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