Mowing Finish mower use?

[fbiwrench]

So how much grass is too much for a finish mower? I recently purchased about 5 acres with home. Approx. 2 acres around house has manicured lawn with remaining 3 acres taller grass with cherry trees. Obviously been mowed before, (no saplings or heavy brush) but not on regular basis. This is in northern MI and grass seems fairly fine. So my question is at what point does a rotary cutter/bush hog become necessary over a finish mower? I would eventually like to keep the whole 5 acres mowed on a regular basis.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've mowed grass over a foot tall with my 7ft finish mower and 35 hp tractor. It bogs down, and it does a terrible job, but it will get it done. You just have to go real slow and watch where the cut grass goes so you don't go over it too. There is only so much material that you can get into the deck area and still have the blades turn.

After the first ugly cut, the next time you go over it, it will look really nice.

Eddie

 

[JCByrd24]

Without knowing more particulars, you should be fine. My little Yanmar (18hp) knocked down 2' tall stuff with 2 passes of a RFM the first time because I bought it in September and it hadn't been mowed yet that year. The RFM is nice because you can set it up much higher than a MMM for a first pass if necessary. Now I mow when it's about 8-10" tall down to 4"-4.5" and it handles that just fine, the grass is taking over the woodier stuff, but I still have some catnine tails and reeds in wet spots and it goes right through those too. The biggest issue is clogging the chutes I would guess, and then wrapping junk around the spindles so let that tell you how fast to go. My old yanmar RFM allowed me to remove both side chutes and that allows plenty of room for discharge such that my ground speed is governed by my own comfort over the bumpy field. A rear discharge would be even better.

 

[leonz]

So how much grass is too much for a finish mower? I recently purchased about 5 acres with home. Approx. 2 acres around house has manicured lawn with remaining 3 acres taller grass with cherry trees. Obviously been mowed before, (no saplings or heavy brush) but not on regular basis. This is in northern MI and grass seems fairly fine. So my question is at what point does a rotary cutter/bush hog become necessary over a finish mower? I would eventually like to keep the whole 5 acres mowed on a regular basis.

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If you purchase a rotary cutter or rear finish mower UGHHH!!!, you will have tremendous

amounts of cuttings that will not degrade into mulch and create dead spots from laying on the sod.


This dead grass and brush will create huge homes for insects and animals that can and will spread

grass diseases and increase the habitat for small rodents that will spread disease.


The rotary cutter or finish mower will not reduce the invasive plants like poison ivy, poison sumac,

and poison oak where the flailmower will mow the brush and grass to the sod and keep these

invasives from spreading and they wil eventually die off.


You will be much better off purchasing a flail mower for this as you will be able to mow wet grass

with ease and the grass clippings from the flail mower.


The flail mower in use cuts the brush and grass a a very high speed using the verticut method which

slices the grass and brush into very small cuttings and the clippings degrade very, very quickly.


If you have an instance where you have a lot of debris after cutting you can mow over it again with the

flailmower and shred them a second or third tome if desired and it will degrade very quickly for you and

add mulch back to the soil quickly.



The flailmower cuts along its entire width using every grass slicer that is mounted on the rotor wherein

each and every grass slicer mounted on the flail mower rotor is used in mowing where only half the cutting width of each mower blade

is used at any time on a rotary cutter or finish mower; for example the flailmower in my case is 48 inches wide in cutting width and


Each grass slicer has 1.5 inches of cutting edge and each row has 16 pairs of grass slicers which provides the end user with

a total of 48 inches of overlapping cutting edge to mow the brush and grass.


The four rows of grass slicers provide 172 inches of cutting edge exposed to the grass or brush versus 24 inches of cutting edge in the

same size finish mower or rotary cutter. A flailmower is much safer to use around pedestrians and 4 legged rug rats wherein if the mower

impacts an object the object will stay within the flailmower hood and not have the opprtunity to become a missle and be thrown out of the

mower to cause injury or property damage.





Each pair of grass slicers has 3 inches of exposed cutting edge, most grass slicers

have 2 cuting edges giving you six inches of cutting surface so you can simply flip

the grass slicer over to expose the new edge quickly and go back to mowing.


So in using my example the flail mower has 344 inches of usable cutting edge to use versus the

actual 24 inches exposed edge of a rotary cutter or finish mower as only half the cutting edge is used

per rotation of the mower blades.




If you purchase a flail mower with a finish mower rotor you will be able to mow both your lawn and your

field with the same machine eliminating the need to buy 2 different mowers.




Please contact Ken Sweet and ask him about his lines of flail mowers as he is a forum sponsor in good standing

and he also ships from his warehouse in kentucky to your door.

 

[KTurner]

So how much grass is too much for a finish mower?

There are multiple factors. How wet is the grass? How thick? How fast do you want to go? Is everything the same height, or is the thick stuff short and the dandelions poking up 12" above the thick stuff? etc?

Try it. If it's not working well or your belts start squealing, either slow down, wait for it to dry (if wet) or use the rotary cutter to get it back under control. Next time, don't want as long to cut it and try the finish mower again.

Keith

 

[fbiwrench]

I'll have to look into that. I have no experience with flail mowers but sounds good. My intentions were to buy a rear finish mower but was afraid I would need a rotary cutter so as not to damage the RFM cutting too deep of grass.
The grass is high and dry most of the time. Grass gets to about 18 to 20" by end of season. Dies back quite a bit before Spring.

 

[bp fick]

I live in northern Michigan and I use a finish mower and in fact, got it from Ken Sweet. That's another story, and yes, a good story.

The initial cutting of the typical field grass up here happens in early June. If you let the native grasses grow until the 4th of July, they'll get too winding and difficult for a finish mower. I'd chop it down first with a brush hog and then, if you wish to maintain it, you'll certainly be able to. I have no problems doing so.

Another reason I'd go over a mystery field first with a brush hog is the waiting surprises. Not saying there are any out there, but the odds are there are a couple land mines waiting for you. Depending on rains and how timely they are, guys here brush hog twice a summer. Finishing mowing is about twice a month, but only if rains are timely, which isn't very often.

 

[k0ua]

You have received some pretty good advice, especially about the hidden land mines waiting out there in that innocent looking pasture, you could mow it with a rotary cutter (brush hog) first to find those, if they exist. or you can also mow up high first wait for the cut grass to dry a day or 2 and then mow again lower looking for rocks first when you get it cut down some. Be sure to mow when the grass is dry. Of course one big rock can "wad up" a finish mower blade in a heartbeat. BTDT. But I used to mow about 7 acres with a finish mower all the time, and it looked like a park. and we started with blackberry vines and poison ivy, and some fescue. Just use common sense.

James K0UA

 

[Raindem]

I have 5 acres of a tall coarse grass which I cut with my 6' finish mower (JD 2305). It cuts through it just fine but I wanted to leave the grass higher than the highest setting on the mower. So I modified the wheel brackets to raise it up 4". The cut is not as clean but it's a better height for my environment and I don't have to worry as much about rocks.

 

[Will_C]

I mow 9 acres on a site where I plan to build a a house. The front 5 acres gets mowed regularly-but the back is often too wet to mow in April or May, and it takes a while because it is rough in spots, and time is short for me in the spring. I mow that with a bush hog Memorial Day weekend, and then mow it every 2-3 weeks for the rest of the year. It oftens gets 10-12" high-I mow it with a RFM set on high, probably 5 inches. Not a problem.

Will

 

[gilbertmsg]

I won't go into a long rant, but will take some pictures on the 4th and let you see for yourself. I just mowed today with finish mower and is fine if grass is not real thick. If thick and high, I will mow high and lower on the second pass. I have a 19 hp Iseki with a cheapo Chinese finish mower (5 ft) that is 5years old and cuts fine. Cannot fine blades to fit so, I purchase Croni blades and grind down a little. It will work fine.

Eddie

 

[whistlepig]

I have mowed seven acres every week for four years with a Woods PRD7200 RFM. I will be mowing it again tomorrow. The mower has to be maintained. A lot of greasing, deck cleaning, blade sharpening. The premium brand mowers are made for this kind of stuff.

 

[Short Game]

Every week starting in spring through high summer I drag my Bush Hog brand ATH-720 around for about 40 miles. This year I got way behind and have had to deal with some long wet grass. It's handled it pretty well, but have to take it slow in the really thick places. Belts like it if you don't work them too hard. It doesn't do a pretty cut like a rider mower, but very satisfactory for the disc golfers who walk our course. You've never seen grass grow like it can in the Washington and Oregon Coastal hills.

 

[ppdiaper]

I cut about 4 acres of grass on a 20 acre site where I plan to build a house. I recently got a King Kutter 72" finish mower behind my JD 3038E, which is advertised as about 30 PTO HP. It cuts real nice and real fast. If you want a lawn that your going to cut at least a couple times a month during fast-growing season, then I can't see why you wouldn't want a good finish mower. That seemed the most economical way for me anyway. If you want hay then no. If you have hidden rocks and debris that will also be a problem.

 

[trailbuilder]

We use a 5 foot finish mower behind a 3320. We have been mowing 40 miles of trails 10-15 foot wide. That is about 65 acres if you do the math. Most of the trails get mowed at 4 inches 4-5 times a summer. We have been mowing starting in early June but this year I waited until yesterday to start mowing. Not as many nesting birds in July to disturb. The grass was 2-3 feet tall in places; the finish mower did fine, not pretty but the next cut should make it nice.

 

[evan price]

My neighbor is a widow and her crackhead ex-grandson-in-law stole their rider mower to sell for scrap last year. So their property had not been mowed in over a year.
It was overgrown with grass, weeds, and bushy shrubby stuff to alomst 5' high. The grass was well over the hood of my Satoh. I've got a Woods RM48 finish mower. The Buck makes 18.5 HP which was plenty to run the mower. I wound up taking off both side plates and running it a couple links higher on the levelling chains to get about a 6" cut height. Took two passes to get it all taken care of. Ran full throttle and 840 PTO speed on low range drive. On the second pass I could run at high range first gear. Lots of roots, rocks, stumps, holes, etc.

Since the grass was so high there were lots of stuff hidden in there- bottles, pop cans, kids toys, hoses, dog tie-out, garden tools, and a long stretch of welded wire fence that the crackhead had stolen the fence posts for scrap money and left the wire fence on the ground. I managed to avoid everything except a few bottles & cans, Hotwheels cars and the wire fence. Heavy sticks and grapevine would bog me down but just lift the 3-point and drive away and all would be fine.

I wound up greasing daily, sharpening the blades twice and it cost me a belt on the mower but the belt wasn't in that great shape when I got the mower to begin with so I am not put out about that. The first pass took quite a while and looked shaggy. The second pass took less time and came out pretty good. This was about three acres total. Took me a couple weeks mowing a little at a time.

I had to stop every hour or so because the TEMP light would turn on. Since it was open land, sunny, 90 degrees and heavy work, it wasn't surprising. In the really heavy stretches you could tell the governor had it wide open and it would black smoke. I figure the EGT was high from that. I'd just let it cool off at fast idle for about 3-4 minutes and the light would go out.

 

[whistlepig]

My neighbor is a widow and her crackhead ex-grandson-in-law stole their rider mower to sell for scrap last year. So their property had not been mowed in over a year.
It was overgrown with grass, weeds, and bushy shrubby stuff to alomst 5' high. The grass was well over the hood of my Satoh. I've got a Woods RM48 finish mower. The Buck makes 18.5 HP which was plenty to run the mower. I wound up taking off both side plates and running it a couple links higher on the levelling chains to get about a 6" cut height. Took two passes to get it all taken care of. Ran full throttle and 840 PTO speed on low range drive. On the second pass I could run at high range first gear. Lots of roots, rocks, stumps, holes, etc.

Since the grass was so high there were lots of stuff hidden in there- bottles, pop cans, kids toys, hoses, dog tie-out, garden tools, and a long stretch of welded wire fence that the crackhead had stolen the fence posts for scrap money and left the wire fence on the ground. I managed to avoid everything except a few bottles & cans, Hotwheels cars and the wire fence. Heavy sticks and grapevine would bog me down but just lift the 3-point and drive away and all would be fine.

I wound up greasing daily, sharpening the blades twice and it cost me a belt on the mower but the belt wasn't in that great shape when I got the mower to begin with so I am not put out about that. The first pass took quite a while and looked shaggy. The second pass took less time and came out pretty good. This was about three acres total. Took me a couple weeks mowing a little at a time.

I had to stop every hour or so because the TEMP light would turn on. Since it was open land, sunny, 90 degrees and heavy work, it wasn't surprising. In the really heavy stretches you could tell the governor had it wide open and it would black smoke. I figure the EGT was high from that. I'd just let it cool off at fast idle for about 3-4 minutes and the light would go out.

Sounds like a good hard working tractor that you know very well. It reminds me of the days I used to mow vacant lots for realtors. All the neighbors around the vacant lots would use the vacant lots for a dump. Heaven forbid that you sling some of their own garbage through their back patio doors. Bed springs, matresses, dead dogs in garbage bags, steel wheels, concrete blocks, pay phones, ATM machines, and etc. You name it and I have probably mowed it.

 

[hawkeye08]

I try to get started mowing before it is more than 2 feet tall or so, but one area several acres is too wet to get in early so it gets mowed late June. This year, the grass was taller than the fenders on the Kubota L3130. I just go slow and enjoy the outdoors.. I really like the cruise control on the tractor, just go the speed I need, keeping the rpms up so the mower runs at 540rpm.

Like the others have said, slow and safe on the first pass, then the second pass a few weeks later is the cleanup.

 

[Yander]

I'm reserecting this old thread. Sounds like several guys have cut some pretty tall grass with a rear finish mower.

What is the rule of thumb on RFM pto HP? Is it 5 PTO HP per foot like a bushhog or more like 4HP per foot?

 

[big bubba]

to get an idea of the difference in finish & heavier duty rotary mowers, look at the deck construction. notice how much less a finish mower deck depth is than regular decks. that's what will limit you in the height of cut.
in addition, in general finish mowers are lighter duty & have a less robust overall construction.