Mowing CK20 rough cut mower choice

[laurencen]

Good day, have a choice for a rough cut 5 foot mower between Frontier or Farm King, they are the same money so any recomendations either way which one is better

Laurence

 

[MDM]

Not sure about either, but are you sure it will handle a 5 footer rotary? I would think a 4 footer would be much better suited for the CK20. I would bet that most dealers would recommend a 4ft cutter for that machine.

 

[laurencen]

Thanks for the reply, it was the dealer who sold me the tractor recomending this 5 foot mower

 

[MDM]

I would question your dealer. There is no way 16 hp will turn a 5 ft rotary in high weed grass and brush effectively. I just think a 5 foot rotary cutter is too much for 16 pto hp and I think most would agree. You might be alright with a 5 ft finish mower on flat ground, but even then, you will be relegated to Low range. Maybe I'm assuming you have a HST. The geared version would be better, but I would think you would still be pusing it with a 5' rotary. Now, if you had a CK30, sure.

 

[Josh61513]

I would question your dealer. There is no way 16 hp will turn a 5 ft rotary in high weed grass and brush effectively. I just think a 5 foot rotary cutter is too much for 16 pto hp and I think most would agree. You might be alright with a 5 ft finish mower on flat ground, but even then, you will be relegated to Low range. Maybe I'm assuming you have a HST. The geared version would be better, but I would think you would still be pusing it with a 5' rotary. Now, if you had a CK30, sure.

For reference, I have a CK20S HST-runs the factory 5' (60") mid-mount-mower quite well, even in taller moist grass. I mow in high range because low is a bit too slow. I mow at 4-5 mph.

That said, I haven't tried a brush hog of any size. I imagine it would run a 5' okay but you may have to use low range at times, certainly on hills.

 

[laurencen]

Thanks for the info, I have the geared model, I have used the 5 foot finish mower but alfalfa plugs it badly, I will have the rough cut by the weekend and let you know how well or badly it works, went with the farm king the JD model was the same money but then he added both chain guards and it went up by 300 dollars, the choice was made easy

 

[MichiganIron]

Here's a good rule of thumb for Rear PTO Mowers:

Finish Mower - 3 pto hp per foot of width

Rotory Brush Cutter - 4-5 pto hp per foot of width

This is just a good guide, but will prove out well over time. Conditions, type brush, moisture, etc. all affect the results.

For a CK20S, 48" to 54" rotory brush cutter.

 

[IslandTractor]

I had a CK20 HST with a 4ft Bush Hog and a 5ft finish mower. It handled both with no issue. I always wondered if I could have used a 5ft bush hog but doubt it could have handled thick brush. As you generally need to mow in low range with the HST that does help some in thick stuff but I'd still be shy of using a 5ft hog in brush. For mowing a pasture however I'd think a 5ft bush hog would work fine especially with a gear model tractor. If the grass gets too dense you can always overlap your cut to lower the strain.

I'd also add that if I had a CK20 again, I would mount a 5ft Caroni TM series flail on it and let that handle both finish and pasture/brush duties.

 

[laurencen]

IslandTractor, flail mower, never looked at one, can you share the advantages of one, It has rained for the whole week so have not tried the rough cut, I want something to cut the sides of my road 1200 foot and a runway 80 feet wide by 2400 foot, the finish mower will not cut the alfalfa without packing underneath to the point if I leave it a couple days it will not run till I remove all the debris, I purchased the rough cut to hopefully cut it down, the crop each side is spreading quicker than the grass

The dealer I got the rough cut off has no issues if it does not perform returning it, maybe the flail will be a better choice

Laurence

 

[IslandTractor]

Flail mowers, depending on the knives mounted, can perform just as well as either the finish or rough cut mowers and what is especially attractive is that with appropriate knives they can straddle the range of cut produced by the other two mowers. The Caroni TM series is one of these "straddle" mowers. It is not as tough as a heavy duty rotary cutter that can knock down 3 inch trees, nor is it as fine a cutter as a lawn mower but it overlaps both of those types and can cut lawn tolerably well and yet also manage 1.5 inch brush with no sweat. It is a mulching type of mower so it leaves a pretty smooth surface without a lot of debris (unless you run too fast).

Caroni is a popular imported (Italian) flail mower that is available either as a finish mower (TL model which is just as good as a rotary finish mower) or as a multipurpose mower (TM model which straddles the two types as described above). Other manufacturers produce flails but most of them seem to be heavy duty flails which are quite expensive. The Caroni mowers cost about the same as a good quality bush hog or finish mower.

AgriSupply sells Caroni flails out of North (?South) Carolina. Not sure if there is a Canadian distributor. For the use you describe I'd think that a TM1500 (rough cut model 1.5 meter cut) would be perfect but I am not certain AgriSupply imports that model. They do import the TM1900 which I have but that is a bit too big for a CK20. I believe a TL1500 could be modified by eliminating some knives and replacing others with the TM style knife but you should look into that carefully to understand what you'd be getting into (at least several hours labor and about $200 in new knives).

There is a very long thread on TBN that you should read entitled something like "let's talk about flails". If you search on terms like flail, knife, caroni, belt then you will certainly find the thread which is still active.