a pain to access unless I lift up with floor jack. I researched long and hard before going with ferris and kawasaki engine ,  its toro country mostly but ferris seems to be close 2nd for commercial mowing in the capital district 

I would think once a month would be fine depending on how many hrs a week your mowing.  Thankfully my zerks are on top of the spindle. Would be a PITA if I had to access them underneath. 

Edited July 22, 2021 by mowin

[Bionic]

11 minutes ago, mowin said:

I would think once a month would be fine depending on how many hrs a week your mowing.  Thankfully my zerks are on top of the spindle. Would be a PITA if I had to access them underneath. 

I agree with you.  We have a couple turf tigers nearing 4k hours with quiet/smooth original spindle bearings.  I also will add that I make sure the blades are balanced after each sharpening, that too can trash bearings being unbalanced.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Bionic

[mowin]

2 hours ago, Bionic said:

I agree with you.  We have a couple turf tigers nearing 4k hours with quiet/smooth original spindle bearings.  I also will add that I make sure the blades are balanced after each sharpening, that too can trash bearings being unbalanced.

Agreed. I get em fairly close, but it's a PITA, lol.

 

[sbuff]

Ill hit them when I get back from vacation.  Thanks for the tip.

Sure love my ferris ...

[sbuff]

Busted grease gun,busted knuckle,greased spindles..