Mower spindles

[matt_i]

You do know that Woods does not make their mowers right? They just have mowers built with their paint and decals. Gravely made their Mid deck ZTRs for years. I know that wood would charge 70 to 100 more mark up on a lot of parts compared to buying from gravely. The older front mounts were made by grasshopper but the current ones I am not sure.

Gravely, scag, and toro have all made models with tapered roller spindles. Yet there are plenty of heavy duty spindles with ball bearings that last extremely long time. It more that they are of sufficiently oversized and in heavy duty housings.

I didn't know that. I have two Woods decks, one is known 25yo and the other I'd guess is close to 40yo. I don't do much other than put in grease and get a new belt every couple of years.

Bottom line is anything built with a set of tapered roller bearings is going to take 10x the abuse of something built with a 62xx bearing. I've redesigned/custom designed a couple things in my manufacturing life where "ball bearing parts" were failing literally every week and the specially redesigned tapered roller bearing replacements were humming merrily away after 5 years. They do have to have lube and they do need the clearance between the opposed sets to be free-running without being loose. Around .002" has always worked well.

 

[whateg01]

Old thread, but I'm back again thinking, there has to be a way to make these things dummy-proof. Somebody at the makerspace mentioned that they needed to reinstall the blade which was apparently thrown off in use. That was followed by somebody else saying they thought the spindle needed to be replaced but they couldn't get the old one off. So I go have a look, and the blade end of the spindle is chewed up again. From past experience, I'm sure the bolt was not install tight. They don't have a real impact there. The cordless one is just the 1/4" hex variety, but I know my DeWalt will loosen 100 ft*lb lugnuts. Then again theirs is an old off brand. Maybe I need to put on a mower maintenance clinic.

A spindle of this style would still require the blade bolts to be tight, but if they weren't would do less damage, possibly still throwing the blade but not requiring the spindle to be replaced as often. Of course, it would take some adaptation but that's of little concern to me on the front side. The problem with that would be if I left the makerspace and somebody else tried to maintain the mower they wouldn't be able to just buy a COTS part for it.

 

[tester19]

Maybe a bit off topic?
But I never remove the deck on my Hustler. I do use a bracket that holds the blades so I can torque them to the proper spec. Makes changing blades much easier too. No fighting the blades and no need to raise the mower deck very far to get a battery powered tool on it. I can use my breaker bar and just twist about 1/2 of a turn and then thread the bolt in and out by hand. I just drive the zero turn up on ramps as not much clearance is needed.



Blade Holder

I was a bit surprised it worked so well too. About $25.
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[kbs2244]

from what I am reading I am assuming the users are often changing their own blades

(that in itself seems to mean rough use)

if so tightening and un-tightening the spindle bolts would be a problem for in-expericed workers
do yourself a favor and go to H F and get one of their $20.00 120 volt impact guns and a correct sized socket
then show them how to use for both on and off

it will solve the not enough torque in both directions problem

 

[whateg01]

Maybe a bit off topic?
But I never remove the deck on my Hustler. I do use a bracket that holds the blades so I can torque them to the proper spec. Makes changing blades much easier too. No fighting the blades and no need to raise the mower deck very far to get a battery powered tool on it. I can use my breaker bar and just twist about 1/2 of a turn and then thread the bolt in and out by hand. I just drive the zero turn up on ramps as not much clearance is needed.



Blade Holder

I was a bit surprised it worked so well too. About $25.
.
.
.

I generally just stick a 2x between the end of the blade and the deck. That blade holder is awfully bougie for me!

 

[whateg01]

from what I am reading I am assuming the users are often changing their own blades

(that in itself seems to mean rough use)

if so tightening and un-tightening the spindle bolts would be a problem for in-expericed workers
do yourself a favor and go to H F and get one of their $20.00 120 volt impact guns and a correct sized socket
then show them how to use for both on and off

it will solve the not enough torque in both directions problem

That is a good idea. They can be reluctant to spend money but that's less than the cost of another spindle. I like that!

 

[firebirdparts]

Old thread, but I'm back again thinking, there has to be a way to make these things dummy-proof.

I must be crazy, but I find the blade itself quite a fabulous counterhold for installing that bolt. You could scarcely come up with a better one. If people have been doing this to themselves since this thread started, though, I guess there is something about screwing up this particular way that they like, and they may be hard to stop.

Like I said already, the original hardware on the bottom is adequate. It works quite well for a long time.

 

[Innovate1]

No reason you should need an impact wrench to tighten the bolt. I change these all the time with a 1/2" ratchet. Grab the blade with a glove and torque it down good and that is more than enough. Just have to have a bit of attention to detail when it is put on. If the splines aren't aligned when the bolt is tightened the blade will spin and become super loose right away. And proceed to destroy the splines. Sure there are more stout designs but the splines work fine if blades are put on properly. If people aren't doing it right buying them an impact gun is unlikely to fix the problem.

 

[racecougar]

Agreed. And if mower blades are flying off, they're definitely doing it wrong.

 

[kbs2244]

using the impact for the install will solve the finger tight problem

 

[brownbagg]

i got mine from amazon

 

[My Old Tools]

Oregon Gator blades will generally last several times as long for me. And yes, teach a class on blade installation before they hurt someone.