1968 John Deere 110 Mower

[BWS29128]

I have a 1968 John Deere 110 lawnmower with a 38" deck and a 1976 John Deere 112H (electric-hydraulic deck lift) with a 42" deck and I'd like to build a 60" deck that will fit on one or the other or both. I recently had the opportunity to study the deck attachments on a new John Deere 130 and am impressed with the easier quick-tach attachment points on the new mower.

Does anyone have experience building this type of thing? I'm guessing I'll need to use at least 11ga sheet for the deck and reinforce it with a minimum of 1/8" cold-rolled strip and use 1/8" angle for the attachment points.

Does anyone have any ideas for places to buy guidewheels and that sort of thing for mower decks? I plan on buying the pulleys and belts from my local Tractor Supply Co store and I'm going to need new front tires and new rear tires for both mowers and I suppose I'll try to get those from the TSC too.

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

~Clint

[Blacksmith]

Will those tractors run a 60 inch deck? I mean the old 110's were stout, but its only an 8 hp Kohler. Can you just get a deck from TSC or wheverever and adapt it to your tractors? While I welcome a challenge, locating the blades so the cuts overlap and get all the grass while not hitting each other, mounting the bearings rigid enough, etc, seems like a lot of time and effort to save 15-20% on your mowing time.

[Tobias]

The 1968 110 is a great tractor! We have both 1968-1965 110.
Like Blacksmith said it is only an 8hp engine(some push mowers have more power, but arn't as good looking). If the 1976 has moe power, sure. But it might only save you 15% of your mowing time. And why would you want to shorten any time spent on a J.D.???

Tobias.

[BWS29128]

You'll both probably laugh your butts off at this, but it's not as much a matter of saving time as it is a matter of only making two passes between roses and irises that i have planted in rows so that the cut area looks nicer and more even

I'm not sure if the 8hp's will push (pull??) a 60" deck. I really have thought about buying a new 54" deck and modifying it to fit the older tractors, but I thought I might build the deck out of diamond-plate or something equally flashy

In truth, both decks are in perfectly good shape so other than a little more cutting action, there's not much need to get new ones. Other than a new project, of course

[Tobias]

Oh.

Tobias.

[Blacksmith]

In that case, weld on. Another 110 story - a guy (in upstate NY) noticed his 110 struggling a little more than usual blowing 5-6 inches of snow off the sidewalk. Turns out he had had the sidewalk "capped" and the lip of the blower hooked an edge so he was blowing 5-6 of snow and 1-2 inches of concrete!

[Tobias]

In that case, weld on. Another 110 story - a guy (in upstate NY) noticed his 110 struggling a little more than usual blowing 5-6 inches of snow off the sidewalk. Turns out he had had the sidewalk "capped" and the lip of the blower hooked an edge so he was blowing 5-6 of snow and 1-2 inches of concrete!

Oops

Tobias.

[c25]

If you've got a Sears parts store/repair center nearby they've got all the housings, bearings, pulley's, etc for a mower deck. You can probably find the parts for one of thier 60" decks and then just build the deck around the parts.

[unkle spike]

Simplicity dealers usually carry the wheels etc for their decks, I have a Simplicity, and the rollers go on 1/2 shaft in most cases, you can adapt them for most uses.

[Jim-Tx]

If you've got a Sears parts store/repair center nearby they've got all the housings, bearings, pulley's, etc for a mower deck. You can probably find the parts for one of thier 60" decks and then just build the deck around the parts.

Why not just go back to John Deere for parts? I'm sure a lot of the mowers use the same bearings and parts common to different size decks. At least you would be able to go get a new bearing 10 years from now instead of finding out it's a discontinued Sears part, that is, if Sears is even still in business 10 years from now.

[BWS29128]

Why not just go back to John Deere for parts? I'm sure a lot of the mowers use the same bearings and parts common to different size decks. At least you would be able to go get a new bearing 10 years from now instead of finding out it's a discontinued Sears part, that is, if Sears is even still in business 10 years from now.

Only because Genuine John Deere Parts cost three times more than Sears parts and 4 times more than TSC parts.

Also, with John Deere's recent (last year) acquisition of Homelite and Homelite's previous acquisition of Poulan (from GE, or so I understand), not even my local John Deere dealer can garantee me a perfect match on parts ordered for the JD110 or JD112.....the big switch a few years ago from SAE to Metric, etc etc etc.

thanks to everyone for great advice!

~Clint

[vectorges]

While the bearing housings are custom items, the bearings themselves usually are a commodity. They are much easier to locate at a local bearing store, for about half of what you will pay John Deere. Rae one of your existing bearings in and they will match it. I did that one time with a bearing from a home made wooden trailer that my brother gave me. The counter man was about 100 years old; looked at it once and said ' It is a 5/8 inch shaft, so probably an old car axle. It is tapered, so it is probably a Chevy. It has an XYZ outer flange, so probably a 1935 - 1939 Chevy truck front axle." he gave me an exact match. I went home and noticed that one of the sides had a very old fashioned cap over the bearing cover. It had a little bow tie emblem on it.