other brand deck spindles

[thebuildist]

It really bothers me that the only blades available for my RM... 54? are a straight/low lift blade. I really prefer a high lift blade, and it would be nice if I could run a mulching blade, or whatever else I wanted. (I'm just finishing season 1 of my new high-lift blades and they're fantastic) And as much of a pain as it was to manufacture my own spindle-to-blade adapters, I then STILL have to modify a stock deere blade to get it to fit. And them things are HARD steel.

So I've given some thought to the sacrilege of installing some other readily available spindle assembly from whatever manufacturer. (probably something off of some kind of heavy duty zero turn) A brand and model for whom spindle assemblies and blades are easily obtained.

You'd have to get an assembly that has about the same overall height as the Ingersoll, measured from the blade up to the pulley. Within a half inch or so. And in a perfect world, the spindle assembly's mounting face would be the correct height so that when you bolt it onto an Ingersoll deck, the blade sits at the correct height inside the deck housing.

You'd likely have to make/modify 3 pulleys, so that the overall belt size and routing don't change from Case/Ingersoll spec's.

And I'm sure the spindles wouldn't last as long as the steel ones that are on there now. The new ones are generally made of aluminum or pot metal, with cheap bearings. But they'd be a readily available and relatively inexpensive consumable item, and it would open up a world of blade options.

Anybody done this mod or thought about it?

[MattA]

Bob - I've done some research on this. I'm on vacation right now. I'll post some info when I can. Tim pointed out that OEM mulching kits popped up on ebay. I made an offer for $200 and it was accepted. https://www.ebay.com/itm/125908471633?h ... R-7D5Je9Yg

Also I think you have an RM48 deck.

[DavidBarkey]

@thebuildist
Bob , I have kicked the idea of making from scratch a mulching rear discharge deck based off the OEM deck that would use the snap fast . My thought was to fabricate my own spindle from heavy wall steel tube and plate . Use a trailer spindle bearings and seals . Or just use trailer hubs and machine them to suit . Then make my own spindle shafts to suit the blade centre I want and the pulley needed .
As for a spindle housing for an OEM deck what about taking one of the 4 bolt trailer hubs as a blank and re-machining to suit the oem steel spindle housing . Spindle shafts , I think it is best to make from scratch to suit the blade you want to use . A good source of steel for shafts is old rear wheel drive axle shafts .

[Jancoe]

Bob - I've done some research on this. I'm on vacation right now. I'll post some info when I can. Tim pointed out that OEM mulching kits popped up on ebay. I made an offer for $200 and it was accepted. https://www.ebay.com/itm/125908471633?h ... R-7D5Je9Yg

Also I think you have an RM48 deck.

Matt, I've made a few offers to I believe the same guy for a mulching kit. He's will not sell them for 200. I've tried a few offers and he's staying high up there at his original price.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[Harry]

David I like the way you think. Making your own spindle mounts, that’s a great idea. Harry

[thebuildist]

David, when it comes to manufacturing a whole new spindle shaft, I thought about doing that using my current bearings and housings. But the problem is the coupling to the blade. Almost all commercial blades have some kind of irregularly shaped hole in the center. Ingersoll have that squared off circle. A lot of the deer have a star spur center. Do you know offhand what manufacturers blades I could look at that would just have a regular round hole in the middle?

[DavidBarkey]

David, when it comes to manufacturing a whole new spindle shaft, I thought about doing that using my current bearings and housings. But the problem is the coupling to the blade. Almost all commercial blades have some kind of irregularly shaped hole in the center. Ingersoll have that squared off circle. A lot of the deer have a star spur center. Do you know offhand what manufacturers blades I could look at that would just have a regular round hole in the middle?

Almost all the HD mower/ commercial units up here have a single round hole . They use a large nut or bolt and heavy wash to lock in place . But will slip slightly on impact to reduce chance of damage in case of hitting something like a tree root ect. That is the theory anyways .

there are many . go here and on the left side of page you can look up by length/ thickness/ hole size and type / ect. https://www.stens.com/products/blades/lawnmower-blades

[MattA]

Bob - This post is from my RM48 mulching blade thread. The idea is to just change the RM series blade drive adapter to work with the new blades. The rest of the spindle assembly would remain standard ingersoll parts.

I've also been doing some research on other brand mulching blades and using a custom blade adapter. The green tractor brand uses a 7 point star drive and has 17" and 17 1/16" mulching blades. I'm thinking of having a custom Ingersoll spindle shaft to blade drive adapter made to work with these blades. The blades may have a slightly different offset which could be accounted for in the blade drive adapter length (if needed).

Stens 17" 7 point star standard mulching blades:
https://www.stens.com/330-318-mulching-blade
https://www.stens.com/330-445-hi-lift-blade
Toothed or gator mulching blade
https://www.stens.com/362-440-toothed-blade

Oregon 17" 7 point star standard mulching blades:
https://www.oregonproducts.com/en/mulch ... 2/p/92-105
https://www.oregonproducts.com/en/orego ... /p/192-104
https://www.oregonproducts.com/en/mower ... 2/p/91-586

Oregon 91-586 and Stens 362-440 seem like the best candidates so far based on the same blade length (17") and width (2.5") as the Ingersoll blades.

Standard non-mulching blade Ingersoll C31572 (Oregon 91-117) (Stens 310-366)
Size: Length: 17"
Center Hole: 7/8" H, 1-1/4" W
Width: 2.50"
Thickness: 0.187"
Offset: 1/2"
Air Lift: 1"

Oregon also no longer lists 91-117 on there website. Stens still lists 310-366.

[Toolslinger]

David, when it comes to manufacturing a whole new spindle shaft, I thought about doing that using my current bearings and housings. But the problem is the coupling to the blade. Almost all commercial blades have some kind of irregularly shaped hole in the center. Ingersoll have that squared off circle. A lot of the deer have a star spur center. Do you know offhand what manufacturers blades I could look at that would just have a regular round hole in the middle?

For sure Walker mowers run with a round center hole. They deal with the specific blade timing they need with a couple small shear bolts that you could ignore as long as your blade paths don't actually overlap to the point of interference like the Walker's do.

[thebuildist]

Okay based on input from this conversation, I found these spindles, which are off of a king kutter PTO driven finish mower.
https://images.app.goo.gl/H1uxYMcr4w9r9inm9

They're nice and heavy duty like the Case. And seem to be fairly consistent in design. And pretty affordable, $40 each.

https://fimicimplement.com/products/fm7 ... 0996349061

And it would give me a wide selection of blade options from the Oregon or stens website.

But the mower that these spindles are off of looks like it's deck maybe deeper than the case / Ingersoll. Which may give me a challenge and getting the blades set at the correct height inside the deck.

Anybody familiar with these King cutter decks? Or one that's similar that wouldn't be quite so tall/deep?

Bob