Weird spindle design on a Commercial ZTR

[Nwatson99]

I am posting about this since I find this design very weird for commercial spindles and would like to know from some of your folks that has these type of spindles.

Good friend of mine owns a mowing business, well he was at a friends' house last night who was changing the blades on his commercial ZT and got involved helping him do his blades.
Well my friend calls me today just bs'ing and we got to talking a little about mowers and he explained to me how his friend changed the blades on his commercial mower, so my friend asked me; your JD is not like that to change the blades is it, I replied heck no.

Procedure explained to me by my friend:
Removed the foot access panel to the center of the deck, no spindle covers were on the machine I asked.
Then he jacked up his mower using the deck, just crammed a floor jack under it and once he achieved height, he then placed two jack stands also on the rim of the deck to keep the mower up.
Slipped out the floor jack
Placed a wrench on a nut on the top of his spindle, jamming it against the machine.
Laid down and zipped out this long bolt that went all the way through the spindle and pulled out a long bolt, blade, etc from underneath the deck
Removed the blade from the bolt, and zipped it right back in everything with my friend holding the wrench and starting the nut on the bolt.
Then they did the other two the same way.


Just for my curiosity I would like to learn more about these spindles so I can understand the design.
If a bolt goes all the way through the spindles, how good are the bearings and from engineering stand point this means there is a inner sleeve shaft in the spindle that the bolt slides through?
I have not seen spindles like this, why would a commercial company make or use spindles like this?
Who else has this and what are your thoughts on these spindles?
Is there a compression fitting from the long bolt to the inner sleeve?
Or am I just imagining a totally wrong design and can someone enlighten me on this?

 

[djdicetn]

I am posting about this since I find this design very weird for commercial spindles and would like to know from some of your folks that has these type of spindles.

Good friend of mine owns a mowing business, well he was at a friends' house last night who was changing the blades on his commercial ZT and got involved helping him do his blades.
Well my friend calls me today just bs'ing and we got to talking a little about mowers and he explained to me how his friend changed the blades on his commercial mower, so my friend asked me; your JD is not like that to change the blades is it, I replied heck no.

Procedure explained to me by my friend:
Removed the foot access panel to the center of the deck, no spindle covers were on the machine I asked.
Then he jacked up his mower using the deck, just crammed a floor jack under it and once he achieved height, he then placed two jack stands also on the rim of the deck to keep the mower up.
Slipped out the floor jack
Placed a wrench on a nut on the top of his spindle, jamming it against the machine.
Laid down and zipped out this long bolt that went all the way through the spindle and pulled out a long bolt, blade, etc from underneath the deck
Removed the blade from the bolt, and zipped it right back in everything with my friend holding the wrench and starting the nut on the bolt.
Then they did the other two the same way.


Just for my curiosity I would like to learn more about these spindles so I can understand the design.
If a bolt goes all the way through the spindles, how good are the bearings and from engineering stand point this means there is a inner sleeve shaft in the spindle that the bolt slides through?
I have not seen spindles like this, why would a commercial company make or use spindles like this?
Who else has this and what are your thoughts on these spindles?
Is there a compression fitting from the long bolt to the inner sleeve?
Or am I just imagining a totally wrong design and can someone enlighten me on this?

User Mad Mackie could enlighten you on that spindle design....I'm 99.9% sure you are talking about a Scag Commercial ZTR. I don't know any details to answer any of your question but I do know they are kind of a pain to remove/replace the blades but are VERY high-quality spindles.

 

[Fish]

My old 1980 Bunton Walk behind used spindles like that, well made, easy to swap blades, great design.

 

[Fish]

Bunton PAL0806A Spindle Assembly 1985145 PAL0806A | eBay

Here is one like it.

 

[Fish]

Actually, I have seen them on several brands, but I think that they are phasing them out, as the owner rarely has to buy
expensive replacement parts.......

 

[Av8r]

My Ferris isn't like that, but my buddies scag is. I like the design and would be happy with it

 

[Fish]

Yeah, it is a great idea. The "shaft" is just a standard bolt, and if you hit anything, the blade will slip/spin, and the only thing that would/could bend was the blade. Rare to replace much of anything on the spindle.

 

[Carscw]

My snapper pro has them. Very easy and fast to change the blades.
And as fish said when you hit something the blade will slip and not bust a spindle.

Most mowers that use this setup will have spacers so you can change the blade height. You can have the blade sit high in the deck or down low at the edge of the deck.

 

[exotion]

Every ztr I've ever used and worked on has this design. Makes for longer lasting spindle. The other type is just a bolt into the spindle like my Murray tractor has seems like a design to fail kind of thing but hey you pay more for quality

 

[Nwatson99]

Thanks guys, I looked them up and looked at the link that fish put up.
I just don't understand the design of the long pain in the butt bolt when they could have accomplished the same thing with a simple redesigned shaft for easier one hand blade change under the deck like most others and that would have made the customers happier.