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Post by Jolly on Feb 28, 2021 18:52:52 GMT
Ran across this, while doing my internet mower research today...
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Feb 28, 2021 21:41:12 GMT
Amazing! I've been greasing my bearings every Spring along with the usual maintenance chores. As old as my mower is I've never had a bearing go out, maybe I got lucky and Yazoo-Kees did their spindle bearings right.
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Post by Cabin Fever on Feb 28, 2021 22:26:18 GMT
About a year after I got my new Cub Cadet in 2007, a spindle bearing went out. My wife does the mowing and is hard on the rider. She is constantly hitting gravel, tree stumps, branches, and hillocks. When I took the spindle apart, I noticed its housing was completely dry of any grease. I wondered about this, so when I went to the dealer where I bought the mower, to buy a bearing, I asked him why the spindle didn't come from the factory greased. He told me the bearings are permanently lubed so I didn't have to grease the spindle. I figured he was right because it would have taken pert near an entire tube of grease to fill each spindle cavity. That's a lot of grease if you have three spindles!
At any rate, this or that spindle bearing continued to break almost every year since 2007. I figured it wasn't due to the lubrication issue, but due to my wife's mowing habits. "Ah dear, I hit a stump and now the deck is making a funny noise." I've actually had to swap out the entire spindle housing due to cracks from her running into stuff. I don't complain too much, because if I did I'd be the one having to mow. I rather replace parts than mow any day of the week.
Now, I buy bearings by the tube off of Amazon. The last tube of 10 bearings costs me under $20 with free shipping.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Mar 1, 2021 13:27:16 GMT
It's not just mowers that are engineered to fail. Years ago I bought a Grizzly vertical band saw for re-sawing. It was the heaviest duty saw they had, and was touted to be a real whomper-stomper. Taking the guard off after it stopped dead in its tracks on the second board we found it had a half horse motor and a single belt pulley. Okay, that's easy enough to fix, we put a one horse 240v motor on it with a double pulley. It worked fine for about two days when it locked up again. Taking it apart to diagnose the problem we discovered the guide pulleys were only sealed on one side! What idiot puts unsealed bearings on a wood saw?
Put the original motor and pulley back on, boxed it back up, and sent it back. We could have just replace the bearings with the proper ones, but at that point we were wondering what other little surprises they'd engineered into that piece of junk. Not worth the aggravation.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 1, 2021 15:29:08 GMT
My rider is a 98 or 99 Toro. Grease the spindle bearings at least once a month. So far have not had a failure, watch that change next time I use it!
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Post by Jolly on Mar 1, 2021 17:26:34 GMT
Toro is interesting. They make some consumer mowers that are meh. They also make some really, really good commercial and prosumer stuff.
And like many brands (Husqvarna are you listening?) things have changed a lot in the last twenty-five years...
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Post by farmerjack41 on Mar 1, 2021 19:49:50 GMT
Sadly you can not buy a Toro rider anymore, only zero turn.
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Post by Jolly on Mar 1, 2021 20:28:40 GMT
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Post by sawmilljim on Mar 2, 2021 1:52:19 GMT
Problem I have is I just can’t convince my self to bring a mower home in my truck that cost less than the mower did. |
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Post by Jolly on Mar 2, 2021 2:43:53 GMT
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Post by joebill on Mar 3, 2021 3:25:19 GMT
Often, one can save some time, trouble and money by going for some more expensive bearings as replacements.
Some years ago, ball bearings became commodities, and when that happened, quality on the cheaper ones ( read Chinese) took a real nose dive.
There are a lot f grades of ball bearings, and certainly no need to buy the very best ones for a lawn mower, but it dang sure pays to at least invest in some that were "Made In America."....or at least maybe Koyo bearings from Japan...ANYWHERE but China....... I betcha even the factory grease in Chinese bearings is sub-par.
If you want decent bearings, buy them from a bearing store, like the local branch of "bearing belt and chain", or even Grainger. I used to replace hundreds of them per year when overhauling industrial power tools like hammer drills, angle grinders, electrical tools that put in 40 hour weeks like the guys who used them. Often when they came in for other problems, I could check the wear and wobble in the bearings and just pop off the seals and re-grease them, pop the seals back on and they would be good to go for another year. NOT SO with Chinese bearings. If you insist on using them, you had dang sure better replace them every time you see them.
You can buy a Chinese pillow block bearing for a REALLY cheap price if you want, but it is rarely a bargain. I only used two of them in the last several years, and they are the ones that support the leaf spring bundle on my power hammer. I chose them because they only rotate 450 quarter-turns per minute when the hammer is running, and that is less than an hour per month, so while there is always a demand for the very cheapest and most inferior product, try to make sure you use that product in the place it is suited for.....Joe
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Post by Cabin Fever on Mar 3, 2021 14:05:07 GMT
I buy the cheapest spindle bearings I can find because it is not the poor quality that is causing them to break, it's my wife's poor mowing habits. I swear she tries to use the mower to grind down stumps and to level the hummocks in the yard and on our forest walking trail. Does she get off the mower to move a branch (or tree limb) that has fallen? No! Just drive over it and chop it up. I don't care how good the quality of a bearing is, she's gonna find a way to break it.  I can hardly blame her though, she was used to driving a batwing mower behind a tractor in Texas. She tells me that sometimes she'd wrap up a dozen yards of barbed wire by getting too close to the fenceline. |
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Mar 3, 2021 14:09:13 GMT
I buy the cheapest spindle bearings I can find because it is not the poor quality that is causing them to break, it's my wife's poor mowing habits. I swear she tries to use the mower to grind down stumps and to level the hummocks in the yard and on our forest walking trail. Does she get off the mower to move a branch (or tree limb) that has fallen? No! Just drive over it and chop it up. I don't care how good the quality of a bearing is, she's gonna find a way to break it. I can hardly blame her though, she was used to driving a batwing mower behind a tractor in Texas. She tells me that sometimes she'd wrap up a dozen yards of barbed wire by getting too close to the fenceline. You do know there’s an easy way to fix that, don’t you? |
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Post by Cabin Fever on Mar 3, 2021 14:16:52 GMT
I buy the cheapest spindle bearings I can find because it is not the poor quality that is causing them to break, it's my wife's poor mowing habits. I swear she tries to use the mower to grind down stumps and to level the hummocks in the yard and on our forest walking trail. Does she get off the mower to move a branch (or tree limb) that has fallen? No! Just drive over it and chop it up. I don't care how good the quality of a bearing is, she's gonna find a way to break it. I can hardly blame her though, she was used to driving a batwing mower behind a tractor in Texas. She tells me that sometimes she'd wrap up a dozen yards of barbed wire by getting too close to the fenceline. You do know there’s an easy way to fix that, don’t you? LOL! Yes, I do. I'm really not complaining. I'd rather turn a wrench fixing the mower deck then mow the lawn any day of the week. I hate mowing and she loves it. She puts her headphones on and plays music while mowing. You can hear her sing a 1/4 mile away over the noise of the mower. Priceless! |
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Mar 3, 2021 15:34:51 GMT
You do know there’s an easy way to fix that, don’t you? LOL! Yes, I do. I'm really not complaining. I'd rather turn a wrench fixing the mower deck then mow the lawn any day of the week. I hate mowing and she loves it. She puts her headphones on and plays music while mowing. You can hear her sing a 1/4 mile away over the noise of the mower. Priceless! 😁 She sounds like me...as long as someone keeps the mower working, we’ll mow! |
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I can hardly blame her though, she was used to driving a batwing mower behind a tractor in Texas. She tells me that sometimes she'd wrap up a dozen yards of barbed wire by getting too close to the fenceline.
