Toro Z-Master 3000 Series Blade Change (72" Deck) - Ray Hayden, J.D. 

Never had to worry about Mom... I dress myself funny!

I do have torch wrenches... and they do! Thanks for watching!

I was just thinking of you yesterday! I hope you are doing well!

I have a bunch of torn up blades... waiting to recycle the metal one day!

You are right, a quality impact wrench with the CORRECT socket (I had the regular socket, I corrected THAT error! LOL!), and I can get the blades changed fast now. I love the trailer jack thing - the one part is mounted directly to the Toro, and the trailer jack can be any of the typical ones with the proper weight capability. My Toro dealer had me buy the mount from him, but told me to grab the trailer jack down at Tractor Supply, because I could get a larger one for a lower price - I thought that was rather cool for him to offer that advice! He told me about a EZStand - probably the same thing... I like this one well. The only issue is if I break a drive belt, I don't have the tools on hand to crank up the entire mower to get under it safely to change that... thanks for watching, and I appreciate the insight as well!

The mount is something we picked up from the dealer when we purchased the mower. The jack is a trailer jack, and the dealer actually suggested that I pick that up at the local Tractor Supply store due to it being less expensive there. The mount stays on the mower - no need to remove that, and the jack is maintained in the garage (actually, we keep the mower in the garage too), The jack can be stored on its side so it doesn't fall on something, or to take up less space, and have it handy, I take the safety chain that holds the pin, and I wrap that around one of my heavy shelving units so it cannot fall over.

Hi Cate! Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for stopping by!

I will be looking into that socket, thanks! The blades might last me about five cuttings or so. I am mowing around 17+ acres each time, and some of the growth is still rough material. I want to keep asking you about that heavy duty rake you have. You used it for pine needles in one of your videos, and I believe I recall you being able to use it to help clear ditches along your driveway too. My thought is to use it like a land plane, or box blade (I do own a box blade). The deal is the box blade bunches up grass clumps, but just below the lawn is nothing but soft sand... I was hoping that I could use that heavy duty rake and just drive around all over the property in criss cross patterns to make the whole property smoother. And the thought for this is because the box blade gets bogged up, and because of the soft sand below the grass, the rear tires will spin, making things worse. The heavy duty rake (I saw this in another video) actually raked up garbage like limbs and such, but also allowed material - like soft sand - to freely exit the back end, even when they had a lot of debris in the rake. I'll make a video about that sort of thing later too.

@@rayhayden You're right Ray about the Landscape rake. The landscape rake is heavy duty and it will pull limbs, etc. Please note, it WILL dig into the grass/weeds then pull them out from the soil. Is that what you want to do? (remove all the vegetation?) When your field was weedless, you had brown fields, the landscape rake would have been great to pull and even-out the field but please know that it too will pull out clumps. It's not as heavy as the box blade, thus allows you to not dig too deeply into the soil. Also, when you drive across the field, be in 4-wheel drive and crank up the RPMs a bit to make sure you're moving at a nice pulling pace and not really too slow to allow the rear implement to dig down into too deeply. You should have a 3 pt detent that allows you to lock your 3 pt at a height you desire. Also note, the contour of the land will make the implement dig deeper in some areas more than others. The best to realize the effects is to actually see it in action and see what levers were adjusted on the implement, the tractor, and 3 pt to adjust. Do not buy a landscape rake, rent one first to make some passes on your field to see how it works. The more equipment you purchase, the more storage room needed. Ask me how I know 😊.

Thanks for watching! You would not be more correct! The two inches is just the start of it - the fields are not smooth enough either - that is the second part.... the third aspect is that I will run these blades over small sticks and such as well when they are "aging." One more thing, I actually hold on to them for doing nasty chopping of things where there is a lot of dirt or sand.

@@rayhayden I have several sets of rough blades (commercial contractor) so occasionally we run into some rough property. However we NEVER cut anything below three inches here in VA

Our grass is goofy here... the ground is really sand, and the grass is just on top, and just below the surface... the blades of grass hit seed stage (in most of the lawn, we have a lot of different grasses and such) at about 2", and then shoot up to about six inches real fast.... it is "interesting!"

The grass clumps up nicely under there! LOL!

Thank you for this information... I will seek out a 15/16 impact socket!

You're welcome Ray!

The twisty jack attaches to the front of the mower, if I am on the angle part of our driveway, I put blocks behind the wheels and under the mower as well. Thanks for watching!

I had a neighbor get crushed under his car when his floor jack failed-could have been prevented with one or two $15 jack stands.

Yes, that would suck... The jack on the mower is attached to it, unless the jack fails, it isn't going to move at all... it is like the jack on a trailer, or for a boat trailer, it is not permanently attached, but the part it locks onto is permanently attached.