Using a Castelgarden sit on deck on a Honda sit on mower

HPMan

Hi all,

My 2008 year, less than 300 hours on the clock Honda HF2620 HTE (electric grass box) sit on mower deck requires replacement.

The Repairman has suggested that it might be possible for a non Fan 48" Castelgarden deck be used on my Fan enabled Honda machine. Apparantly, my Honda is made in the Castelgarden factory.

The cost difference is like 1200 euro for Honda v 600 euro for Castelgarden.

Question - is it a possible cost saver solution? and would i end up having more problems without having fans if Honda machines for example have narrower chutes than Castelgarden models and therefore need fans to push the cuttings to the bag?

Regards all

The Continental Op

Well the smaller Honda 2315 and 2517 decks are interchangable with the Castlegarden decks so would suspect the 2620's MIGHT be the same?

Are those prices for a "full" deck. One with all the fittings? For the 2315 I only paid about €250 (couple of years ago) for just the deck and then swapped over all the, belts pulleys etc while replacing the bearings.

Which fans are you on about? All the newer Honda's have the fans in the deck on the blade spindles but the older ones didn't. The fans do make a decent amount of difference to the amount of air that moves under the deck improving bagging. With a deck with fans I can cut in much wetter conditions and still bag without the desk getting fouled up.

fryup

can those fans be added to any deck?

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118996654#Comment_118996654

They are built into the deck. There's an extra housing above the blade that holds the fan which isn't on the older version.

HPMan

My machine label says 2008, if i recall correctly there was a major change in technology in 2008 model.

My Handbook mentions fans for my HTE model. It seems that the 2620 sold in ireland has the non electric grass box, I looked at the UK and irish 2620 model back at the time i was purchasing and noticed that. I didnt/ dont remember the fan issue being just an UK model thing, all I know is that the local Repairman (in Ireland, i brought the machine over) regularly mentions my machine is fan enabled.

HPMan

The local Repairman did mention things like pulleys etc with regards the price. How much of the old stuff can be reused to keep the cost down i dont know. I know he has put on Castelgarden bits and bobs on before to lower the repair cost.

My garden is large and rough and the 2620 works well when the grass is short and i have been able to keep it under control - I am looking at Kubota ride on mower which seems more professional and heavy duty but are costly. A bad year i could spend close to 1000 euro on repairs, getting farmer in for cutting etc. A Kubota model which seems good for my situation is about 12k euro.

Currently the cutting belt has snapped and I am toying between buying a tow behind blade, apparantly they are about 200 euro and using the mower as the vehicle for the blade. I dont really want that as there be raking up to do.

So many choices......

The Continental Op

If you are going from a deck with fans to one without I'd want to know that the blade spindles will fit? If you have to change the spindles, bearings and bearing housings that will push the price up. I'd replace the bearings anyway if the parts are being swapped over.