Comparables - Woods Brushbull BB84X

Areeves08 · Jul 11, 2016

I recently upgraded my tractor from a 33HP JD to a 66HP Kioti and I'm looking for a new rotary cutter. I had a Woods BB60X on the JD and it did a great job doing what I asked of it. It had sufficient capacity to cut the pasture and food plot type areas that I primarily cut, but it is not wide enough to cover the tires of the new Kioti. I've got ample power now and I'm looking at specifically 3pt rotary cutters. We have a JD MX8 pull-type that can handle the heavier cutting, but it is a bear to turn around without the PTO shaft and gear box screaming at you to straighten out.

Because of my affinity for Woods, I'm looking at the BB84X to replace the BB60X. Is there any other company that produces a similar 3pt cutter in the same price range (~3K + Chain Shielding & dual tail wheels). I would love to have an 8' dual spindle for the reduced HP requirement, but I can't find anything under about $4,200. Any input would be appreciated.

bdog · Jul 12, 2016

8' is where you go from single to dual spindles and the price jumps a lot. For my old tractor I had a 7' single spindle rhino and really liked it. Well made and never gave me any trouble.

If 7' will work it would be a lot cheaper than an 8'. I have a 10' 3pt dual spindle bush hog brand for my tractor now. It is really nice but it was 7k.

LD1 · Jul 12, 2016

How much you have to mow and how often you mow it would be the determining factors for me if I had your machine. If you dont mow alot, or often, its not really gonna gain alot to go to a real big cutter.

IE: if you mow 5 acres a few times a year, the cost vs time savings just dont add up.

But if you are mowing 20+ acres at a time, several fields, frequently.....bigger is always nice. I think you could handle a 10' 3PH cutter pretty easy with that tractor.

Dont know about price, but most of the popular brands make a 7' cutter of similar spec. The BB84x is the lightest duty cutter woods makes in 7' and ~1100lbs. the landpride 2084 is spec'd pretty similar, but alot higher blade tip speed, which is nice for pasture/grasses. A bushhog BH17 is also similar. I would guess price between woods, bushhog, and landpride to all be pretty close.

That said, there are some less expensive brands that you could get the 8' twin spindle in your price range. Kodiak, titan, and howse all come to mind. But if I had a tractor your size and power, I'd be looking for a 10' mounted cutter

Areeves08 · Jul 12, 2016

Between the two tractors, a JD 5065E and Kioti RX6620, we probably mow about 100 acres a year. Most is field and pasture type ground, but about 20% is trails through hunting plots, woods, and in between pine rows. Trying to maneuver the pull-type MX8 is a major pain in the tight areas. The MX8 can handle 3.5" material, so a lighter cutter is fine for me. I didn't notice the difference in blade tip speeds, 15,086 for the Woods and 17,113 for the Land Pride. The Land Pride also has .5" x 4" blades where the Woods only has .5" x 3". I'm too nervous about quality to try a Howse, Countyline or the like.

LD1 · Jul 12, 2016

I was looking at titan, howse, and kodiak before finding my used woods MDS96.

IIRC, Titan is basically a clone of kodiak with some improvements. Soemthing about the guys that started titan implements used to work for kodiak or something. Cant remember the minor improvements he mentioned, I think something to do with the hitch, and powdercoating. But in either of those cutters, I didnt like the 8' on account of blade speed only being 12k. The 10' cutter was better at 15k.

Howse is totally different. And their 8' is 15k blade speed and not sure about the 10'. I could buy a brand new 8' for $3k

I run a mowing biz on the side. So speed is important to me. Mowers with low blade speed limit how fast you can go before you start overrunning the cutter and just doing a poor job of cutting, even if you have all the power in the world. ZTR mowers I think run about 19k. Try mowing at 2/3 throttle to slow the blade speed down to ~12k and see how much slower you have to go just to get a clean cut and not leave stragglers standing. Same principal. For most users just using a 5 or 6' cutter ocasionally cutting trails and a few acres here or there, speed isnt of much concern. But I like to mow as fast as ground condition/bumps allow, or until I am out of power. Dont want my limiting factor to be cut quality because I lack blade speed.

Suction/high lift blades also are nice.

Titan does offer a 5-year gearbox warranty. I am not trying to sell you on a cheaper brand, but only mowing your own property where you are familiar, and not doing thick brush or unknown territory, a cheaper mower wouldnt scare me at all.

In the end, I ended up with a ~10 year old woods DS96, for a little less than half of new cost. About $500 bucks more could have bough a new Titan or Howse with warranty. Weather I made a good decision has yet to be determined. If the woods mower last me 5-10 years, I am sure it is gonna be worth more still than a 5-10 year old howse or titan.

And if I could have found a used landpride for $2500 in my area, I would own it instead of the woods simply because of the 17k blade speed.

Bushhog 2308, 3008, and 3308 split the difference with 16k. but again, none used here. Have you considered a used cutter?