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cub 3205 deck anomoly

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rb623974
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 9
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2006-07-10          131969

Just had an experience with the 60" deck on my Cub 3205, and want to pass it along in case it might be of help to other users.

I have no idea if there are several 60" Cub garden tractor decks, or just the one my tractor has. I also don't know if the 54" is just a slightly smaller 60", or if there are substantial differences.

I work on a bunch of garden tractors as a volunteer at my church, American Legion, and Elks Lodge, taking care of their lawn eqpt. I also have a JD 400 and Roper RT-13 I restored, and a JD RX-75 rear engine rider.

I've done my share of struggling with cranky decks and replacing broken v belts.

I ran into something on this Cub I just bought that is interesting. The deck was cutting unevenly, on a side-to-side basis. It was visibly cocked to where the left deck side was lower than the right side.

Where my adventure started was in glibly deciding to "throw a wrench on it and get it level, again". Sounds good and looks good on paper. First problem was in finding a way to get to the doggone vertical lift rod adjustment (the adjustment is a locknut on the bottom of the lift rod). Turns out this thing is almost totally hidden and inaccessible with the deck full up. Once a friendly 3205 owner told me this, I dropped the deck down, and was then able to get to the nut to either tighten or loosen it.

Turns out I ran the darned nut all the way up on the rod, and still didn't have enough bite to get the deck up on an even keel. What to do.

I carefully inspected everything, and found nothing bent, broken, or obviously mis-installed. So, I got a thick stack of 10 washers and put on the vertical lift rod, above the nut. Then, I was finally able to get the thing up even.

My next problem was in setting the rear rollers. The book says set the front casters to your cutting height of choice (mine is 3"). So I did. Then, it turns out the rear rollers were way high. In this case, the book says use the adjustment knob over on the left rear deck corner to reset the rear roller height.

Turns out my adjustment knob was stuck. I hosed it down with WD-40 all the way across, but it was still stuck. I found a way to pull the black plastic knob back away from the detent enough to get a wrench onto the flat spots on the adjuster shaft. Using the small wrench and a cheater, I was then able to get everything freed up enough to do the adjustment of the rear rollers as they should be adjusted, without undue effort.

Well, my deck is now just slightly raked down in front (as they should be), is level from side-to-side, and is sitting nicely on the wheels and rollers at 3" cutting height. It mows great.

What bothers me still is that I had to put the stack of washers in there to get the thing to come into plumb. Shouldn't have had to do that. Normally, that means something else is out of whack, somewhere. I'm going to leave it awhile and observe. It mows great, so far. And, I'm sure if I took the washer stack out I wouldn't be able to level the deck.

Hope all this helps someone.


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cub 3205 deck anomoly

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2006-07-10          131977

If the deck was to have hit something it could have sprung the linkage for it to be that far off. There might be something else but glad you found a way to work with it. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2006-07-11          131991

I agree with Art, I've seen plenty of mowers with decks bent way out of true.

The usual culprits seem to be the solid items near a lawn, the corner of a building, a tree, a utility pole or something like that.

Best of luck. ....

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cub 3205 deck anomoly

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rb623974
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 9
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster

2006-07-11          131993

Oh yeah---I've done that a million times. It's just so easy to fetch up against something you don't see while mowing. I've hit stuff that stopped forward travel cold. Had to back up and go around. We have lots of areas in the big lawns I mow where big pines were knocked over during hurricanes. What this does is rip up the root systems. Once the stumps are ground, those root tips later are really great about emerging and snagging mowers.

It's amazing how hard you can hit something and not damage the mower decks. I've been very lucky in this regard. Probably should have had a lot more bent decks than the none I've had. ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2006-07-11          131996

rb,

What part of Hurrican country are you in? ....

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cub 3205 deck anomoly

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rb623974
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 9
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster

2006-07-11          131999

Pensacola.

What about this "pay to continue in the forum" thing? I'm not too keen on that. I don't think I'll hang around this one much longer unless they go back to a free forum. ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2006-07-11          132003

I'm not the best one to express a thought on the cost here, but I don't think $20 a year is unjust at all. TP has saved me more than $20 and provided confirmination on some of my thought and given me more enjoyment than my investment. Sure better than some meals I paid more than that for.

kt ....

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cub 3205 deck anomoly

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster  View my Photos  Pics

2006-07-11          132008

In my case not having to deal with a bunch of pop-up ads, spyware, or trojan horses in my cookies is worth more than the $20 a year.

Certanly it's worth more than that in the good whiskey it would take to soothe my nerves afterwards. LOL.

Besides, $20 doesn't go very far towards making a mistake if some advice or ideas from here would have saved you hundreds or thousands......

Best of luck. ....

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cub 3205 deck anomoly

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SG8NUC
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 579 g
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2006-07-11          132014

It is hard to put a price on enjoyment. To each It's own. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster  View my Photos  Pics

2006-07-11          132027

I started on the free forums and found that $20 spent here is much more enjoyable. There's a reason that folks here think it's worth the $20. YMMV. ....

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