Mower Deck Lubricant Sprays

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eeb3

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I just bought a JD S130. I've read conflicting advice online about whether it's a good idea to spray a PTFE or graphite dry lubricant spray on the underside of the deck. In the Spring, the grass I mow is sometimes wet, but otherwise not for the most part. I have a few questions: (1) Does the mower come from the factory with a coating of some sort that might help prevent grass build-up? (2) A local mower service company told me they no long sell or recommend these type of products because they can damage the underside of the deck. Any truth to this? (3) If the spray gets on the spindles, is that a concern? (4) Somewhere I saw advice not to spray the underside of the deck with water too often as doing so can encourage rust, especially on the spindles. Any truth to this? -- Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
 
some people have done testing on YouTube on different fluids, graphite, Fluid Film etc.. They all help but wear out fairly quickly. Looked to me like it has to reapplied maybe every other mowing to keep working well. Could get time consuming and expensive. But so is replacing a deck or mower.
 
The best thing that you can do is to keep the underside of your deck clean. Wet grass buildup will rot the deck from the underside. Just about anything that is applied to the underside of your deck will wear off fairly quickly. I've tried several products with the same results.
Buy you a good scraper.
 
I had a customer who had a 38 inch deck hot dipped galvanised when his machine was relativity new, to try avoid the deck from rotting out, of course being hot dipped , the steel warped somewhat & he was never able to get a even cut height.
After putting spacers under 1 of the spindle housings & spending a lot of extra money & time we got it to work for a while, until he mowed over some concrete & bent the deck more & smashed both spindle housings, he said it was not worth the effort.
The point to this story is to spend the extra time to keep the underside of the deck as clean as you can with that scraper as mentioned above, to try make it last as long as you can.
 
eeb3 said:
I just bought a JD S130. I've read conflicting advice online about whether it's a good idea to spray a PTFE or graphite dry lubricant spray on the underside of the deck. In the Spring, the grass I mow is sometimes wet, but otherwise not for the most part. I have a few questions: (1) Does the mower come from the factory with a coating of some sort that might help prevent grass build-up? (2) A local mower service company told me they no long sell or recommend these type of products because they can damage the underside of the deck. Any truth to this? (3) If the spray gets on the spindles, is that a concern? (4) Somewhere I saw advice not to spray the underside of the deck with water too often as doing so can encourage rust, especially on the spindles. Any truth to this? -- Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Aren't the spindles cast Aluminum with steel bearings? That's what they look like on my Ariens. Better to wash the grass and dirt off than leave it to rot and cause the metal to corrode. I usually use the narrow tipped blow gun on an air hose until it needs to be washed.

Not sure how PTFE or dry lube would damage the metal- probably because the service company doesn't want to be liable for any damages.
 
eeb3 said:
I just bought a JD S130. I've read conflicting advice online about whether it's a good idea to spray a PTFE or graphite dry lubricant spray on the underside of the deck. In the Spring, the grass I mow is sometimes wet, but otherwise not for the most part. I have a few questions: (1) Does the mower come from the factory with a coating of some sort that might help prevent grass build-up? (2) A local mower service company told me they no long sell or recommend these type of products because they can damage the underside of the deck. Any truth to this? (3) If the spray gets on the spindles, is that a concern? (4) Somewhere I saw advice not to spray the underside of the deck with water too often as doing so can encourage rust, especially on the spindles. Any truth to this? -- Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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I use the Tri-Flow lubricant spray with Teflon. I apply it after each mowing after hand scraping the mower deck underside.
I do not wash the underside of deck. It will not dry enough to reapply the Tri Flow spray liubricant. This has worked out for me on all my lawn mowing equipment, for over twenty years of mowing, with success!!!!
 
eeb3 said:
I just bought a JD S130. I've read conflicting advice online about whether it's a good idea to spray a PTFE or graphite dry lubricant spray on the underside of the deck. In the Spring, the grass I mow is sometimes wet, but otherwise not for the most part. I have a few questions: (1) Does the mower come from the factory with a coating of some sort that might help prevent grass build-up? (2) A local mower service company told me they no long sell or recommend these type of products because they can damage the underside of the deck. Any truth to this? (3) If the spray gets on the spindles, is that a concern? (4) Somewhere I saw advice not to spray the underside of the deck with water too often as doing so can encourage rust, especially on the spindles. Any truth to this? -- Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Every fall, I pull off the blades, clean the underside and spray it with rubberized undercoating. I also spray the undercoating on any spot that appears to have developed surface rust. Seems to work just fine.
 
eeb3 said:
I just bought a JD S130. I've read conflicting advice online about whether it's a good idea to spray a PTFE or graphite dry lubricant spray on the underside of the deck. In the Spring, the grass I mow is sometimes wet, but otherwise not for the most part. I have a few questions: (1) Does the mower come from the factory with a coating of some sort that might help prevent grass build-up? (2) A local mower service company told me they no long sell or recommend these type of products because they can damage the underside of the deck. Any truth to this? (3) If the spray gets on the spindles, is that a concern? (4) Somewhere I saw advice not to spray the underside of the deck with water too often as doing so can encourage rust, especially on the spindles. Any truth to this? -- Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Useless endeavour. Mow when it's dry.....
 
eeb3 said:
I just bought a JD S130. I've read conflicting advice online about whether it's a good idea to spray a PTFE or graphite dry lubricant spray on the underside of the deck. In the Spring, the grass I mow is sometimes wet, but otherwise not for the most part. I have a few questions: (1) Does the mower come from the factory with a coating of some sort that might help prevent grass build-up? (2) A local mower service company told me they no long sell or recommend these type of products because they can damage the underside of the deck. Any truth to this? (3) If the spray gets on the spindles, is that a concern? (4) Somewhere I saw advice not to spray the underside of the deck with water too often as doing so can encourage rust, especially on the spindles. Any truth to this? -- Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
My JD D140 has 400+ hours on it, is several years old, and I've never had any rust issues at all. My ex-wife has the same model, and it's 2-3 years older than mine, has about 75 more hours on it than mine, and still has no corrosion. I do maintenance on both mowers. I mow wet or dry, just whenever I can get it done. I don't clean under the deck unless I am under it for a blade change, and sometimes not even then. Last time I saw the underside of the decks they were both still rust free. So, I've never given any consideration to any type of coating. However, that being said, if I were to put any kind of coating on one, I would think there would be no better way to protect the underside of a deck than to sandblast it clean and coat it with a Line-X or Rhino-liner type truck bed coating. Coatings similar to these are available in spray cans at the big box stores. One I have experience with is made by Rustoleum. I used it to coat a severly corroded battery tray on a 1968 model Ford 3000 tractor. The tray had corroded terribly, but was still solid. I sandblasted the tray to bare metal, coated it with the Rustoleum and it looked like new. That was several years ago and it is still in the same condition as when I did it. The trick with these coatings is to start with BARE METAL. Truck beds are etched before the coating is applied, but once properly applied, almost nothing will hurt them. In my experience they are as close to indestructible as they can get. I have NO experience with it on a mower deck, so try it at your own risk, but anyone who does, please post your results here.
 
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