No more wildflowers

[Alan L.]

I just got in off the tractor after fighting the results of putting off my first mowing of the pasture this year. We had quite a display of wildflowers, and my wife wouldn't let me shred the field 'til the flowers quit blooming.

I just got this 12 acres in shape last year, and I think it was twice as hard to cut today as it was last year after sitting unattended for 15 years. After several mowings last year and a wetter spring this year it was so thick and tall it choked my tractor down. What was taking about 7 hours to cut last year (and looked good too) took about 10 hours today, and I'm not finished yet. The volunteer oats were so thick they choked the tractor down so that I had to use low range and couldn't go full speed even at that. I also had to refuel after about 6 hours. My tractor will usually do the whole field on a tank. Now whats mowed ain't too pretty, just big glumps of grass laying everywhere.

Moral - don't let your field get away from you in the interest of saving the wildflowers.

 

[W5FL]

Just wonder what mower your are using. I have mowed before and after the wildflowers and cannot tell much difference. I use a 6 ft Medium Duty 260 Bush Hog rotary cutter and NOT a finish mower. Mow in 4th or 5th gear. Not sure how many acres you mowing. I was mowing 10 acres. Don't see much change in gas mileage either way. Also how is the deck sloped. I keep mine flat front to back, but it takes less hp with the rear higher than the front by an inch or two.

 

[gordon]

Bottom line---you have to go home to mama at the end of the day so I would venture to say you made the correct choice on that matter.
Alan this means your one brownie point to the good just don't use it up to quick save it for a sunny day /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Gordon

 

[Alan L.]

I'm using a 5' light duty Rhino rotary cutter with a B2710 tractor. This is really the first and only time I haven't been able to mow in medium range at about 2 acres an hour. I really had not experienced any bogging down with cutter except when I hit fire ant hills. The blades aren't that sharp, but then they never were real sharp. It also came a pretty good shower right before I mowed, so it was also a little wet, although not really wet enough later on to get the tires wet.

I knew the mower was really working hard, as was the tractor engine, as the cutter was making quite a bit more noise than it usually does. Its usually pretty quiet when theres not much load on it, but in the thick stuff you can hear every revolution of the PTO.

I usually mow it down so close the leading edge of the deck digs into the ground, but yesterday I had to lift it up to get through it, plus I had to slow down.

I hope my tractor hasn't lost power, or the cutter is not binding up or something, but I do know the grass and weeds are much thicker than when I started last year, although there are about 200 trees I had to mow through last year, and that didn't bog it down at all.

The real tall weeds (about 3' - 6' tall) didn't really phase the tractor, but those 18" volunteer oats sure did.

 

[Alan L.]

I left out some info. I originally set the deck about 1" lower in the front, and I just count the threads showing on my top link (13) to get it back the way it was every time I put it on. I had it on concrete before I started and it appeared to be about the same.

I have 24 acres, but I am cutting about 12 acres, plus another couple down around the creek around the trees.

Yesterday is the first time my tractor didn't seem powerful enough.

 

[Thomas]

Alan.
To mowe or not to mowe the wild flowers,
I'm not going there.

Did you use a bush hog or a finish mower?

How about if you lift your mower up a couple of inches or so and re-cut when the grass is dry,and maybe the glumps of grass will fan out.

Have fun and stay safe.

Thomas..NH

 

[JimBinMI]

Alan L.,

Usually, I would take this opportunity to tell you that you should have bought "BLUE"...but I'm not going to do that, instead I come to your defense! I highly doubt, based at least on what other B2710 owners say, that you have lost power. And don't let Wen make you feel bad about him not loosing power! Compared to what you're using, he's using a wimpy rotary! He has 68 hp divided by a 6' rotary = 11.33 hp per foot. You're using 27 hp divided by a 5' rotary = 5.4 hp per foot! If he said that he EVER bogged down using the rotary, then that would be the KUBOTA EVENT of the year!

You probably just tried to take too big a bite in tall/wet stuff and your tractor let you know it! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Next time it will probably to a great job! (Can you Orange owners believe that I just said that!) /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

P.S. - Really get a laugh out of your bio, especially the "Hollar" part! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Good Luck with the Orange, JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[W5FL]

You just ran out of HP, plain and simple. The dampness doesn't help the situation and you were going quite slow. The only thing that will help considerably is to raise the tail wheel setting on the Rhino. Then the front is set lower. Now only the front of the blade is cutting and the HP requirement is reduced. The mower, however, does not lift the grass or much as well and thus the finish cut is not quite as good. I mow with a 6 ft mower at 4 to 5 mph, but have 68 HP pushing the mower and I have not yet found anything that bogs it down. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[W5FL]

Hi JimBinMI

I talked to my dad last night and asked him what he could do with an 18 hp NH tractor. He thought a little and said mow narrow strips of grass! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

I used to occasionally bog down the B7100 with a 4' brush hog when I hit fire ant mounds or real heavy grass or brush, but I haven't had anything slow my B2710 and 5' brush hog down at all, and I sure mowed some thick, matted 2 to 3 foot tall grass last Fall. Maybe I just haven't gotten into tough enough mowing yet.

Bird

 

[JimBinMI]

Wen,

I'm sorry for your luck, the least you could do is inform him of the capabilities of today's small diesel tractor. Haven't you read enough on this board so that you could inform him what these small diesels will do?

When you insult 18.5 hp, you insult all of those small Kubota, John Deere, and other owners out there too. Please try to retain some of what you read here so that you can be proud to inform your father and educate him next time too. He might actually be proud of you for helping him to understand things better!

A New Holland TC18 is rated for the following: 60" tiller, 54" box scraper, 60" front blade, 6 cu. ft. rear scoop, 48" front snow blower, 60" rear snowblower, backhoe, 72" landscape rake, 72" rear blade, 60" mid-mount finish mower, 60" flail mower, 48" rotary cutter, front loader, bale carrier, 48" rear finish mower although I use a 60" and it works great with no bogging ever! There, now Wen go forth to educate your father! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[W5FL]

JimBinMI

No insults intended. Just facts:

My dad own's only John Deere.

No snow in Texas to blow. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Will it run his 6 ft rotary mower?

Will it run his HD 72 in tiller?

Will it carry a round bale on the front and stack it on top of others in the barn?

Will it carry a round bale on the rear and if it did, how would you stack it on top of the other bales?

He carries one on the front and rear at the same time from the hay field 1/2 mile to the barn. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Will it pick up a pallet of feed (2000#) off the back of his pickup?

I told him how much your tractor weighed and he said that it was pretty light, but maybe if he could get it on the 3 point he might be able to use it for ballast. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

How much more can I teach him? Looks like he has all the right questions./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[JimBinMI]

Wen,

Glad that the New Holland TC18, which neither you nor he owns or will ever own, became such an important conversation with you and your dad.

Sorry to say, I NEVER talk about your "M" which I nor my father will probably ever own, with my dad!

If you need some more topics to discuss with you dad just let me know if I can be of help.

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[Bird]

JimBinMI, remember that you live in hobby land; most of the real farmers around this area consider any tractor under 50hp to be a lawn and garden toy (so that includes most of us on this board, I guess). Of course if you're farming 500 to 1,500 acres, pulling 28' disk plows and seed drills and don't own anything smaller than 100hp, you tend to see things in a different light. One friend here pulls two drills at a time with a 150hp John Deere, but he has to put the duals on to do it. And then there are quite a few of the tracked John Deere, and especially the tracked Caterpillars that can really pull some big plows./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Those guys live in a different world from folks like us.

Bird

 

[Alan L.]

This is what really bothers me. I have run the cutter through some very thick, damp, and lush growth and it has never bogged down at all except when I bottom out on those large fire ant mounds. If it had done this when I first got the tractor I would just figure my tractor wasn't big enough for the 5' cutter in this kind of growth. But after having done it for about 90 hours of the 135 hours on the tractor, I know the tractor has an amazing amount of power for mowing. The other thing that told me it wasn't just the tractor that was working, but the cutter as well, was the noise coming from the cutter. Not anything unusual, just a lot louder than normal. Usually the transmission and engines sounds are about the same as the cutter, but yesterday the cutter "wow wow wow wow wow" noise drowned out everything. Note there is one "wow" for each revolution of the PTO, so about 540 of them a minute. The blades seem to turn freely as usual, and is nothing visually wrong with the cutter.

The other indication the tractor was really working hard was the fuel consumption. I can usually mow the whole 12-acre field on about 5 gallons of diesel. Yesterday I had to stop and go to town for fuel after about 6 or 7 acres.

I'm just disappointed here, as my 2710 has never grunted over anything before and its a little sobering to find out it has limitations.

 

[TomG]

Yep, we go through the same thing. This time of year I mow because the flowers that are here are low. Mowing keeps the bugs down as well. Later I space mowings between daisies, brown-eyed susans and paint-brush. I told my wife about this thread. She just smiled and said: 'This need to have lawn instead of flowers must be a guy thing.' I prefer less bugs myself, but that's just a part of self, wife, dog and tractor getting along. Works well enough, even if the dog does bark at the tractor.

 

[Bird]

Alan, you really make me curious about that cutter, and whether it was the stuff you were cutting or something different about the cutter. If it sounds different from in the past (when not cutting anything), then I'd definitely want to thoroughly inspect the cutter (which you've probably already done). I guess you did check the oil in the gearbox, tried turning the driveshaft by hand, greased the u-joints on the driveshaft, and made sure they turn freely in all directions, made sure all the bolts are still tight (like the ones holding the gearbox to the deck). You get used to a lot of noise around any tractor, but when a sound changes, that tends to worry me a bit until I find out why.

Bird

 

[Alan L.]

Yep, I've checked everything I don't see anything wrong. The gearbox is full, the drive shaft turns easily, the blades turn freely. I notice the increased noise mostly under heavy load. When it gets to stuff thats not so bad the noise decreases considerably.

I went back out to finish the job today. I think it went easier, even though it was a little muddy from the storms last night. The reason is probably the fact that the sun was out and the grass was dryer.

I'm beginning to think that this was just unusually thick plant material. I got off the tractor and you literally cannot walk through the stuff it is so thick, and about 18" to 4' tall. I have never seen so much cut material still laying after it is cut.

I think maybe I will try to get my blades sharpened a little before the next time.

By the way, TomG, this is basically a field I'm talking about. Its pretty rough looking. Maybe someday it will be a lawn but no time soon. Next spring I'm gonna have my brush hog out there at the first sign of growth. The wildflowers will have to grow in the next field over.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Alan,one other thing you might check is the air-cleaner,a dirty filter will make an engine work a lot harder and burn a lot more fuel.Also,have you changed brands of fuel? sometimes this makes a difference also.

 

[Thomas]

Mike, your right about the fuel for the grade does make a differents.

My second fill up I believe had water or the grade was cheap.
I buy my fuel only where the City of Lebanon purchase there fuel,also the other heavy equipment owners do them same.

Idleing at low rpm's for a long time will will also cause it to smoke,so maybe half throttle and a trip around the block might help?




Thomas..NH