Lift assist

[joebd5]

I have a Kubota ZD-221 and am a maintenance freak. The seat is hinged in front and is very heavy. Additionally, the position you must be in in order to tilt it is very awkward. I designed and built a very simple but elegant lift assist system using a gas lift strut, a custom bracket, and SS hardware. It only requires 3 holes to be drilled and takes about 20 minutes to install. My kit works on all 200 series mowers both gas and diesel and I am now designing one for the Kubota 300 series. If you have any interest, feel free to contact me.

[Brad]

Greetings, Joebd5, and welcome to the forum.

Please feel free to post photos and instructions on your design. Have quite a few do-it-yourselfers here that would likely be interested.

[joebd5]

will do as soon as i figure out how to post photos

[cmark]

I too have a ZD221 and you're right about the effort to raise the seat. I look forward to seeing your design. Love my machine but find it difficult to ensure greasing of the drive shaft fittings especially the one at the engine end. Do you have any suggestions? I was thinking of building a rampo to get it up in the air somewhat but still very awkward. thanks for any ideas.

[Brad]

Let any of us know if you are having problems uploading photos. We'll give you a helping hand.

[joebd5]

I built a 5' extension to a standard set of automotive wheel ramps. Its kind of a "poor mans" pit. Again , I'll post photos soon. There is a whole bunch of maintenance operations under a Kubota Zero-turn seat. Shaft greasing, U-joint greasing, hydro filter, turn lever adjustments, fuse box, and on and on. That is why I designed the lift support.

[joebd5]

The attached photos show the prototype gas lift strut assist system I designed for the Kubota 200 series zero turn. The current system I am installing maintains the original stop bar eliminating the SS cable stop. I am currently designing a similar system for the Kubota 300 Series mower. This system makes servicing the components under the seat a snap.It now takes about 10 lbs. of force to lift the seat.

[Mark / Ohio]

That's a pretty darn slick modification there Joe!

[cmark]

Thanks for posting pictures of your design. I have a pretty good idea how it works but because my machine is about 3000 miles from my computer when I go there in 2 weeks I will see the actual seat arrangement and may need to get back to you. Seems like a good design improvement cause the seat sure gets heavy to push it over center.

[joebd5]

Another change I made was the safety cables on the ROPS frayed and one of them broke. I made new cables from 3/32 SS and used a cable thimble on each end, Kubota doesn't use the thimbles and they use 1/16 cable. I also made them 1" longer then Kubota does. You can see this in photo 7. After a year of hard usage they are showing no wear.