Hello, new to the forum and hoping someone can suggest the right choice for repairing my deck. I have a Craftsman YT3000 42" riding mower. I also have a LOT of oak trees. I've lived here now for over 16 years and I know where all the roots are, but inevitably I will hit one. Well, over the course of several years (this is my second Craftsman mower), I've hit these roots so many times that I've done irreversible damage to the deck. What I mean by that is, I've bent the deck back so many times the metal has lost it's strength. So the least little bump against a root and my blade hits the inside of the deck (left blade only). I have to hop off the mower at least once each week, jack up the mower and beat the dent out from underneath. I have also used several tools from the outside to pull the deck back out.
So, I have priced decks online and they start around $200 and go up from there. But, besides this one area of the deck (about 8" on the left side), the rest of the deck, including the spindles are in good shape. Has anyone cut an area of the deck out and replaced it with fresh metal? I really don't want to spend the time and money to replace the entire deck when it's just this one problem area. I just bought new bagger blades this afternoon to replace the mulching blades I have on, so I could get the leaves up out of the yard. The old blades were very worn and not hitting the deck, but as soon as I put the new blades on, the one on the left side would not go past that one area where I've hit the roots. So I had to take a very big pipe wrench (after removing the front tire) and pulling up and out several times to give the blade the clearance it needed. If I had a welder and some metal material, I feel like I could cut out the bad spot in the deck and install a new piece in it's place. Has anyone done this?
Thanks.
So, I have priced decks online and they start around $200 and go up from there. But, besides this one area of the deck (about 8" on the left side), the rest of the deck, including the spindles are in good shape. Has anyone cut an area of the deck out and replaced it with fresh metal? I really don't want to spend the time and money to replace the entire deck when it's just this one problem area. I just bought new bagger blades this afternoon to replace the mulching blades I have on, so I could get the leaves up out of the yard. The old blades were very worn and not hitting the deck, but as soon as I put the new blades on, the one on the left side would not go past that one area where I've hit the roots. So I had to take a very big pipe wrench (after removing the front tire) and pulling up and out several times to give the blade the clearance it needed. If I had a welder and some metal material, I feel like I could cut out the bad spot in the deck and install a new piece in it's place. Has anyone done this?
Thanks.
