The problem with hooking the shaft up, is that you have to pull the collar on the shaft toward the front of the machine, while simultaneously pushing the shaft toward the back of the machine til it locks onto the pto shaft. Very hard to do with one hand.
Couple suggestions. Make sure the PTO U-Joint gets lots of WD-40. Sometimes that seems to help, but it can be a B... to get it lined up. Almost as bad as the 3-Point tiller. I wish the coupling locked open. Second make sure that the grass cutting adjustment on the floor is set as low as it can go. This allows the rear arms to drop to the mounting pins. Have fun.
Absolutely! I fit under the back of my X748..... The 1/2 inch or so of lost ground clearance in the 425 means I can't do it as comfortably as I can from the deck side. When I had a 455 this year I switched back and forth putting the deck on.
That's also what I've done, reach under from the back. I also used some WD-40 on the coupler and driveshaft . It's too bad there wasn't a way to lock the collar back until everything was lined up and most of the way on the driveshaft .
A guy with bad knees is going to be cussing this setup. In fact, he'll be cussing any setup that involves kneeling on the floor. Are the 345 and 400's any different ?
For garden tractors the first true drive over deck was the 7-iron on the X700 series in 2007. You still had to get on your knees to hook the PTO up. The drive over deck with autoconnect on the newer X700's are the only decks that don't require the operator to get on their knees. The 345 and older 400 series is the same way if not worse.
I have had a 425 for 20+ years and have learned over time to do all that you showed us in this vid. I always wondered if it was just me and you just confirmed, along with everyone else’s comments, that this is not a easy install. Thanks for the video I wish I would have had it 20 years ago.
On my 455, the all wheel steer rear equipment is under the transmission and the pto area preventing you from getting anywhere near the right grip on the slip ring with enough force to slip the ring forward and push the shaft back onto the pto. Sometimes I get lucky. What I usually do is take the shaft off of the deck, install it on the pto first and then connect it to the deck. because I can more easily access that part.
Deck installation and removal has always been my biggest complaint on the 425. The shed is too small to do it in so we have to do it on the grass. Which, sucks. A lot. I found early on that a hydraulic jack under the front of the machine is almost a must. Another thing I have a hard time with is pulling those J pins out when taking the deck off. They always seem to be seized and very hard to release. At some point could you get around to showing us how to level these decks? We’ve never bothered with it but there are some spots in our lawn where you can see the difference in height from one side to the other. Thanks and cheers!
I have a 425 with a 48" deck and that is heavy also ! When sliding the deck under the tractor I turn my front wheels all of the way left, that should help with clearance.
Great video....the pto collar has always been difficult because its hard to do it one handed and seems impossible to get two hands on it. The shaft of the wheels of the deck (except the front right corner swivel wheel on the spring) have various height positions adjustment holes.. What is the correct adjustment and why would one choose one pin position over another? Same question for the front draft arms. I've heard adjustment is correct if the front of the deck is 1/4 " below level. Any good reason to keep it level? Or to increase the angle so the front is 1" lower than the back? Thanks.
Yes, that collar can be terrible sometimes. For the gauge wheels you want to adjust those so they are a 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the ground when the deck is in the lowered position. A properly "leveled" mower deck should be a 1/4 inch lower in the front (as you mentioned). The 1/4 inch drop helps in multiple ways, like with air flow, discharge the material from the chute, and cutting.
I can't imagine why you would want to hurt yourself dragging the deck under the tractor. I use a couple 6 inch 2 x 4s and a couple 6 inch 4 x 4s like steps and just drive up and over with ease.
I recently purchased a 425 with 60” deck but it’s snowy in my neck of the woods still so mounting the mower is a few months away. My deck has no exposed belts and flat metal covers. Is it a drive over mowing deck? It looks like it is to me but I’ve found very little info on this vintage of deck.
Unfortunately I didn't see your video before I did my 60" deck this afternoon on my 445 AWS. After fighting it for about an hour I decided that lifting the front end was necessary to get it on. If I had done that first I probably could have had the deck installed in about 15 minutes. The driveshaft also fought me pretty hard and I ended up lifting the back end and pulling off the left side rear tire to get better access.
Driveshafts can always be a bear. My recommendation is to always remove and clean the drive shaft and output shaft on the mower once a year, even if you don’t take the deck off. That makes it so much nicer vs fighting for hours to get it on or off!
Yes. I don't like attaching the PTO either. I've had some success in the last couple of seasons doing it from the back on our 445 front steer only. We have a 60 inch deck also. The combination of the bigger wheels on that and the 60 mower make it a bearcat. The bottle jack is the best cheat available!
Just did mine on the gravel driveway this week. Think I swore a few more times than recommended. Helped though!! PTO install and just dragging the deck under were certainly the bigger challenges. I used a transmission jack under the back to give me extra height to move around under to install the PTO - still did not want to make life easy though. Wont be coming off anytime soon - that is for sure!!
Have a 400 and 60” deck - circa 1980 - a bear to move around for install. My deck, however, has option to turn and pin wheels 90 degrees so dragging under tractor is pretty ez as long as those hanging supports are out of the way. Never have used a bottle jack for this. When I get on other side of tractor to pull through, I have what looks like a long (30”?) hay hook with wooden handle (think my father-in-law made it)...stick hook under edge of deck and pull.. it rolls through. Those hang down supports can and do get in the way sometimes. Indeed, those spring-loaded U latches aren’t the easiest to align with holes as in your video. I’ve had best luck by just lifting up a little on the deck. If not, swearing generally works-for me. Pop right in. Feel your pain with PTO connect. On my 400..it’s up front ...and getting shaft off ..sometimes worse than getting it on Enjoy your work. Thx for the videos Like someone here has mentioned mentioned would like to see how to make sure deck is cutting level and how the adjustment is made. Think mine may need that tweak.😉
Great video and explanations. I’m glad that it wasn’t as smooth as it could have been because it shows us the problems that we will run into and how to beat them, thanks.
I do believe this applies to the 60” on the 420 and 430, maybe the 400. Thanks, I’ll need to do this to my 420 eventually when I go to get it this weekend.
