Water + mower decks...
Not mine. I remove them several times per season to scrape off the grass clippings. You can avoid a lot of problems from wet grass clippings by not mowing wet grass. NEVER EVER wash any of the 44" or 50" decks...water will get trapped under the stiffener plate and rust and pit it and the deck skin all to heck since there was no paint in that area on them from the factory. I have welded up too many holes in those decks from them getting wet. I use this Rustoleum brush-on paint that can be applied over rust on the bottoms of my decks. I wire wheel off the grass and loose chunks of metal and then paint with that stuff. It works great. It will wear off of some areas, but grass clippings don't tend to stick to those areas, either. It's easy to scrape the chunks off of the other ares.
Jeff U.-
Looking great, but PLEASE tell me you didn't sandblast those front wheels with the bearings still in them...
Denny-
I have a 46GT deck on my 782D. It is a nice deck and cuts our uneven yard much better than most 44" and 50" decks I have had. The biggest problem with the 44" and 50" decks is the rust issue I mentioned above. The later CCC decks are pretty decent, but the factory powder coat is HORRIBLE. I need to sandblast and paint that 46GT one of these days.
The 46GT will fit any IH-built 82 series with no problems, and could probably be put on a 1x8/9 or QL with minimal changes. Forget putting it (or any of the newer decks) on a NF, though. You could probably kludge together a mule drive and carriage combo that would work, but those newer decks are all so tall. They would barely fit under the tractor let alone lift above the ground.
The aluminum housing spindles in the newer decks will fit the older decks and make a great replacement for the ST-745 bearings.