It's wide open. I asked the guy from Spartan to post a pic in one of those threads, which he did.

Here you go-

http://www.lawnsite.com/threads/spartan-mowers-new.452388/page-5#post-5424551

 

Arrrrrggggghhhh! If it wasn't for those dam bolt heads!

 

A lot of Spartan owners are complaining about the cut though, so not sure what's wrong with them because other than the bolt heads they look like they should lay it low.

 

When I got my snapper pro the bolts were very similar where the mulch kit was installed. I took them all out and turned them around. I am not sure what the bolts are called but the heads are the flat round heads. Maybe that can be done on the spartan decks? I bet that would help a lot.

 

Yes, Those bolt heads are not a good thing.

 

Carriage bolts, and someone posted that same idea in one of those threads a while back. I think I'd be looking at doing that right away, and I am not for sure, but i think even the rep mentioned they might go to them.

 

Seems like a no brainer to me...I bet that makes a huge difference.

 

Looking at the underside of the deck, two things stand out to me besides the bolt ends that y'all have talked about; The blade tips are pretty close to front baffle. The trim side blade looks to be around 1" from front and it looks like the other two are pretty close also. This might make it tougher for the deck to cleanly cut tall or stemmy grass.

Another potential design feature that might need to be researched more by the company is that the blade cutting edge sets up at least 1/2" to 3/4" above the bottom of the front baffle. This, IMO, will probably also have a negative impact on cutting taller grass as clean. I would like to see them shorten the front baffle to about the same level as the cutting edge of blades, especially since the blade tips are so close to front of baffle.

Also, I notice that the center area of front baffle (look at 2nd picture in RG's link to other thread) has a nearly flat area before it makes the turn toward the discharge side....kind of like the VX4 Hustler deck. Not sure whether it will hurt anything but might cause clippings to be a little longer coming out of deck.

 

Great analysis!

 

To be honest. The left blade on the 7 Iron is close like that, but it is a full 1.25" below the front skirt and a good 1/2" + below the inner baffle wall. The way the Spartan deck is, I agree with Razor- that will most likely cause more issues than resolve.

 

Same with my deck. That's gotta be the problem. I never noticed the blade tip was flush with the baffle until that being mentioned by razorblades. I can definitely see why that would be a issue along with that flat part of the path with the clippings. Do that and something about the bolt heads and I think they would be cooking with grease! Easy fixes if they will take some advice. Although it might me sour grapes with current Spartan owners if they mod the deck one year after release.

 

I have always run Scag, Grass Hoppers and JD's over the years. None of which are bad mowers, I've been proud of them all but probably leaned to the Scag most of the time. Last week I bought the Spartan SRT XD. I just couldn't turn down the price compared to the TT II. In the last week we've mowed everything from a yard that's not been touched all year to our weekly yards. So far I'm impressed!!!! Added HP really comes in handy and this mower seams to hold sloops better than my Scags

 

I was thinking about buying a spartan mower,but until I here Florida lco's saying the cut quality is amazing then I'm going to hold off.

 

Ok...stay on topic guys. lol

 

We are, aren't we?

 

Dosnt gravely have some bolts sticking down in there deck, I looked a a Gravely 460 the other day that had some bolts sticking down.

 

Most decks have maybe 1 or 2 because you have to mount the idler and a tension pulley and you can't weld those to a deck. Spartan seems to have utilized bolting everything to the deck instead of welding a lot of that stuff like other manufactures do. I will have to look again at the Gravely..

 

Here are some of other various deck makers. The first 2 are gravely and there are some bolts in it but they look to at least utilized carriage bolts with a smooth head which are better vs buildup but not perfect. Followed by Scag, John Deere, Husqvarna, Ferris and Exmark. The final photo is the Spartan for a comparison.

 

The JD deck in your pic is from a front mount unit, probably a 1400 or 1500 series. There are more holes in them than in the decks under the Z's. Here's what the Z deck looks like underneath. The upper holes (that are toward the front of the deck when in the normal position) are there so that the same shell can be used with the MOD deck set-up, and are void of any bolts under the Pro model. The holes at 8, 4, and 3 at the center blade chamber have a carriage bolt head under the deck-

 

Those bolts coming through the bottom of the deck on the front of the gravely stick down about a half a inch and are just straight threads. I just looked at a 60 and I thought to myself I could see how it would catch clipping and they build up and fall off and cause a clump.

 

Ok Riding speaking of the hump blades I purchased some of these which at first I wasn't sure if they were high enough lift but I compared them to one of my notched foil blades and the sail looked very similiar other than it was solid. The blade rides about 1/2 inch lower than the flat blade so it might resolve some of the issue for the Spartan getting the cut below the baffle. Anyway I ran them today and they did a pretty nice job.

 

My stock JD high lifts followed by the new Scag medium lift blades. The OEM's look a lot more impressive but the sail is only a 1/4" taller, and nowhere near as long. The Scag blades definitely spread the clippings out better, and stripe better too. Next on my list are the Scag notched foil super high lifts-

 

My stock JD high lifts followed by the new Scag medium lift blades. The OEM's look a lot more impressive but the sail is only a 1/4" taller, and nowhere near as long. The Scag blades definitely spread the clippings out better, and stripe better too. Next on my list are the Scag notched foil super high lifts-

View attachment 329886

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Those Scag blades are identical to the Ferris ICD deck. I have 3 new sets of them at home I might try them some on my mowers.

 

There are no plans to change the deck design,the deck bolts. I just got this info from Spartan Mowers.

 

To each their own I guess. Other than the bolts and if you ran some hump blades to get the cutting plain just below the baffle I think the deck should work great..