Anybody who owns a 44 or 50 inch mower deck knows that the spindle cover does absolutely no good for keeping out grass and dirt, in fact it probably does more harm holding it in and allowing it to hold moisture causing rust. I try to remove the cover and clean it out good several times in a mowing season and always find it full. I thought seriously about leaving the cover off but the safety issue and the fact that it does help maintain some strength in the deck prevented me from removing it.
Roland Bedell came up with the idea of cutting some holes in the cover to allow you to blow the dirt and grass out with an air wand after each mowing session. He found that it worked good and shared his idea with me, I had never seen anybody do it but I could see the benefits and was immediately interested.
Taking a spare deck cover I had, I took a 1 3/16 inch Greenlee hole punch and cut 4 holes in the back ridge of the cover similar to what he had done. One on each end and two directly behind the center pulley.
Deck cover with hole modification mounted on a 44A deck.
Left side of deck mounted on tractor. The hole allows you to blow air through the cover side to side but it is about impossible to get hurt in any way.
Holes in the rear of the cover allow you to blow air in from the front around the center pulley opening and blow the dirt and grass out the back.
Right side opening, deck mounted on the tractor.
After mowing my yard I took it back to the garage and shut the tractor off, blew it out side to side and from the front through the opening around the center pulley, then to test how good a job I had done I started the tractor up and engaged the mower deck and then blew in to see if more grass would come out. I didn't see any more grass exit so it looks like it works well with the mower deck shut off.
I'm not quick to jump on modifications unless I see a definite improvement and no Safety issue, this one looks like a good one to me and I thank Roland for sharing it with me and allowing me to share it here.
