Legacy - mowin with the 540..

[SmilinSam 4,030]

So far so gooddOd

Got some more weedpatch to mow, but alas....I ran out of gas

Surprised to be able to mow without a front weight, though the mower deck underneath helps a lot to counter the mower out the back I'm sure.

If I step on the very back of the 4' bush hog the front of the tractor will slowy tip and come off the ground,. So about 100 lbs up front should fix the need. Had Ray cut some weight bracket sides for me to manufacture my own sort of weight carrier. That will be next on the agenda.

Cub Cadet had a much better way of holding the deck up on their Super garden tractors so you wouldn't have to take it off while using a 3 pt attachment, but heres what I came up with...

Works, have one on each side of the frame to the same place on the mower deck each side. I just raise the deck up all the way and then lift the edge of the deck by hand a little more and slip the hook into the catch.Do it for each side. Trial run saw the hook on one side slip out, so I need to adjust things a little.Other than that my turnbuckle on one side for the sway stabilizer came loose, so I probably need to add locking nuts to each turnbuckle.Seems to be worth all the cash expenditure for the 540 and the 3 point setup so far.

[huffy 2]

My neighbor has one of those attachments, which I borrow from time to time. It works great for cutting up underneath low hanging trees, which I have a tone of in my yard. Much easier than doing it with a push mower.

[Talntedmrgreen 1,978]

Excellent! These are a nice, nimble machine. I found I couldnt steer worth a hoot with my 4' rorary cutter out back, but I mowed mostly ditchbank. If i raised the mower, I had better be pointed where I wanted to go till I was on level ground.

[fishnwiz 3,290]

What a sweet ride!

[SmilinSam 4,030]

Heres what the weight bar turned out like:

Need to find another couple of the 15lb weights to add to it. If I find some of the old cast iron barbell weights at the auctions I will buy them. They weigh the same but are thinner and you can fit more on the bar.After gassing up and mowing another hour or so I found the right side deck hook unhooked again. More adjustments needed.The big problem I found though is that the cat 0 lower pins bushed out to cat 1 are not tough enough for the cat 1 attachments. Both sides were bent and one side the nut had stripped off 3/4 of the way. the whole pin was loose. Looks like I will have to drill the holes in the 3 point frame out and install cat 1 pins for the lower arms.

[Talntedmrgreen 1,978]

Interesting...my pins never bent, and I used the piss out of it with a variety of attachments (tiller, rake, same mower you have, 60" & 48" flails etc).

Are they extended too far (I found I had to keep mine in tighter to the hitch so the arm cleared the tire anyway). I do like the idea of Cat1 pins, but never found them necessary. I went with those so that I could also still use the OEM arms if needed, since I originally had both. Those OEM arms are stupid small...they got it right on the XL and really beefed them up.

[SmilinSam 4,030]

well, I got onto a small ditch mowing and got one rear wheel up off the ground on the side that the pin loosened up. Figured it would be better to replace with cat 1 forged pins since I use all my cat 0 attachments on my Sunstar.

Probably doesn't help that the balls on the links and lower arms are real stiff either. With some use they should all free up and not be so stiff.

Real handy to mow with and I really like the low center of gravity of the Legacy. Going to have to start shopping for a second Legacy to park at work to mow with so I can keep this one here.

[Talntedmrgreen 1,978]

I find them very comfortable to operate. The early legacy has a short wheelbase/nimble feel. I struggle mowing on some slopes and uneven spots on my lawn with a Sovereign, and the Legacy felt like a rock crawler in those same spots.

You can go from 3pt work, to loader work, to lawn mowing and it's not under or oversized for any of the chores. It's just a little too big for the bed of the pickup