Mowing How much power needed a 6' mower?

[Anonymous Poster]

How much power needed a 6\' mower?

How much PTO power is required for a 6' rear mower when cutting nothing but grass on a gentle slope?

I am looking at a tractor that claims to have 22 PTO HP. Some dealers have told me that is sufficient while others have told me I better stick to a 5' mower with that kind of power.

 

[DK35vince]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

I have a john deere 850.engine HP 26 with 22 at the PTO.
I run a 6 foot belly mower and a 6 foot 3 point finnish mower.
It runs either mower very well.

 

[Dave41]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

22 PTO should be fine with a 6 foot mower. My Kubota has 16 PTO HP. The 5 foot rear finish mower handles tall grass on gentle slopes without any problem. The Kubota 2410 has 18 PTO HP (I think) and a 6 foot RFM is an approved size. You should be OK going with a 6 foot deck.
Dave

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

It could be that all the dealers are right. I've asked the same questions from the other side (What size mower with my tractor?) and here's what I've gleaned.

A 22 PTO HP tractor should be fine with a 6' finish mower. That same tractor would be far better served with a 5' brush hog rotary mower than a 6' model. I'm going with that combination (5' brush hog, 6' finish mower) with my 20 PTO HP tractor. I hope this helps.

 

[BB_TX]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

I run a 6' rotary cutter with 27 hp to mow pasture. It does fine as long as I don't let the grass get too tall. But if I get into heavy green grass a foot tall or more, I have to slow down to a crawl. It actually cuts 5' tall weeds easier than it cuts 1' tall coastal or johnson grasses. Consider what you will be mowing. If you mow weekly, you probably will not have a problem with the 6'. If you let the grass get very tall, I think 22 hp will be marginal.

 

[Trev]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

My JD 4300 with a 6 foot mower never changes its engine note no matter how high the grass is. I think it's around 28-29 HP at the PTO (would have to look at the manual which is at home) but even if it did slow down a bit, just reduce your ground speed a tad. I would think you should be fine in almost all cases. In fact, going slowly enough, I can't imagine you needing more power.

HTH,
Bop

 

[frank_f15]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

it really depends on the type and length of grass u will be cutting. i use a 5 ft. finish mower with slightly less pto hp than u and i have no problem u could probably use a 6ft. if it is just grass and u don't let it get 2 ft tall.

 

[Dave41]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

Good point Gary. RFM vs rotary mower will definitely make a difference. I was strictly thinking RFM.

 

[weedsportpete]

Manufacturer\'s recommended PTO hp vs. whats needed

I'm looking at a rotary cutter that has an additional 'side arm', circular cutter for going under fences. The requirements list 22 PTO hp.. can I 'get by' with less? How much less?? Example: a BX2200 has 22 hp, with (I think) 17.5 PTO hp. Is that too under powered??

Pete

 

[RanchMan]

Re: Manufacturer\'s recommended PTO hp vs. whats needed

Like most things in life, I'm sure you could "make do" with the 17.5 hp /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, but you are teetering on the edge of having something that "works" and something that "works well." /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

While 4.5 HP doesn't sound like much, using a little math, you are basically trying to get away with a 20% less HP than their recommendation (which I suspect is not the max HP the mower could handle).

Under some conditions, you might not notice the difference in HP, but I suspect that would not be the case most of the time. Assuming that you want a larger deck to cut your mowing time, I suspect that you might actually get the job done faster with a smaller deck because you would be able to go faster and not "milk" it along due to a lack in HP.

Also, just as a side note, it might not be very healthy for your tractor to have it constantly "bogging down" due to trying to do more than it was designed to. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

 

[stnickstoys]

Re: How much power needed a 6\' mower?

I run a six foot Caroni finish mower behind a 21hp Iseki TU180 with power to spare. Really beats the heck out of my Simplicity with a 44 inch deck! Rides over the bumpy areas much better too!
Nick

 

[weedsportpete]

Re: Manufacturer\'s recommended PTO hp vs. whats needed

Thanks - I thought that might be the case.. I'll have to find something smaller. That model was the smallest the manufacturer offered with the side arm. I'll ask for suggestions on cutting under fences.