BCS 38 Inch Mower

[TimberXX]

I have a rough pasture, with alot of grasses (3 ft high) hardwood brush (1/8 " thick max 2 ft high)

I also have a finished lawn.

Would a BCS 38 inch mower (without the bagger) be able to take this on?

 

[cmyoung2]

You probably would not be real happy. The mower does ok for a finish mower, although it tends to throw wads of grass without the bagger. With pasture grass that high, I don't think it will mow without bogging down. Had that mower for several years until it wore out. The Zannon mower would come closer to doing both, but with that high grass, a flail or bar mower will do better.

 

[TimberXX]

Wore out! How many hours did you have on the mower?

 

[JamesHW]

A friend who works for the town says he uses a flail mower to good effect on tall grasses and lawns. Not a golf course cut of course. The Berta flail mower with the adjustable discharge baffle may be a good choice. I have the brush mower but may get a flail for chop and drop on the field since it does a better job of chopping up what it cuts.

 

[TimberXX]

So I bought a used 38 inch mower today. I drove from New Jersey to New Hampshire to pick it up. Awesome shape, about 10 years old, $600. I think for that price, I will try it. Thanks all.

 

[jbradley]

I concur with cmyoung2 in that tall grass is not what you want to mow with the 38" mower. I've not tried it without the bagger (I feed the clippings to my goats. If I just want to mow it, I'll use the 390 flail mower on my tractor.), but it definitely bogs down quickly when using the bagger, even in 1st gear with the engine rev'd as high as it will go.

 

[cmyoung2]

I bought it used several years ago, abused it, stored it outside, you name it. It was rusting through the deck in a few places, not bad, then the young'un was helping out mowing the front yard, hit a road sign while on a steep bank, warped it up bad enough I didn't want to try to fix it. Gave it to a buddy for parts. Really wanted to upgrade to the Zannon anyway.
Finally have a barn to store equipment in during off season.

 

[TimberXX]

I used it for the first time, I bogged down with the 770 for sure. It cut the pasture ok.

My issue is how hard it is to turn it. i felt the brakes barely turned it, I have to put my body into it.

I think I will try to grease the caster spindles.

Glad I didn't pay full price for it....

 

[mpapiary]

Sounds like something isn’t right, mine turns very easily. I have quite a few obstacles to maneuver around in my yard and never had an issue, especially when turning with the brakes. The casters should spin freely.
The biggest issue with using that mower for pasture use is that the blades are thin and won’t hold up. Mine get beat up and dull just cutting the lawn. Replacement blades are on the pricey side too.

 

[Jens767]

Hi TimberXX

I have no experience with the BCS 38'' lawn mower myself, but I have used the quite similar Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower for more than 225 hours over the last 7 years now, so I hope that some of my experiences might be useful to you.

Mowing very tall grass and hardwood brush as you mention in your first post, is pushing a lawn mower beyond its limits I think. As you can see in my thread on the Zanon ZCR lawn mower, I was struggling mowing "just" 1 foot tall grass on my lawn, after a vacation a few years ago. I fully agree with cmyoung2 and jbradley, and I'm not surprised to hear that you bogged down. Did you actually mow your pasture with the lawn mower, or did you mow your lawn with it?

The way you describe your pasture, I would consider mowing it with either a sickle-bar mower or a drum/disc mower if you want to remove the clippings, or a flail mower if you prefer to leave the clippings on site. With the amount of clippings that you will probably have on your pasture, I would be reluctant to leave them in place, as the wads left by a flail mower - or especially a lawn mower, will take a long time to decompose and disappear.

When I mow my lawn with my Zanon, I usually run my BCS 740 in third gear with around 3/4 throttle, which gives a speed that suits an old man like me well. I hardly ever use the steering brakes when mowing my lawn, as it only takes a slight sideways pressure on the handlebars, to steer the tractor in the desired direction. It is important though, that the caster wheel spindles in the front are well greased, allowing them to swivel freely.

If you use the mower for what is was designed for, that is mowing the lawn, I hope you will be pleased with it. For mowing your pasture, it might not be the best choice.


Best regards

Jens

 

[TimberXX]

I was a little frustrated with the lawn mower in the pasture, and I didn't want to spend the extra money on a flail, so I got a 26 inch brush mower. It is awesome. That's what I needed. The grass wasn't as dense at it was in August, but i was pleased with it. Thanks all.

 

[joecoin]

I have the same setup as you, 107D with 26 inch brush mower. It is awesome.

Two problems I've had over 6 years; the rubber flaps on front and back fall apart (I abuse the machine by cutting lots of close packed wild shrub like plants) and I have broken two of the shoulder bolts that hold the blades to the drum.

Once a blade came flying out of the rear of the mower, struck me in the ankle and knocked me down. I was sure the ankle was broken, but after a few minutes I got up and it was fine. Just developed a large contusion. I used my metal detector to find the blade, it was 30 feet away.

Now I mow with the handlebars offset when possible.

I'm looking at replacing the rubber flaps with chain.

 

[NibbanaFarm]

I have the same setup as you, 107D with 26 inch brush mower. It is awesome.

Two problems I've had over 6 years; the rubber flaps on front and back fall apart (I abuse the machine by cutting lots of close packed wild shrub like plants) and I have broken two of the shoulder bolts that hold the blades to the drum.

Once a blade came flying out of the rear of the mower, struck me in the ankle and knocked me down. I was sure the ankle was broken, but after a few minutes I got up and it was fine. Just developed a large contusion. I used my metal detector to find the blade, it was 30 feet away.

Now I mow with the handlebars offset when possible.

I'm looking at replacing the rubber flaps with chain.

I can't imagine what it would take to break those shoulder bolts but I guess anything's possible. When I first bought mine years ago I replaced the rear rubber flap with a steel cover. Makes me feel a lot better after reading a few of these horror stories. Mower is standing upright with pto hitch under a can in the picture. (Picture should be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.) I never had anything "flow" out under the back so no performance issues for me.

 

[joecoin]

I can't imagine what it would take to break those shoulder bolts but I guess anything's possible. When I first bought mine years ago I replaced the rear rubber flap with a steel cover. Makes me feel a lot better after reading a few of these horror stories. Mower is standing upright with pto hitch under a can in the picture. (Picture should be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.) I never had anything "flow" out under the back so no performance issues for me.
View attachment 677542

Rocks, logs and stumps are what broke those bolts on mine, if I had to guess.

I thought about using a steel "flap" like yours, but I do an awful lot of backing and I'm pretty sure it would get over flexed and either bent or broken. How thick is that steel?

 

[NibbanaFarm]

The steel is 7/64. As you can see, I welded little sides on, so it's not just a bent piece of steel. I have never caught anything on it backing up. (That I noticed at least.) But this thing is not going to bend with my 739 pulling on it. The wheels are going to spin way before anything bends. And even if you have twice as much traction it's not going to bend. I would say that you're not going to be able to damage it with a two wheel tractor. If you're worried about it use something thicker and bolt the little sides to the sides of the mower also.

I cut brush and wild rose bushes with mine so it's not like a whole lot of throughput is happening. I just get on top of the stuff to chop it up a little. The BCS video shows the guy mowing corn. Nothing like that for me but I honestly don't think my guard would make much difference. Hard to say.

You say you had "broken" two bolts. Did the shank of the bolt actually shear or did the head get worn down to the point where the bolt pulled out of the disk?

 

[joecoin]

...

You say you had "broken" two bolts. Did the shank of the bolt actually shear or did the head get worn down to the point where the bolt pulled out of the disk?

Sheared off fairly clean at the head both times.