Purchased a John Deere 3046R tractor in December of last year. It came with a cab, a front end loader and a 72” drive over mid mount mower. The tractor was delivered in January. When the guy tried to take the tractor off the trailer he said that he could not get the mower deck to go up and down. This presented a problem when trying to unload it from the back of the trailer. When I bought the tractor I specifically asked the salesman if everything on it worked and how many SCV‘s it had. The answers were yes and three. I checked and it has the third one on the back. Electrically I can hear it working when I press the button. I wasn’t too concerned about it in January because we bought it so I could move the snow on our driveway. Now it is June; I want to use it to mow and the deck will not raise and lower. I spent several hours researching this including looking at posts on this forum. It seems to me that most of these tractors have the mower deck hooked up to the third SCV. Mine is not. There is only a single hose coming off of the cylinder on the mower deck. I have never seen a hydraulic cylinder with a single hose before. It was unplugged and tie wrapped to another hose for the front end loader when I got it. I tried plugging it into the ports for the dual SCV feeding the front end loader and it does not work. In looking at the operators manual for the mower deck it appears that the deck was supposed to come with one hose and some type of valve on the end of it. I am assuming that the tractor has this valve installed somewhere on it but I cannot find it. The operator‘s manual says that you are supposed to hook it to the curl port on the dual SCV however. How are the mower hydraulics supposed to be connected to use the dual SCV to raise and lower the deck and how do they work? Thank you.
Gary Stoedter
From the sound of it you have a single acting hydraulic cylinder.
When it is hooked to the bucket curl port and you move the loader joystick to the left it will send pressure to the cylinder and lift the mower deck. When you move the loader joystick to the right (dump) it will open the curl port to the return (no pressure). The weight of the mower deck will cause the fluid to be pushed out of the cylinder and back to the return tank on the tractor and the deck should lower.
Mine is plugged into one the rear ports that comes off my diverter valve setup.
I have the Deere optional diverter valve setup on mine and have to press the diverter valve switch in the cab to activate it and then I can raise and lower off the rear ports where I have it plugged in. This allows to the mower to be used even if my loader is on the tractor and plugged into the front the ports.
I agree with all the other comments and suggestions to check as well.
If that holly slide lever is set to purposefully lock it all the way up, then that would cause a similar problem as well.
Do you have rear SCVs service ports on the tractor, if so you likely have a diverter valve kit as well.
I have the Deere optional diverter valve setup on mine and have to press the diverter valve switch in the cab to activate it and then I can raise and lower off the rear ports where I have it plugged in. This allows to the mower to be used even if my loader is on the tractor and plugged into the front the ports.
I agree with all the other comments and suggestions to check as well.
If that holly slide lever is set to purposefully lock it all the way up, then that would cause a similar problem as well.
Do you have rear SCVs service ports on the tractor, if so you likely have a diverter valve kit as well.
PS. Yes loading these without a proper trailer to allow clearances for the mower deck can be a bear.
It can be done if you don't mind using the loader to lift the tractor's nose and sliding it on the loader along trailer floor.
Taller the trailer and shorter the ramps the worse it gets. The breakover angle with the deck in place is a really low.
It can be done if you don't mind using the loader to lift the tractor's nose and sliding it on the loader along trailer floor.
Taller the trailer and shorter the ramps the worse it gets. The breakover angle with the deck in place is a really low.
Here is a few pics of how my 3046R works with its diverter setup.
Keep in mind there are a lot of blank switch knockouts in these cabs , that switch may not be in the same location in every machine that has this diverter option. In my case the light has to be on diverting the control from the loader ports to the rear scv ports where my deck is plugged in.
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Keep in mind there are a lot of blank switch knockouts in these cabs , that switch may not be in the same location in every machine that has this diverter option. In my case the light has to be on diverting the control from the loader ports to the rear scv ports where my deck is plugged in.
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