In this installment of the revival of the John Deere GX345, I show you the steps of replacing the hood. In addition, we reinforce the new hood to prevent the plastic from cracking in the near future.
Great video. The running joke is that John Deere tractor hoods are made of green egg shells and green potato chips. That's why they are so fragile and break all the time. For the sky-high prices John Deere is charging for their products you'd think they would at least provide hoods that don't constantly crack and break. Canoes and kayaks are made of composite materials that are inexpensive, tough and light-weight and get smashed into rocks and logs all the time and they don't break. John Deere needs to get their act together and stop ripping off their customers.
Easy fix to beef up the hood, I think I’ll try that on mine this Fall. Also, the hood uses fixed pins that pivot in the hinge brackets and it does come off like a tail gate on a pickup, swing the hood open then grab both sides while rocking it back slightly and the hood pins will slide out, but don’t forget to pull apart the disconnect for the headlights first
Remove the hood hold down clips, they aren't needed anyway. The force needed to open and close the hood with them will cause them to break eventually. I also open and close the hood by grabbing it with both hands on each side of the bottom of the hood.
My GX345 hood cracked 2 months ago. It cracked at the hand hole while trying to open the hood to check the oil... I wish I had removed the detents before it had cracked.
Can and/or should you reinforce the lower hood? Both my top and bottom are broken and replacing with an aftermarket set. While I have it apart, I figure I might as well do both.
