Time to kick the hornets nest... bush hog, rhino, or woods 10' Brush hog?

[Elton67]

All 3 are reputable brands for sure, but im curious about your thoughts considering i cannot find youtube videos and reviews on the dual spindle, 10 foot cutter from these brands.

here are the 3 specific models:

Woods DS10.5 10' deck, 10 guage steel, 3" cutting capacity, 2937 ibs, and blade speed 15,974 fpm
$12,400
closest dealer is my john deere dealer about 30 mins away.

Bush Hog 3510 10.5' deck, 10 guage steel, 3" cutting capacity, 2900 ibs. and blade speed 16,881 fpm
-$14500
i actually have about 4 dealers within around an hours drive.

Rhino Tr310, 10' deck, 10 guage steel, 3" cutting capacity, 3100 ibs, blade speed 16,215 fpm
-$16500
closest dealer about an hour and a half drive.

The Rhino is obviously the most expensive, also being around 200 ib more than the other two. the bush hog is oddly the lightest, but it also has an extra 6 inches and has a noticeably higher blade tip speed, which actually bumps up to around 17,400 fpm when using a 1000 rpm PTO. whether this would make a difference in the cut quality id have to find out.
I plan to use mostly on horse and cow pastures, shredding corn stalks, and taking down random brush and other odd jobs when needed. i think the 3" cutting capacity wont give me any issues for anything i might be cutting. anything thicker than that a chainsaw or an axe would be used anyway.

i dont mind driving the distance and paying the money to get the rhino as long as its really worth the 16 and a half gs and i wont be constantly bringing it back with problems. im slightly leaning towards the bush hog because of its slightly larger deck and higher blade speed, not to mention its so reputable most have taken to calling any cutter a bush hog. but im a little concerned that it weighs 200 ibs less than the rhino and even less than the cheaper woods which makes me wonder of they skimped out of some heavy duty parts for cheaper ones... probably not the case tho. i have heard mixed things about the woods line of hogs but it seems like a good budget option, yet a solid cutter.

what are your thoughts?

 

[MESSMAKER]

All are probably great units. Woods sounds best to me.

 

[Zebrafive]

See if the Woods has the "quick change" blade pins. I am not sure if that's the correct name for them. The blade pin has plate with hole like a figure eight that engages a groove on the blade pin. Then there is a small piece that goes in the other 1/2 of the figure eight and blots to the cross bar with a 1/2" bolt. EASY blade changes!
If the Woods had that feature it would be my choice. I heard that Woods has made this pin greaseable too.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I think I'd save the money and just buy a good 6' or 7' and be done. We have cows and pastures and all that good jazz. Have had a 10' for years and have seen it used two times. We have a Rhino 6' with the 105 hp gearbox and see it used all the time. Same at the farm I worked at yesterday. Has a 10' that has sat for years. Has a 6' Bush Hog that's most always on the tractor. You can buy a good cutter used for less than a grand. I can make a few extra passes for $15,000.00 and still feel good. If you haul it somewhere to use it, I'll probably keep up with you or even beat you time wise. Because I can just back mine off the trailer and go to cutting. You can't. We can leave the wall marks parking lot and return to the wall marks parking lot when finished. Plus tractor will cut better with smaller hog. Means I can travel faster and do as good a job as you are doing. I know people with thousands of cattle and acres. Throw a few donkeys in the mix. We do have to cut one lease. Just go around the fence and keep it from growing up. But 6' is fine for that. If I need to cut a pasture, I cut it with a hay mower, not a Bush Hog. I used one in heavy grass once. Twisted all the drive shafts like a screw. Last one I ever touched. Massey 1455 open station and 10' cutter. We had a Minneapolis Moline and a 7' but no, he wanted to use the 10' and I did. It was a 200 acre dairy he bought to turn into a subdivision. Then you had all them sewer perk test flags to watch out for, it was a mess.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

All 3 are reputable brands for sure, but im curious about your thoughts considering i cannot find youtube videos and reviews on the dual spindle, 10 foot cutter from these brands.

here are the 3 specific models:

Woods DS10.5 10' deck, 10 guage steel, 3" cutting capacity, 2937 ibs, and blade speed 15,974 fpm
$12,400
closest dealer is my john deere dealer about 30 mins away.

Bush Hog 3510 10.5' deck, 10 guage steel, 3" cutting capacity, 2900 ibs. and blade speed 16,881 fpm
-$14500
i actually have about 4 dealers within around an hours drive.

Rhino Tr310, 10' deck, 10 guage steel, 3" cutting capacity, 3100 ibs, blade speed 16,215 fpm
-$16500
closest dealer about an hour and a half drive.

The Rhino is obviously the most expensive, also being around 200 ib more than the other two. the bush hog is oddly the lightest, but it also has an extra 6 inches and has a noticeably higher blade tip speed, which actually bumps up to around 17,400 fpm when using a 1000 rpm PTO. whether this would make a difference in the cut quality id have to find out.
I plan to use mostly on horse and cow pastures, shredding corn stalks, and taking down random brush and other odd jobs when needed. i think the 3" cutting capacity wont give me any issues for anything i might be cutting. anything thicker than that a chainsaw or an axe would be used anyway.

i dont mind driving the distance and paying the money to get the rhino as long as its really worth the 16 and a half gs and i wont be constantly bringing it back with problems. im slightly leaning towards the bush hog because of its slightly larger deck and higher blade speed, not to mention its so reputable most have taken to calling any cutter a bush hog. but im a little concerned that it weighs 200 ibs less than the rhino and even less than the cheaper woods which makes me wonder of they skimped out of some heavy duty parts for cheaper ones... probably not the case tho. i have heard mixed things about the woods line of hogs but it seems like a good budget option, yet a solid cutter.

what are your thoughts?

You're going to pay 16 grand for a rotary cutter? OK. Are you mowing for the highway department?

 

[tfuller]

I purchased a 6ft cutter last year and considered the same 3 brands. I ended up going with the rhino. I wasn't able to compare them in person but the rhino seemed to be the most heavy duty option and once received I wasn't disappointed. One of the biggest selling points to me was the blade carrier rhino uses which is a solid cast iron dog bone versus the steel pan style used on the others. I have the TW36

 

[Hay Dude]

John Deere

 

[PennTN75]

I was looking at those units and the Land Pride RCF3610. Oh, and I even looked at the BW12 from Woods. I was getting myself ready to pay those prices, when I found a nice used 10' RCF3610. I can't really find many differences that "matter" between them except quick blade change. But for me, that's a once every 10-15 year event anyhow.

Here's some video of my "new" unit.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[Bearsixty7]

Make sure they are all equipped the same when considering the price, chains front and rear, slip clutch or shear pin.

I narrowed my choices a year or two back to the same brands but for a 5' cutter, around me the Bush hog was slightly cheaper than the other 2 when equipped identically and the Bush Hog dealer was closer so it became an easy choice.

 

[Elton67]

Make sure they are all equipped the same when considering the price, chains front and rear, slip clutch or shear pin.

I narrowed my choices a year or two back to the same brands but for a 5' cutter, around me the Bush hog was slightly cheaper than the other 2 when equipped identically and the Bush Hog dealer was closer so it became an easy choice.

are you happy with your bush hog?

one of the things im trying to find is a bush hog that doesnt leave windrows of grass, looking for one that distributes it relatively evenly.
its not a suer important thing but i would like my pastures to look relatively nice

do you think a 7' cutter in general would cut better than a multispindle 8' or 10'? and is the difference in ground coverage noticeable?

I have a bunch of pastures for different animals ranging from 1 acre to 5 acres each. in total its around 31 acres of pasture that i mow about 3-5 times a year.
that doesnt include randome land clearing or field mowing projects that may come up.

currently i have an older 6' cutter, it can handle amost everything I throw at it but in total it takes about 4 days mowing 3-4 hours a day to cut all the pastures.

I enjoy mowing quite a bit but i could really use more time for other tasks and projects. im looking to decrease my pasture mowing time from 15-16 hours in a week to 8-12 hours in a week. im open to any suggestions.

 

[Doughknob]

I can say I grew up on a farm a few miles from the Woods headquarters. Dad had a Woods rotary cutter - he called it a 'field mower.' We abused that thing. Stored it outside, ran it over all sorts of junk in the pasture (dirt mounds, old fence wire balls, rocks, logs,.....) and banged it off fence posts. It certainly suffered some, but never quit working and cutting what we asked it to. But that was back in the late 70s/early 80s. Who knows what they make now.....

 

[Bearsixty7]

are you happy with your bush hog?

Yes! I have only used it 4 or 5 times, a couple were at the deer lease and the first time I was reclaiming the lane cutting up some 3" scrub brush, sounded like a war zone at times but it looks like all I cut was grass. The new smooth top is really nice as it is fairly self cleaning and 99% clean by the time I trailer it home.

one of the things im trying to find is a bush hog that doesnt leave windrows of grass, looking for one that distributes it relatively evenly.
its not a suer important thing but i would like my pastures to look relatively nice

do you think a 7' cutter in general would cut better than a multispindle 8' or 10'? and is the difference in ground coverage noticeable?

I can't answer this as I have never used a cutter more than a single spindle 7' or 8' (that was back on the farm in my teens). I am always a fan of cutting as wide a swath as you can ( I have a 61" Spartan ZT for my 1 acre ). As much as I enjoy tractor time, I do have other things to do and if you have to mow a lot it can get old and become a burden.

I have a bunch of pastures for different animals ranging from 1 acre to 5 acres each. in total its around 31 acres of pasture that i mow about 3-5 times a year.
that doesnt include randome land clearing or field mowing projects that may come up.

currently i have an older 6' cutter, it can handle amost everything I throw at it but in total it takes about 4 days mowing 3-4 hours a day to cut all the pastures.

I enjoy mowing quite a bit but i could really use more time for other tasks and projects. im looking to decrease my pasture mowing time from 15-16 hours in a week to 8-12 hours in a week. im open to any suggestions.

Yep, Exactly!

 

[oosik]

I've been looking at getting a rotary cutter for a couple years. Narrowed it down to Rhino or Brown. Right now I would go with Rhino's new TW cutters. Great design and well braced tail wheel. Plus there is a Rhino dealer in our area.

A whole lot of my cutting will be backing into Buck brush. About two feet tall and average 1/4" in diameter. I mow my pastures with my JD 750 riding mower.

 

[Elton67]

I've been looking at getting a rotary cutter for a couple years. Narrowed it down to Rhino or Brown. Right now I would go with Rhino's new TW cutters. Great design and well braced tail wheel. Plus there is a Rhino dealer in our area.

A whole lot of my cutting will be backing into Buck brush. About two feet tall and average 1/4" in diameter. I mow my pastures with my JD 750 riding mower.

i dont mow my pastures with my riding or zero turn mower as they cut the grass up fine. turns out that kind of grass is bad for animal consumption. a brush hog or a hay cutter processes grass minimally and leaves it mostly untouched which is why im going that route.

also since im cutting the pastures only a handful of times a year the grass will probably be too tall for a rider/ZT to handle or make sense.

 

[Elton67]

i dont mow my pastures with my riding or zero turn mower as they cut the grass up fine. turns out that kind of grass is bad for animal consumption. a brush hog or a hay cutter processes grass minimally and leaves it mostly untouched which is why im going that route.

also since im cutting the pastures only a handful of times a year the grass will probably be too tall for a rider/ZT to handle or make sense.

also if your cutting brush averaging about a 1/4 inch i reccomend john deeres frontier series of cutters. they are budget friendly and will prob suit your needs perfectly. if i remmeber right i think they have a 1" cutting capacity.

 

[YanmarFever]

I have a 2 year old bush hog mod 2910 10' mower, I pull it with a Branson 5529C tractor, I mow my groves and it does a great job.
It replaced our old 3510 that was worn out.
It has 15" airplane tires on the back and chains front and back.

I always blow it off and clean it after every use, then it goes in the shop, it still looks new after 80 hrs on it.
We have always been happy with it. I believe we paid 10 thou for it.

 

[oosik]

I mow my meadows like a lawn. Which means weekly at the beginning of the summer. I have no farm animals - but the deer seem to like the meadow grass. The neighbors cows, on the outside of my barbed wire fence, sure eyeball my meadows.

Since I upgraded to my Kubota - I've upgraded all my implements to the heaviest, Cat 2, that this tractor can handle. I've had light duty Cat 1 implements with my first tractor. They either were too light or "crumpled" under the use I put them to. After 13 years - no problems with the Cat 2 implements. I've gathered some very helpful "do's/don't's" from TBN also.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I would have figured for the kind of money that you are looking to spend that you could get a 12' bat wing which would be very important if you want to haul it in case you decide you wanted to do some mowing jobs verses a 10' that hangs off the trailer on both sides, which ever brand you decide on I don't think you can go wrong, they all make good products, I am partial to Bush Hog brand but wouldn't be scared of either of the other 2 brands. Good luck.

 

[RoyJackson]

It has 15" airplane tires on the back and chains front and back.

Back when I was in the Navy, my squadron flew F-4 Phantoms
These birds were only allowed a certain number of carrier landings before the tires had to be changed...even if in good shape.
I don't recall the tire size, but I do recall they were 26 ply and ran 485 PSI for shipboard use.
I also recall they were sold, primarily for agricultural use after being retired

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

are you happy with your bush hog?

one of the things im trying to find is a bush hog that doesnt leave windrows of grass, looking for one that distributes it relatively evenly.
its not a suer important thing but i would like my pastures to look relatively nice

do you think a 7' cutter in general would cut better than a multispindle 8' or 10'? and is the difference in ground coverage noticeable?

I have a bunch of pastures for different animals ranging from 1 acre to 5 acres each. in total its around 31 acres of pasture that i mow about 3-5 times a year.
that doesnt include randome land clearing or field mowing projects that may come up.

currently i have an older 6' cutter, it can handle amost everything I throw at it but in total it takes about 4 days mowing 3-4 hours a day to cut all the pastures.

I enjoy mowing quite a bit but i could really use more time for other tasks and projects. im looking to decrease my pasture mowing time from 15-16 hours in a week to 8-12 hours in a week. im open to any suggestions.

Get a good commercial 6' zero turn mower. Easy to haul, load/unload, and fast. Bobcat makes a tough one. It will go 19 mph. I have cut that fast.