Disc Mower

[bigtiller]

Do they require as much horse power as a brush hog? Or are they more like a cycle bar mower needing more tractor weight rather than horse power? Providing they have the same width of cut.

Frontier makes a 4 foot wide one for the 1000 series and it would fit me fairly well I am guessing, providing I have enough HP, weight and axle clearance. I have a water way that needs mowing at least once a year and it is pretty hard on the MMM deck.

 

[AKfish]

In my experiece, they require more Hp per foot than a rotary cutter. A 6' brush hog (rotary mower) will work just fine with 35Hp @ pto. A 6' disc mower is gonna need at least 45 Hp.

In heavy grass or hay (or wet hay) my 63" disc mower will drag my JD110 (33Hp @ pto) to a full stop!! I wouldn't even begin to hook a 72" disc mower on the back of that machine.

Significantly more moving parts and complexity - and expense - if something breaks.

AKfish

 

[flusher]

Do they require as much horse power as a brush hog? Or are they more like a cycle bar mower needing more tractor weight rather than horse power? Providing they have the same width of cut.

Frontier makes a 4 foot wide one for the 1000 series and it would fit me fairly well I am guessing, providing I have enough HP, weight and axle clearance. I have a water way that needs mowing at least once a year and it is pretty hard on the MMM deck.

Check out drum mowers--for example

Hay Mowing equipment

 

[bigbull338]

you size disc cutters to your hp.because as said they do eat the hp.example i have a 52hp tractor.an it can safely pull an 8ft disc mower.where as a 9ft would require an 80hp tractor.

 

[bigtiller]

That's what I was thinking. The 18 pto HP on my 2305 is probably going to labor just as much as my MMM deck did last fall when I mowed the water way.

Will a disc mower leave me and the open station tractor covered in dust and debris or fairly clean with a very light dusting?

Tell me if I'm wrong, just a guess here? About the only advantage I would get using the disc mower would be not having to stop to clean out the radiator every 300 yards while in the water way. And not throwing sand and rocks when mowing the side of the gravel road.

 

[bigbull338]

if your running an open station cutting grass your going to get somewhat dirty.an if your running a tractor cutting it,you should check the rad an clean it when you get done.an maybe clean it before you start.

 

[AKfish]

That's what I was thinking. The 18 pto HP on my 2305 is probably going to labor just as much as my MMM deck did last fall when I mowed the water way.

Will a disc mower leave me and the open station tractor covered in dust and debris or fairly clean with a very light dusting?

Tell me if I'm wrong, just a guess here? About the only advantage I would get using the disc mower would be not having to stop to clean out the radiator every 300 yards while in the water way. And not throwing sand and rocks when mowing the side of the gravel road.

Yep... they take power to use 'em! It would seem to me that a 4 foot model would likely be more than your tractor could reliably power.

That said - they throw things! The "turtles" or knife blade hubs spin very rapidly with the cutting blades attached at the outer most hub locations. Any type of debris - rocks, wood, glass - will be a missle. That's why there's a heavy duty apron that shrouds the entire cutter bar down to ground level.

They're dusty - but not nearly as bad as a brush hog. They don't kick up the same wind velocities under the apron as those bigger blades on a rotary mower.

One real advantage to the disc mower configuration (or drum mower) is the ability to adjust the cutting swath by adding/subtracting the number of "turtles" or cutter hubs. And the cutter hub size can also be small, medium or large.

The rotary cutter design with a single spindle is not as easy to scale downward in size.

AKfish

 

[Verticaltrx]

I think even a 4' disc mower is going to be too big. That is something I'd want a tractor with about 30 pto hp for. For reference, we use a 7'10" disc mower on a 65 pto hp tractor, and it is a pretty good match. Definitely wouldn't want any smaller tractor.

What may suit your needs is a small drum mower. They work in a similar principle as disc mower, but only use two cutter assemblies. Uses a good bit less power for the same width cut. There is a video on youtube of someone with a BX Kubota running a small drum mower with success.

 

[XSKIER]

Bigtiller,

At the risk of sounding like leonz, I think your particular application just may be right for the lowly flail mower. I personally feel that a rotary cutter off the rear of a SCUT is just too much. In an effort to save my MMM, this is what I knock the weeds down twice a year with:

 

[bigtiller]

I didn't realize their was a difference between a drum mower and a disc mower. I will check into them and give the fail mower a look also. I was trying to avoid the fail mower and the rotary cutter because I can't get into the field to mow until the corn/beans are out and by then the grass is knee high and a lot of it is as tall as the hood of the 2305.