Help me choose a rotary cutter

[Endless47]

Yep, another rotary cutter thread.

Main use will be maintaining a field about 3 or 4 acres. Its not flat but certainly not steep, just sloped in different directions. Its overgrown right now with mostly tall grass and weeds and some smaller woody stuff, at or under 1" thick. Also have some fence rows and other small areas to clean up. After the initial clearing I intend to mow the field once a moth or so to keep things down, so I'm not expecting any ongoing heavy brush use.

Been searching and reading on here but still not quite sure what I need. I'm getting a LS XR4040H so about 30hp at the pto. Looking for a 6ft cutter. Was thinking standard duty will be fine but then I've seen posts on here that say its just not worth it or wouldn't even use a standard duty for only grass mowing duty. Do I really need something in the medium category though?

Dealer I'm getting the tractor from has a 6ft standard duty Kodiak w/ slip clutch advertised at $1600. Not sure that's a great price but haven't tried to haggle on it yet. Seems like a well built mower compared to some other standard duty models? I'm open to suggestions of course.

 

[GManBart]

If you're not cutting anything heavy (you said 1" or less) I'd consider a flail mower instead. I was using a 6' rotary cutter for pretty much exactly what you describe, and just sold it. They work well on taller, heavier stuff, but with uneven ground I wasn't happy with the cut on grass/weeds. It seemed I had to take multiple passes (yes the blades were in good shape, and I was running at correct PTO speed) with lots of overlap and if things were a bit wet, it was even worse. For saplings etc, the rotary mower worked great, but on grass/weeds.....not so much. Also, you can run a wider flail mower with the same amount of power. Lastly, the rotary mower is longer, and sort of awkward to maneuver since they stick so far out behind the machine. I noticed that when making harder turns the corners/sides of the mower would often dig into the dirt as it moved around.

The only real downside to flail mower is that they typically cost more up front (assuming heavy clearing isn't in your plans). I'm getting ready to order an 87" Phoenix TE flail from Everything Attachments.

 

[TripleR]

Labels can be a bit confusing as what one maker might refer to as medium or heavy may not match up to the same level of another brand. I think you will be fine with the Kodiak.