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Yesterday, I started doing some mowing, and noticed that my Husqvarna 48" riding mower wasn't cutting a full "swath". I pulled the deflector up, and the R/H blade was Missing. A couple of days, prior, I used the rider to cut some tall. knee high weeds at the edge of the yard, and suspect that the blade flew off in that area. I walked all over that area, and couldn't find the blade....and I can't understand how something so Major could happen without noticing a big "bang" or some other indicator of such a major "malfunction".

I changed the blades this past Spring, and still had the old ones in my workshop, so I installed one of those....I had a bolt and thick washer/lock washer that fit in my hardware bin, and torqued all the blade bolts properly and went back to the mowing, with no further troubles. I will continue looking all over the yard for the missing blade, and it may eventually show up....but losing a blade while mowing sure seems strange.

Actually the blade usually just drops down and you just pass over it; unless, the deck trailing hangs on it. It probably covered up by the clippings.

You may find it while mowing and this time there might be a loud 'bang.'

Old timers used to WALK the entire yard prior to mowing. They would take a bucket to retrieve sticks, rocks, log chains, mower blades and so on.

slomo

I walked all over that area, again, today, and found nothing. However, there are a half dozen dead trees nearby that I plan to take down to add to my Winter firewood supply, so hopefully I'll find this blade before mowing season starts again next year. One things for sure....if I Don't find it, I will be Very Careful and watchful when I start mowing again next year.

deminin said:

I walked all over that area, again, today, and found nothing. However, there are a half dozen dead trees nearby that I plan to take down to add to my Winter firewood supply, so hopefully I'll find this blade before mowing season starts again next year. One things for sure....if I Don't find it, I will be Very Careful and watchful when I start mowing again next year.

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I would walk the whole thing, maybe even dragging a magnet behind me.

The reason I give this advice is because when we bought our property, I didn't walk it. I was VERY careful mowing it the first time and hit nothing. For the second mowing, I put the wife on the tractor and she hadn't gone 100 feet before she found a 5' metal fence post that I didn't see and the mower made an AWFUL racket chopping that fence post to pieces.

If you can't something as big a mower blade I would use a metal detector it is there somewhere. I currently got a customer that lost very large spring off a JD Z830A that they can't find on the their lawn but it is there just waiting to become a missile once hit.

A bonus from using a metal detector you just find other things too. like old plow points and even loose change. On the last place I found even found several discarded electric motors. The neighbor across just found an alternator with his ZTR. Bent the heck out two brand new blades.

If you drop the deck all the way down, you will find it.


slomo

He didn't lose it. The neighbor needed a blade so he took it.

Hammermechanicman said:

He didn't lose it. The neighbor needed a blade so he took it.

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That figures.

slomo

Okay, I admit I did it while he was mowing. I got Flat'em to flatten me so could slide under the deck and using a high speed wrench remove it.

Found it....it apparently just fell off when I was getting ready to mow, and it was laying under some leaves on the side of my workshop. While blowing the leaves, yesterday, I found it, but no sign of the old bolt and washer. I'll keep looking in that area for the hardware, but no big thing now.

Lucky
try & mow the area between where the blade was and your workshop with a string trimmed a few times and keep your eyes open for the bolt.
The washer will probably just sit there & go rusty but you are likely to lift the bolt when you mow over the area and as you have just used up this years luck supply it will fly out into the street and smack a just fully restored Caddy right in the middle of the roof .

bertsmobile1 said:

Lucky try & mow the area between where the blade was and your workshop with a string trimmed a few times and keep your eyes open for the bolt.
The washer will probably just sit there & go rusty but you are likely to lift the bolt when you mow over the area and as you have just usd this years luck supply it will fly out into the street and smack a just fully restored Caddy right in the middle of the roof .

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I have a big magnet in my shop, and this afternoon I tied it to a heavy string and "dragged" the area....And Found the hardware. Strange that it just came loose and fell off when I wasn't even mowing....which was probably a good thing since if the blades had been spinning, it might have done some damage.

On the ayp stuff, that star shaped shoulder usually gets boogered up if things get loose.