Mowing with 100hp and 3-pt Finish Mower

[josephny]

I'm hoping to get some feedback from more experienced people (which is probably all of you).

I have an old Kubota ZG327 (yes, gas) zero turn that has been serving me well for about 10 years (bought it used, and it was old then).

It works, and does okay, but I think it's underpowered for me needs and I'm sure I don't have it tweaked well. I often need to go over an area a few times.

I'm in Sullivan County, NY and have 5 different locations to mow, totaling about 16-18 acres. Not golf course or high end lawns but trying to make everything as nice as possible. Some of the land has hills, and some can be quite bumpy (and my back does not appreciate that). Takes 2 full days (maybe 2.5) to get everything mowed.

I also have a 100hp M-series Kubota with Ag tires.

I was thinking about getting a new zero turn, but availability is scarce and price is high.

Then I though maybe I should get a PTO driven finish mower. EA has an 84" that looks nice. I have a suspicion that anything wider (96" for example) would not work so well because the ground is so often not flat.

My thinking is I could do that the straight runs with the Kubota-finish combination and the areas that require more maneuverability with the zero turn.

Does this make sense? Would is save my back? Would it do a good job?

Thanks very much.

 

[John0829]

The tractor will ride much better than the ZT, any ZT, I don't care what type of suspension seat it has, simply because of the size of the tires. I stupidly sold my 3 point finish mower because I thought getting my 6 acres cut using the ZT would be faster and it can be if the ground was perfectly smooth. Since the ground is far from golf course smooth the back and neck pain that follows is not worth the difference cut in time.

Using the tractor with finish mower to do the larger areas and the ZT to close work is what I am planning to start doing again WHEN I find a finish mower to my liking.

 

[Mike1955]

I'm hoping to get some feedback from more experienced people (which is probably all of you).

I have an old Kubota ZG327 (yes, gas) zero turn that has been serving me well for about 10 years (bought it used, and it was old then).

It works, and does okay, but I think it's underpowered for me needs and I'm sure I don't have it tweaked well. I often need to go over an area a few times.

I'm in Sullivan County, NY and have 5 different locations to mow, totaling about 16-18 acres. Not golf course or high end lawns but trying to make everything as nice as possible. Some of the land has hills, and some can be quite bumpy (and my back does not appreciate that). Takes 2 full days (maybe 2.5) to get everything mowed.

I also have a 100hp M-series Kubota with Ag tires.

I was thinking about getting a new zero turn, but availability is scarce and price is high.

Then I though maybe I should get a PTO driven finish mower. EA has an 84" that looks nice. I have a suspicion that anything wider (96" for example) would not work so well because the ground is so often not flat.

My thinking is I could do that the straight runs with the Kubota-finish combination and the areas that require more maneuverability with the zero turn.

Does this make sense? Would is save my back? Would it do a good job?

Thanks very much.

I use a 7 foot bush hog finish mower with a 45 horse Kubota. I works but I don’t like the belt and pullies. Maybe a woods finish mower be better suited. I mow about 3 acres. Good luck with youRs. Those kubota zt are just to expensive

 

[big bubba]

sounds like a plan. sure is a lot of tractor hauling for the small acreage you described numerous times a season. good luck. bet a 72" zero turn would do the trick. costly though. good luck w/project

 

[LouNY]

The flex deck finish mowers will do the job for you, some times you can find a used one.
Here's new and pretty;

This is my old hydraulic powered wide area mower;

7 hydraulically driven decks, pto powered hydraulic pump;

 

[Halftrack]

I would think a trifold finish mower would be a better match for your tractor and hp.

 

[josephny]

Thank you all so much!

I'm trying to keep the cost down, so while the tri-folder/bat-wings are great, they're way out of budget.

That goes for top line zero turn also.

It sounds like pulling a 72" or 84" finish mower behind a tractor for lawn work is pretty reasonable.

The Woods looks great, but it, too, is substantially more expensive than the EA or Titan.

Now I'm worried that I'd be 'getting what I paid for' if I went with an EA.

 

[mo1]

I'm hoping to get some feedback from more experienced people (which is probably all of you).

I have an old Kubota ZG327 (yes, gas) zero turn that has been serving me well for about 10 years (bought it used, and it was old then).

It works, and does okay, but I think it's underpowered for me needs and I'm sure I don't have it tweaked well. I often need to go over an area a few times.

I'm in Sullivan County, NY and have 5 different locations to mow, totaling about 16-18 acres. Not golf course or high end lawns but trying to make everything as nice as possible. Some of the land has hills, and some can be quite bumpy (and my back does not appreciate that). Takes 2 full days (maybe 2.5) to get everything mowed.

I also have a 100hp M-series Kubota with Ag tires.

I was thinking about getting a new zero turn, but availability is scarce and price is high.

Then I though maybe I should get a PTO driven finish mower. EA has an 84" that looks nice. I have a suspicion that anything wider (96" for example) would not work so well because the ground is so often not flat.

My thinking is I could do that the straight runs with the Kubota-finish combination and the areas that require more maneuverability with the zero turn.

Does this make sense? Would is save my back? Would it do a good job?

Thanks very much.

I would strongly recommend against using a typical 3 point mount finish mower behind a 100 HP utility tractor on ag tires on yards that average roughly 3 acres or so, for many reasons. I used to mow a yard with a much smaller tractor with a 6' 3 point mounted mower so I speak from experience.

- A 3 point mower is not very maneuverable behind a 30ish HP compact, let alone a 100 HP utility tractor. 3 acres or so is not very large, particularly if there are any obstructions to avoid. You will spend a lot of time turning around and avoiding objects.
- You will rut up the yards terribly unless it's bone-dry so the soil is rock-hard. People here complain about a compact weighing only twice what a good zero turn weighs and riding on much less aggressive industrial tires rutting up their yards. You are about an order of magnitude worse than that with a full-sized utility tractor on ag tires that weighs 6-8 times as much as a zero turn does.
- You will actually mow at a noticeably slower speed with most 3 point finish mowers than you will a decent zero turn. In my experience 3 point mower decks don't discharge nearly as well as a good zero turn's deck does, so you will just plug up if you go very fast. Having a bunch of power will just result in burning up the belts when you plug up the mower, you will not be able to mow any faster.
- A 100 HP utility tractor will ride more smoothly over bumps and divots than a zero turn at first as it has larger tires that roll over them and the extra weight smashes the bumps and cuts ruts. Once you rut things up and later the ruts dry up and harden, different story.

If you wanted to use the tractor, I would get high flotation turf tires for it, take the loader off it you have one, and pull a big flex-deck mower. That way you won't rut things up so badly and and at least would be cutting a wide swath for the lack of maneuverability you'd have to deal with. However, it would be cheaper and quicker just to get a very good zero turn. It sounds like that is out of the budget, so I would personally fix up your current zero-turn or get a better higher-end used one.

 

[dstig1]

You said Ag tires.... You sure you want to mow a lawn on a big heavy tractor with Ag tires? That seems like it will make a hash of your lawn...

 

[RjCorazza]

I personally would not run that large a tractor with a 7' finish mower on multiple properties totalling 16 acres. I know money is an issue, but a large zero turn would be my choice... 72".

Again with the money consideration.... Were I to use the big tractor I would at least want turf tires and a 12-15' batwing mower to maximize its capabilities, but a VERY expensive proposition.

I mow 30 acres per week across 18 rural properties with a 72" zero turn. I can mow 4 acres per hour on open land, and average 2 acres per hour across all of the properties that I mow.