I picked up a Massey Ferguson MF248 mowing deck recently with a mulching kit and mulching blades. Ingersoll made tractors and attachments for MF in the early 90's. The MF248 is basically a red RM48 deck.
The deck is in decent shape for its age. The owner used it for about 7 years and then stored it in the top of his barn for the past 25 years.
I'm just starting to break the deck down and service as needed. The center spindle assembly appears to have some vertical play. Center blade adapter also needs replacing. The mulching blades look a little rough...
I disassembled and started cleaning the spindles today. Somebody previously pressed in the spindle bearings with the inner seals removed and used about a tube of grease between all if the spindles. The grease also leaked out the top sides of the spindles, was flung around the belt area of the deck, mixed with sand and caked on. Good times cleaning this mess up... I'm open to recommendations for cleaning the caked on grease off...
Both spacers on each spindle are good (exceeds the minimum length). I also removed the random bearing shield parts. These were likely from the previous set of bearings.
If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.
7020, 6018LQA, 6018LBH, 4223, 4120, 446, and whatever other tractor I just impulse bought
dhitching wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:29 am
If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.
I've got an Ingersoll 4016. If a Massey collector really wanted this deck I'd think about trading for a decent RM48 deck. I drove 2hrs each way to pick this up specifically for the mulching setup. I did pick other stuff up on the trip.
dhitching wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:29 am
If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.
I've got an Ingersoll 4016. If a Massey collector really wanted this deck I'd think about trading for a decent RM48 deck. I drove 2hrs each way to pick this up specifically for the mulching setup. I did pick other stuff up on the trip.
Only problem that I see is that the 48" mulching blades are no longer available.
dhitching wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:29 am
If you don't actually have a Massey tractor there's probably people who would happily trade you a nice Ingersoll RM48 for that Massey deck! I know Joseph Schweppe has a Massey C/I collection.
I've got an Ingersoll 4016. If a Massey collector really wanted this deck I'd think about trading for a decent RM48 deck. I drove 2hrs each way to pick this up specifically for the mulching setup. I did pick other stuff up on the trip.
Only problem that I see is that the 48" mulching blades are no longer available.
Bob
I've got a new MK48-2 kit with blades in the garage. Problem is the mulching blades don't clear my RM48 deck on the left side. Standard blades barely clear the deck. I can post pics... it's like the deck wasn't welded quite right from the factory. My RM48 deck also had 7 broken welds along the front tunnel which I had repaired and welded extra bracing in which is now in the way of the mulching kit. My friend who helped with the welding has since moved out of the area.
The factory reinforced that area on later production decks and came out with a kit to weld into the older decks which we still stock. The MK48-2 will fit with the factory reinforcements, that's the difference between the MK48 and the MK48-2 mulching kits.
myerslawnandgarden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 30, 2025 11:11 am
The factory reinforced that area on later production decks and came out with a kit to weld into the older decks which we still stock. The MK48-2 will fit with the factory reinforcements, that's the difference between the MK48 and the MK48-2 mulching kits.
Bob
I had no idea the factory offered a weld in reinforcement kit.
This is part of the tunnel reinforcement I made on my RM48 deck. It hasn't been welded yet. Similar to the later RM decks.
