I talked to my uncle, the Original Owner, who confirmed that he always drove over the deck, right on up and over the gauge wheel brackets and thought he always ran the front wheels up and over in 4WD, installing or removing. He said he used a couple of short pieces of 1x6 as ramps, but cautioned if they were too long the rear wheels would be on the ramps when the front wheels came off the front of the deck. He also said soft ground worked best so the deck wouldn't just roll away.
The only 1x6 I had was spruce, which just wanted to split when cut that short, so I used a couple of pieces of 3/16" plate around 8" long. That part worked well. I did it on a concrete pad in front of the garage, using wooden wedges to chock the gauge wheels like in the Kubota manual. That part didn't go so well.
One front wheel mounted the deck OK, but the chock on the other side didn't hold so the deck rotated sideways, leaving the tractor with one front wheel on the deck and the other off the ground in front of the deck, diagonally opposite the rear wheel that was now also off the ground, spinning in the breeze. I guess the old guy knew what he was talking about after all...
After re-chocking things I got to try the differential lock, and managed to finish the removal.
During the conversation, I learned that the mower mounting bolts had started stripping out the first year he had the tractor. He'd actually been using those pins for most of it's life! He suggested I weld studs in place instead. I opted to try the helicoil route before such a drastic approach, particularly since I want the forward mounting points to double as a FEL mounting point.
After drilling the holes out, I understand why they stripped. Kubota used a cheap, soft steel there. Well, the spring steel heli-coils (installed with red locktite) should provide a more durable thread. Time will tell, but so far, so good:
Unfortunately for me this is Sunday and Kubota suffers from the Japanese obsession with 10mm x 1.25 pitch threads. First I ran out of suitable length bolts and had to start making my own. Then I had to make a couple of nuts. Finally, I ran out of heli-coils and had to make the last two inserts. So 2 of the inserts at the rear are 4140 stressproof instead of spring steel.
I do not have to worry about the bolts rusting, as my assistant (pictured below) ensured that all threads were well-coated with anti-sieze (he also likes to apply the cutting oil at the lathe).
He also insisted on a test ride after we put the tools away. During the ride, I noticed this thing suffers from a speed wobble if it hits a bump at high speed. And by "high" I mean, what, 5mph? I guess it's time to check the WSM and see if there's any way to adjust the steering geometry...
