Rotary cutter..what to expect?

[biggziff]

I'm also in Upstate NY, and have done plenty of mowing in what looks like similar conditions to your pics. I've got a ck3510se, with a 2060 cutter. I banged the blades up pretty good last year, so they're far from sharp, but it's still doing a fine job this year cutting.

Like others have already said, your primary culprits are likely: going to fast, and not having the rear of the mower set high enough.

When mowing the really tall and thick stuff, I put it in low range, and keep it to a snails pace. It's faster to do it once slowly, than having to do it twice.

Here's a picture of my cutter from last year (when it was still shiny and new). This is the rear height setting I keep it at. I generally mow in 2 positions depending on which fields I'm mowing. Either the front end riding on the ground, for the lowest possible cut, or raised up about 3-4" for a 6-7" cut.
View attachment 613441

Thanks. That's actually lower than mine is currently set. I think the main issue here was a field that had a few years of no attention and weeds that were taking over. I went back over the top, flat area after a couple days and it looked great. Running a bit slower on the hill helped make a single pass look acceptable.

 

[BRMyers]

Thanks. That's actually lower than mine is currently set. I think the main issue here was a field that had a few years of no attention and weeds that were taking over. I went back over the top, flat area after a couple days and it looked great. Running a bit slower on the hill helped make a single pass look acceptable.

You can see initially we had some fairly high grass and weeds. Had to go slow and it did clump together some.


Now after a couple of mowings, I can mow it in medium and it doesn't clump. We are trying to mow it every two weeks.

 

[biggziff]

View attachment 613565
You can see initially we had some fairly high grass and weeds. Had to go slow and it did clump together some.

View attachment 613566
Now after a couple of mowings, I can mow it in medium and it doesn't clump. We are trying to mow it every two weeks.

Look great. The weeds here were (and some still are) 4'-6' tall!

 

[prof fate]

It's a direct 2600:540 (or 4.814:1) engine-to-pto rpm ratio.

So in OP's picture where he's running at 2400 rpms, pto is turning 498 rpms instead of 540, basically 7.5% slower. Not a big whoop.

OP could just travel 7.5% (0.2 mph) slower than his usual 3 mph for the mower and pto to experience the equivalent torque (and equivalent blade revolutions per linear foot travel) as it would at 540 rpm .
Adjusting speed .2 mph can be tricky.

on my brush hog i've not noticed any difference in 540E or 540 'full', usually run 2100-2200 rpm instead of 2600 (full 540).

ON my finish mower...yes, I notice and hear a big difference.

Just started using my flail (got a whole 90 min on it) so I'm still experimenting.