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The rear deck mounts are too easy to bend and drop the deck. If you run into anything or nick the deck it puts torque on the rear mount on the side you hit. I have lost count of the times I have bend one and the deck drops and I cut low on that side until I notice it. What has been done to strengthen them, I have put U clamps on them both but I bend one again today. I don't know how many times you can bend the tab before they break off instead of bend.

Sorry to hear. Not sure which tabs you referring to.
I have VERY rough lawn, very. Those bolts came undone once, but I never had them bent and my deck hits humps in lawn dozens of times a mow. I reset deck height to 3 inches and double nutted bolt ends. So far so good. But indeed, those should be chains instead of bolts.

Humps or bumps no problems but you hit something in the grass like a low stump or just clip a swing set leg or come too close to a tree so you clip it as you go by or clip the edge of the drive way and you will see what I mean. The rods of the mounts are supported at the top end by a short 1/2" rod ( I will call that the support rod) that is supported between tabs on each side that are on the back of the mount. The tabs bend out and let the support rod drop though. Very poor design, the deck is strong but the mounts are by far the weak link.

cec5505,

I'll check that out in the next few days to see what I can do to strengthen those u-mounts. If I see a cure you can do easily at home on your own. I'll make a video of the cure.

Max

I saw a 2018 model and saw Hustler had made a change. They put groves and clips on each end of the support rod to keep the rod from falling though the tabs so easy with the smooth rod. I ordered two rods (HUSTLER 118018 - PIVOT, DECK LIFT) of the new type and four clips (HUSTLER 791673 - CLIP E,.625x.480x.042 Z) and I hope that will take care of the problem.

Can you post any pictures when you get them installed?

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clubairth,

I think this video may help if it is what I think he is showing you from looking up his part numbers earlier.

Try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia57dq7FHGg

Max

The deck mounts shown in the video are like mine no clips on each of the pin that goes through the mount that the rod is bolted to. On the new Raptor SD they put clips on each side of the pins. The clips go in grooves in the ends of the pins right up against the mount so the pin goes not move and also keeps the tabs from bending. Hopefully the pin dimensions between the models 2014 and 2018 are the same.

cec5505,

I have a video on that coming up as well. The space in the uchannel is the problem. All you need to do is remove the space from the channel on each side of the lift rod head. I did it with cadmium plated washers so that the pins remain centered. You can actually do that with HDPE washers. The High Density Polyurethane doesn't wear the pins or the uchannel like a metal washer does.

I also use plastic washers to remove the metal to metal rub on the deck lift foot lever. I didn't notice whether you can see that in the video or not. I will be covering that in the video on the uchannel spacing.

You can see it just barely at 37:11.

cec5505 said:

I saw a 2018 model and saw Hustler had made a change. They put groves and clips on each end of the support rod to keep the rod from falling though the tabs so easy with the smooth rod. I ordered two rods (HUSTLER 118018 - PIVOT, DECK LIFT) of the new type and four clips (HUSTLER 791673 - CLIP E,.625x.480x.042 Z) and I hope that will take care of the problem.

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cec5505 said:

View attachment 40814

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I took this pic of a RSD60 at Lowes yesterday:

That's the new fix. I have ordered two for the back mounts but they are on back order I guess they have not been able to keep up with demand. They are cheap ($1.50 for the deck lifts and $0.50 for the clips) from Hustle Mower Parts. They fit all years of Hustler SDs .