Kubota B2601 MMM deck removal and reattach

Walkthrough of detaching and reattaching a drive over B2601 MMM deck.

In a recent discussion on a tractor forum we were discussing the relative merits of mid mount decks vs rear mowers. One big issue people have is how long they take to get off and on again.

I commented that I think it takes me about a minute to take my MMM off, and about 2 minutes to put it on again (if I'm working fast), and that I don't have to get under the tractor or lie on the ground. A commenter said he'd like to see that, as the videos on the internet don't generally support that. This video is the result of that discussion.

Furthermore, I'd commented that I've learned quite a few things since my original BX (that deck was quite a bit harder as it wasn't drive over), and even since having my B2601 I've found some tips that make it a lot easier. This video aims to cover them a bit too. Key tips are:

1. Getting aligned on the lift arms used to be quite hard for me. The deck is a bit off centre, so if you line up on the middle of the deck you don't get it right. I recently worked out that there are actually guides welded to the top of the deck, which makes this a lot easier.

2. The lift arms have a little funnel on them. If you have the lift arms down as you drive over the deck, it'll self centre. I used to drive over the deck, then lower the arms, then mess around trying to pull the deck sideways when I was crooked.

3. If you put the deck all the way down (mower height set to zero), then it's much easier to attach. I used to leave the arms set at my mowing height (about 2 inches), and that meant I had to lift the deck a little to engage. The deck isn't light, that was hard on my back.

4. If you put the deck all the way down, then the blades are in the grass. That means you cannot rotate the PTO shaft - they're jammed tight. If you lift the deck a bit before attaching the PTO shaft, it's easier to rotate it into the right place.

Overall this video is of middling quality - turns out that I put my finger over the lens more than you'd think, and I sometimes don't point the camera at the thing I'm talking about. I also planned to put it on a tripod and re-run without the talking, but it started raining again, so that'll have to happen another day.

Upshot though is that is that even going a bit slow and talking things through, I was 1:15 to take the deck off (from 1:15 to 2:30 in the video), and 2:15 to put it back on (from 4:15 to 6:30 in the video). If we exclude the time taken taking the ramps on and off then it's under 1 minute and under 2 minutes respectively.