bent frame on rotary mower

[beenthere]

I have thought about a chain but I mow for other people and have to adjust the cutter to suit different needs(vacant lots, back yards or reg. pasture). The top link can keep the front from digging in when you are making a close cut.
I can't see how that would remain with a chain.

You need to think on it some more.
A chain will do everything you want and more. The cutter height is adjusted at the leading edge with the height of the 3ph. The rear is adjusted with the setting of the rear wheel.
Right to left is adjusted with the adjustable side link on the 3ph arm.

As mentioned, the chain is only for picking the rear of the mower deck up so it doesn't trail on the rear wheel (and it keeps everything from binding and bending things ) .

 

[Soundguy]

messmaker is correct when he says that the rigid toplink will help to keep the mower rear from flipping up if the front of the mower snagged on something. a chain would allow much more range of motion if the mower did snag and have the rear flip up.

soundguy

 

[MESSMAKER]

You need to think on it some more.
A chain will do everything you want and more. The cutter height is adjusted at the leading edge with the height of the 3ph. The rear is adjusted with the setting of the rear wheel.
Right to left is adjusted with the adjustable side link on the 3ph arm.

As mentioned, the chain is only for picking the rear of the mower deck up so it doesn't trail on the rear wheel (and it keeps everything from binding and bending things ) .

I hear what you are saying but my experience has been that the mower hitch on the top link needs to be vertical for most cuts. To get the most rear lift, the shackle should be nearer to the tractor. This can be very handy when loading the tractor and mower on less than perfect conditions.

 

[beenthere]

I hear what you are saying but my experience has been that the mower hitch on the top link needs to be vertical for most cuts. To get the most rear lift, the shackle should be nearer to the tractor. This can be very handy when loading the tractor and mower on less than perfect conditions.

Okay, whatever.
I didn't follow what you said, but you can work it out for what works best for you.

 

[gauthier]

If you needto lift the mower high,yeah solid top link,but I don't lift mine more than 5-6 inches just so's I can spray lube on the blades sometimes to help them from sticking.,I just keep it down,but some need to transport them I guess,could always just shorten my chain though if I needed to do that.

As far as flipping by front catching on something,yeah it could come up[probably just break a u joint is about all,but yeah it could if you were cutting over stumps and rocks,heavy brush,I don't,so no problem,depends on what your cutting.

 

[Soundguy]

one BIG benefit to cutting known clean pasture.

less burried treasure to find.

soundguy

 

[LeadPoison]

Your story is an example of why I went with a real MD cutter (woods BB600 in my case). Other brands are similar. Buy by the total weight and that is a decent indication of the strength of the unit. The BB with chains is over 1000#. Hard for even a tractor goof like me to muck it up! Unlike the previous cutters that lasted 2-3 seasons of rocks, roots and saplings...

I would bend the parts back and weld in lots of support metal. If you don't, it will bend again and bend worse (or crack and break). That's what stressed metal does.

I bent the arms on my BB720 a bit going through creeks. Basically i realized i just have to shorten the top link all the way to lift the tail end as high as possible then lower once i am through. I will go the chain route should they break.

 

[thescubasmith]

Here's something I posted in another thread about the same subject here at TBN:

I think my next rotary cutter WILL NOT be a King Kutter. I wore two other 5' hogs slap out before I got my 5' King Kutter. Both were lightweight economy mowers, as is the King Kutter. But I never bent the lifting arms on either of them. Not once. Now I have a KK and I'm spending time replacing the lifting arms...for the second time. I'm also spending time here on TBN trying to figure out how to keep it from bending again. Add this, remove that, weld something, add bracing, replace the top link and lifting arm braces with chain, etc., etc., etc. Granted, replacing these components with chain may well solve the problem of the lifting arms bending forward on the mower. But it also removes the versatility of that hydraulic top link I love so much.. And then there's that safety factor everyone's talking about. Oh, and let us not forget about the TIME we've all spent on the subject. We should be using our equipment, not spending hours and dollars having to engineer design flaws out of it.
This isn't the only thread at TBN about bent arms on KK mowers. And TBN isn't the only forum with threads about them. It seems to be the norm, not the exception with these cutters. Perhaps the best advice we can all take is to haul our KK rotary cutters for scrap...and buy something else next time.