Posts Tagged ‘fall maintenance’

It’s Time For Fall Mower Maintenance

Thursday, September 25th, 2014

As the calendar moves from summer to fall, it makes sense to turn your attention to maintaining your mower. Proper maintenance is essential to the longevity and performance of any mower, and proper service ahead of extended storage ensures the performance you enjoyed this season will carry forward to the next.

A focus on fall maintenance helps you get a quick, trouble-free start next spring.

A focus on fall maintenance helps you get a quick, trouble-free start next spring.

Start clean

It’s important to start a period of storage with a clean mower, as any debris left on the mower will either trap moisture or become fodder for a rodent nest. It’s also easier to inspect and perform necessary service prior to storage when you’re not working through a thick layer of dust and debris.

Never use solvents to clean your mower, and minimize the use of water as well. Instead, use compressed air or a leaf blower, and finish by wiping the exterior surfaces with a damp cloth. Take your time and clean the mower completely, including under the seat, under the deck, behind the wheels and around the engine and drivetrain.

Examine Your Machine

Refer to your owners manual or to Exmark.com for information about specific service schedules, but once your mower is clean, inspect it for clear signs of wear and tear and replace any parts that are at the end of their life cycle. Checking and servicing or replacing normal wear items such as belts, tires, blades and other parts restores mower performance and ensures safety and long life. Plus, replacing worn parts prior to storage gives you the opportunity to get a quick start on the next season, as your focus won’t be distracted by service related issues.

Pay particular attention to normal wear items during your mower inspection, such as the condition of blades and deck drive belts.

Pay particular attention to normal wear items during your mower inspection, such as the condition of blades and deck drive belts.

Sharpen Blades

The efficiency and quality of cut your mower delivers is highly dependent on sharp blades for top performance. After a hard season of mowing, it makes sense to sharpen your blades. In doing so, you can be confident your mower will hit the ground running when it comes out of storage in the spring.

Focus on Fuel

Extended storage can wreak havoc on an unprotected fuel system, so prior to storage it’s important to either drain the fuel tank (and system) completely, or add stabilizer to the fuel. If you go the fuel stabilizer route, be sure to run the engine for a few minutes after the stabilizer is added. This will distribute the treated fuel throughout the fuel system to keep it clean and deposit free during storage.

Remove the Battery

When storing a mower for extended periods, it’s a good idea to remove the battery from the machine and store it in a climate controlled area (preferably at 50-70 degrees F). Not only will this preserve battery condition, it will ensure that a leaking battery doesn’t cause corrosion to the mower frame during storage. Learn more about caring for batteries in this post from Exmark’s David Martin.

Fresh Lube is Good

Lubrication is the life blood of your mower, and it’s important to refresh all lubricants prior to extended storage. This includes changing the engine oil and filter as well as the hydro (drive) fluid and filter, and greasing all zerk-equipped bearings on the machine.

Replace both engine and hydro oil and filter(s) prior to extended storage.

Replace both engine and hydro oil and filter(s) prior to extended storage.

Take your time when lubricating your mower, as it’s important to remove any load or binding from bearings being greased. This ensures lubrication reaches the entire bearing instead of just a portion of it. Also, inspect bearings for wear and/or play, and replace any bearings that have been compromised in any way.

Storage Considerations

Regardless of where you store your mower — in a barn, under a waterproof tarp, or in an inclosed trailer — it’s just as important to keep rodents at bay as it is to keep the elements out. There are a variety of traps and chemicals to choose from, and natural solutions such as oil of peppermint or Osage oranges can also be effective at keeping your machine free of vermin. It’s important to avoid the use of harsh chemicals on your machine, as many can cause damage to its finish, or to specific components. Your local Exmark dealer can be a good resource for suggestions to control rodents specific to your area.

Keeping moisture at bay is equally important. Store your mower in a place where snow, rain and ice can not reach it. Rust can appear quickly on stored machines left out in the elements, so keeping your mower in a well-protected place preserves not just its longevity, but also its performance.

Learn more mower service tips at http://www.exmark.com/ServiceTips.aspx. Locate the service schedule for your Exmark machine at http://www.exmark.com/MaintenanceSchedules/.

Leaf removal – the sequel.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

So we asked, and we received. In our last leaf removal post, we asked you to share some of your favorite tips and techniques with us on leaf removal. We’re glad to say we got quite a few responses – some creative, some pretty funny and others that we could see coming in quite handy. Thanks to all who shared!

And, rather than just picking one – we decided to go with a few of our favorites:

Mitch

I own an Exmark Turf Tracer HP. Usually I blow all the leaves out of the flower beds onto the lawn with my blower. Then I mow the lawn two to three times to mulch up the leaves. The mower is designed so well, it acts like a very powerful vacuum, sucking up the leaves and shredding them into tiny pieces! It doesn’t miss any leaves and I’m just using the normal Exmark blades. After I mow over the leaves two to three times, I attach my bagger and mow once, emptying my bagger every once in awhile. This works great for me.

Ryan McCallum

I own a Navigator. After blowing the leaves out of the gardens and tight areas I run over them with the machine equipped with the mulch plug to chop them up really fine. Then I take the plug out and bag as usual. Takes a bit more time but saves a lot of space on the trailer.

Rob Robinson

Blow out all the plant beds into the lawn and suck the leaves up from there. If there are a lot of them, it’s not a bad idea to grind the leaves up a bit to cut down on the amount you have to move.

Brennan Wright

Mulch kit probably the best investment I’ve ever made.

Ryan Nicola

The JRCO leaf plow works great moves lots of leaves quick leaving a thin trail behind which can easily be vaced up with a mower or blown easily with a good back pack blower.

Daniel Lane

For individual small yards, grab the biggest, thickest tarp you can, rake and blow the leaves onto it, and move by hand or tie off to your rider for the burn pile or truck.

Bonnie Lange Salonek

Ultra Vac – just got mine and I love it!

Kenny Farrell

Mulch over them with a Lazer and bag them up with a Turf Tracer.

Though we don’t encourage this behavior, the following posts made us chuckle a bit:

Joe Caron

Hire someone to do it for me!

Brian Smith

Cut down all the trees.

Justin Monnig

I’ve got all sorts of ideas, let’s see, how about use a speed blower or buffalo blower to move ‘em into your neighbor’s yard. No bagging needed. Then sit back in a lawn chair with an alcoholic beverage as your neighbor sweeps them up.

If you have more ideas you’d like to share, feel free to leave a comment below.

Fall maintenance, Part 1

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

There’s nothing more important for extending the life of your mower than proper maintenance, whether it’s pre-season maintenance, in-season maintenance or fall/winter maintenance. Since summer is officially over (already?), we thought this would be the perfect time to focus on fall maintenance. You want your mower to be ready for the long, cold days ahead. Since the list is long, we’ll break up maintenance into two posts, so make sure you come back for the sequel.

A good cleaning.

Storing a clean mower is key. Your mower’ worked hard all summer long and deserves a good wash down. Which brings us to our first cleaning tip: never wash your mower with water or solvents. Water on steel results in rust and deterioration. Clean your mower with air. A leaf blower is a great way to clean a mower, or you can use compressed air.

Make sure you clean everywhere – lift up the seat, get under the deck, reach behind the tires, remove belt guards and clean the area underneath, really get into every nook and cranny. Any debris left on the mower can do one of two things: become a rodent nest or trap moisture. If you’ve already forgotten the first tip we gave you, here’s a recap: steel + water = rust.

Grease is good.

Your mower has bearings that need to be greased. This is the time to do it. Make sure you’re not only starting with fresh grease, but also using the right kind of grease for your machine and conditions. Your Exmark dealer will be able to help you in picking out the appropriate grease.

The greasing technique for the bearings is extremely important. In other words, don’t hurry through it or use shortcuts. Make sure you remove the load before you grease the bearings. If you try to grease bearings while they’re still under load, you’ll end up greasing only half the bearing. It’s worth your while to take your time and remove any belts and springs before employing the grease gun. If the bearing is moveable, we recommend that you move it three or four times to get a nice coating on the bearing. This is also a good way to inspect the bearings for wear and tear, making sure they move freely without any grinding or tightness.

Oil change

Like your car, your mower needs its engine oil and filter changed. It also needs its hydraulic fluid and filter changed. Once all of the fluids and filters have been changed, start the machine for about five minutes or less to make sure the clean engine oil circulates throughout the machine. Utilize the hydraulics to get the fresh fluid circulating as well. If changing your mower’s fluids isn’t your strong suit, take your mower to your dealer. Most dealers run a winterization special during this time of year. One of the benefits of having your dealer perform end of season maintenance is that they usually have a multipoint inspection of the machine that examines multiple wear points, catching something you may miss or not even think about checking. If they do find something, winter is probably the ideal time to have your mower serviced, since you won’t need it in the field.

That’s it our first segment of fall maintenance. Check back soon to see more tips on what you need to do to maintain your mower.

This blog post is by David Martin, customer service manager at Exmark.

Fall Clean-up

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

As mowing season winds down, pros need to start thinking about fall maintenance and winterizing their mowers. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk fall clean-up.

Picking up extra debris and keeping customers’ yards clean sometimes can be more difficult than it should be. But using the right tool, like Exmark’s UltraVac system, can keep a simple clean-up job from turning into a big production.

Something else to consider is your blades. More times than not, we get calls from pros telling us that their mowers aren’t picking up extra debris, like twigs. The issue is often blade related. Regular blades do a great job of bagging grass clippings, but leaves need to be chopped up into very fine pieces to move quickly and efficiently through the tube. Extreme blades are designed for this job. They’ll get more debris in the bag, and you won’t have to stop as often to empty it.

One last thing to check is your deck setting. If your deck isn’t set at the correct level, your mower won’t be able to pick up debris. Your local dealer can help you get your deck to where it needs to be.

This blog post is by David Martin, customer service manager at Exmark.