Leaves. The scourge of the fall. I’ve finally figured out how to adapt a JD power flow bagger I had from my scotts lawn tractor, 2 lawn tractors ago, to fit and operate on my newest lawn tractor. I credit
@andyvh1959 for getting me off the dime and getting it done. Well, that, the scourge of fall, and me pricing out what I’d need from big green to make it happen also helped.
Spent some time last month and fabbed what I needed to adapt a power flow bagger I bought in 1999 for my 48" Scotts (JD wannabe) lawn tractor to fit up to my 2023 JD S180 with the 54" deck.
I’ve run it now for a couple weeks and it hasn’t blown up yet, so there’s that. And actually, I'm currently running it on my S180 but using the 54" deck from my 2011 JD LA175 (which, amazingly is the same 54" deck, just yellow vice green) for my proof of concept.
I built a bracket to mount the post that supports the bags because the *** end of the scotts is completely different; no plug-and play. The post just hangs off the back of the bracket, clipped into a sort of stake pocket I made. The bracket itself is made out of 1/4" flat bar that I bent and welded and then bolted on using existing bolt holes on the tractor frame.
The challenge was I had to overhang the attachment point for the post further outboard as the tractor frame is a tad narrower and the deck is 6" wider.
The other challenge was making a new jacksheave pulley, as original was sized for a 48" deck, so wrong in both diameter and spindle shaft size. Of course, JD wanted $170 for a compatible one, but I figured it was something i could make for much cheaper.
I took an old spindle pulley I'd "retained" from replacing spindles on the LA175 deck some years ago and found a 4" pulley to serve as the driving end for the blower. I cut and welded a short section of aluminized steel from a hunk of exhaust pipe to the deck pulley and then I cut out the center of the 4" pulley with a hole saw and welded that to the top.
My "creation" looks the same as the original jack sheave pulley, but sized to fit my current deck. Now that the concept was proven out, I'll paint it and swap it out to the newest deck at some point.
For the safety bubbas, I've still got to fabricate a shield or cover for that pulley, when I get to it. The power flow blower itself was actually a direct fit, although the current current kit that JD specs out for the S180/LA175 looks a bit different and runs over $1000. I refurbed the blower with new bearings that I found I already had and just received a new belt to replace the original 26 year old one.
And the wife wonders why I've kept (and moved) those machines.
So the only issue is I'd forgotten how quickly it picks up leaves; the issue is we've got much more than I would like. Already thinking of the next upgrade to replicate a setup a neighbor from almost 40 years ago had. It was a JD setup with a towed dump cart that was fixed to the mower and it had 2 large swivel caster wheels to support the dump bed but it followed the mower. I've added another item on my LOSTD.