Mower deck: front runners or wheels
 

I am in the process of rebuilding a 44" deck for my 682. As with most of them the front runners have been broken and poorly repaired. I am thinking about putting wheels on the front rather than the runners and was looking for some opinions on what everyone prefers. To be honest I have never been overly happy with the way my mower cuts. I'm hoping a rebuild with fixing all worn parts will help but I'm thinking it's partly due to design. So any improvements I can make would be great.

If I stay with runners, does anyone have a source for a similar shaped piece of stock? Bending it to shape is not an issue, but I have never ran across anything with the same profile.

Just my two cents....:TwoCents:

I was never a fan of either the "runners" or front wheels. But if I had to choose between those two, I would go with the wheels.

You "may" want to consider front caster wheels as seen on the newer decks. Yes, it will require some fabrication, but I think you would be much happier.

I agree with Roland that casters would be best, but it is a lot of work. I have been toying with the idea of a spherical wheel like Adam did on the 48" deck of his 149. He did a nice write up of his bracket, with dimensions. It's a different deck, but should help you get close.
http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=34335

If you wanted to replace the hoop, I think round bar would be easiest. If you have a torch 3/4" round is not hard to bend.

Bill

Bill, thanks for posting that for me. I'm very happy with the front wheels. The skids were worn halfway through and bent to hell and that helped with my decision to go with the wheels.

Thanks for the link. I was looking at the build thread for that deck yesterday. So you guys think swivel casters would be better than mounting the wheels straight forward?

Very nice work on the deck rebuild. Excellent fab skills and a very nice finished product.

IMHO I think the gauge wheels used by IHinIN are about the best, nice and rounded across the face to go sideways without digging in so much.

I think a caster would be great if you were going forward ALL the time.
But every time you back up they will want to flip around.
And at that time be digging a divot.

Skids and straight wheels are great when your going in a straight line. When you are turning into a hill or incline and the skid or wheel is sliding sideways, that's when they can dig in and cause a divot. The caster wheels rotate and ride up the incline instead of digging in and won't cause a divot. The radius on the bottom of the skid and the spherical wheels are an attempt to minimize the number/size of divots. The larger decks use the casters, I don't know that there is ample real estate on a 44" deck to mount a decent set of casters. Unless your yard is very hilly or uneven, I think spherical wheels will give you the results you want over your current bent up skid. Growing up I ran an off topic mower with spherical wheels on a 46" deck and don't recall much of a divoting issue. My $.02

Bill

Between fixed wheels or casters, the casters will do less damage. Keep in mind that when the deck is mounted properly and the wheels mounted at the correct height, their only purpose is to keep the deck from scrubbing. They are not in contact with the ground unless there is a ground swell and they are more likely to turn and not scrub like the runners or fixed wheels are. Only front mounted decks rely on the wheels to keep them up. The deck height adjustment is what keeps the deck in place on other machines.:bigthink:

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm thinking I will probably go with wheels. I will just have to decide between straight wheels or casters. Looks like I will have to wait until winter dies down so I can pull the snowthrower off and see what kind of clearance I have. If I do fixed wheels, I may just use the pre-made Cub Cadet bracket kit to save some time.