animaux wrote:
Bud Paulson wrote:

Anyone know of something to apply to the underside of a mower deck on
a lawn tractor to prevent grass buildup
or at least to make it stick less firmly and make cleanup easier?
Thanks Bud


We bought an electric, rechargeable mower and it's deck is made of
plastic.
Other than washing the deck bottom after each use, there's not much I
know of.
Mowing when the grass is dry is another good way to avoid that buildup
of wet
grass.


New plastic, coated metal decks and even uncoated metal decks will all
be great when they're new, but eventually they'll become scratched, and
more prone to sticking. The dryer the grass, the less sticking, but of
course that isn't always possible. The wetter the grass is, the sharper
your blade needs to be to slice the grass, instead of stripping and
pulverizing it.

You also want to make sure you do a good job of cleaning the deck each
time you use the mower. Grass left stuck to the deck will dry out, and
become semi-permanently adhered to the deck, giving an even better
surface for more grass to build-up upon.

As far as applying anything to the deck, obviously anything wet (or
oily) is simply going to cause more grass to stick. Anything dry isn't
going to stick to the deck. You could find a shop that can apply Teflon
(or similar) coatings, but generally for after-market applications the
deck would need to be removed, and it would be coated on both sides. And
that's likely to be more expensive than buying a new mower. Even buying
a replacement deck is likely to be more expensive than a new mower,
especially if you don't do the work yourself.

So short of buying a new mower, the three things that will help the most
a
1. Cutting the grass when it's dry. (That includes avoiding the
morning dew as much as avoiding rainy days),
2. Keeping the blades sharp, and
3. Always doing a good job of cleaning up.

Interestingly enough, those three actions have other positive results
associated with them as well, so they're good ideas even if you do
decide to buy new mowers as often as some people buy plants.

--
Warren H.

==========
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Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
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response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
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