Rotary Mower Confusion

Billy_S · Apr 5, 2006

My new BX2230 with FEL and 60" MMM was delivered Saturday. I have already put 10 hours on it and I was out of town for the weekend.

We are in the market for some type of rotary mower and I am confused as to exactly what I should buy. The dealers all seem to want to sell whatever they have in stock so I am coming here for an unbiased and expert opinion.

I am pretty sure I have heard that for my particular tractor, I want a 48" mower, but the manual says it can handle a maximum of 60". Anyone know for sure what size mower would be best for me?

My second area of confusion is over the terms used to describe rotary mowers. Bush hog, brush hog, finish mower, rotary mower. Are these terms used interchangably?

Let me describe what we have and what I want to do and solicit your advice on what I should buy.

We have a total of 40 acres. About 4 acres is yard and is mowed with the MMM. We have about 15 acres of horse pasture that needs to be mowed a couple of times a year. The rest is woods. I need a rotary mower that will MOSTLY be used for the pastures but that I MIGHT also want to use in the woods for keeping trails cut down and general maintenance. I do not expect a mower to cut down 3" diameter trees, but 3/4" saplings would be nice.

Can anyone recommend a specific brand and size of mower that would suit my needs and my equipment?

Thanks much.

Highbeam · Apr 5, 2006

Let me try. The finish mower is a completely different animal than a brush hog, rotary cutter, or bush hog which are all the same thing. Your MMM is a finish mower made for nice finish cutting and the brush hog is a tool of mass destruction that can actually mow grass into a pretty nice looking lawn if done regularly. The finish mower uses rigid lawn mower type blades while the brush hog uses a pair of 1/2" thick by 4" wide blades that are hinged near the dirve axle. A much sturdier and rougher design. Even the lightest duty brush hogs are rated for 1" material but my light duty version pretty easily blows through material as thick as my wrist. 4' is about right. I use a 5' brush hog on my 30 HP tractor and 5' is about the width of the tires.

Oh the brush hog will windrow the clippings.

On brand and size I would buy the cheapest, say a King Cutter or TSC store brand at 4' width which should be plenty big for your machine. Mine is a Rankin and is beat up pretty bad but still functional. This is not a fine piece of machinery it is a rough cut mower.

RonMar · Apr 5, 2006

"Tool of mass destruction", I like that

Ditto what highbeam said IRT the rotary cutter/brush-hog. The blade is usually left a little dull(1/8" cutting edge) as they hammer their way through brush stalks with their great mass and tremendous blade tip speed. When sharpened to a finer edge, they do cut grass pretty well but the deck can be a bit cumbersome and has a higher potential to scalp uneven terrain. I also run a 5' Rankin cutter with my 28HP(24ish PTO HP) tractor and it is just slightly wider than the outer wheel track. When I get done busting my land into shape, I will add gauge wheels to all 4 corners of my brushhog, sharpen the blades a bit finer and use it for the majority of my semi-finish mowing. I have a 50" rideing mower for around the house and towing a sprayer.

In my experience, Some finish mowers windrow in the middle, some are side discharge like that of a rideing lawnmower. The middle discharge type usually leave a denser row of clippings that are more easilly picked up. But if you plan on leaving them lay, that can be bad as it will hinder grass growth under the windrowed clippings and leave streaks in the lawn/field. Side discharge tend to blow the clippings a bit and more evenly dispurse them for more even re-growth. Another type finish mower is a flail mower which uses a large number of swinging cutter blades and pretty much drops the clipings right where they were cut for very even distribution. They are also very short and easy to maneuver with.

Highbeam · Apr 5, 2006

And on flail mowers, no spinning blades to shoot rocks into cars, houses, or people. The rotary cutter blades build up plenty enough energy to pitch a baseball sized rock hundreds of feet with great speed. Flail mowers while more spendy leave no windrows, don't shoot rocks, and don't hang off the back any more than a tiller. There are some heavier duty ones but most are rated at 3/4" or so for brush. I would say they are more suited to brushy work than a finish mower.

npaden · Apr 5, 2006

"My second area of confusion is over the terms used to describe rotary mowers. Bush hog, brush hog, finish mower, rotary mower. Are these terms used interchangably?" 

A Bush Hog is a brand of rotary mower. Many people use the term Bush Hog to mean any rotary mower. Other's tweak it a little and call all rotary mowers brush hogs. Here in my neck of the woods they call a rotary mower a shredder. These are all the same thing as described by the earlier posters.

A finish mower is a different animal as described by the earlier posters as well.

FWIW, Nathan

kossetx · Apr 5, 2006

Be like the folks in TX and call it a shredder, because, well...

RoyJackson · Apr 5, 2006

With 15 acres to brush cut, I'd go for the largest rotary cutter your tractor can handle.

Although you might have adequate PTO HP, the weight of the cutter (600 pounds or more) may be the limiting factor.

However...even if your tractor can't safely pick a 60" cutter up, you can leave the tailwheel on the ground and tow it...watch those turns though.

Personally, I think a BX2230 is too small for a 60" cutter (weight issue, not power). But 15 acres is a lot, even with a 60" cutter. You probably need a bigger tractor...B7800 or L2800 would be my choice for a Kubota.

As far as brand...depends on what you want to spend. I have a 60" Land Pride cutter that works very well...good match for my 24 PTO HP Deere 790, but it worked well behind a 16.5 PTO HP Deere 670 too.

BB_TX · Apr 5, 2006

Another name is rotary cutter and is what you will normally see in advertisements.
If the manual says it can handle it, I would go with the larger one. I run a 6' cutter on 27 PTO hp and mow about 10 acres 2-3 times a year. I run about a 1' overlap to get a good even cut so I get about a 5' cut each pass and it still takes a while to cut it all. It cuts the pasture very well as long as I don't let it get too tall. Then I either just slow down or take smaller bites. With a 4' cutter, you would only be getting maybe 3 1/2' each pass. If you try to get maximum cut, your pasture will end up looking like you planted some kind of row crop. Not that I would know. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Billy_S · Apr 6, 2006

Thanks to everyone for your timely responses. You have been most helpful. I would like to address a few comments specifically, if I am smart enough to figure out how.

Highbeam: >>brush hog is a tool of mass destruction<<

LOL. With a description like that, I simply MUST have one.

Highbeam: >>The finish mower uses rigid lawn mower type blades while the brush hog uses a pair of 1/2" thick by 4" wide blades that are hinged near the dirve axle.<<

So if I look underneath the machine I am considering and it has a blade that looks like my MMM's, it is a finishing mower? Rougher cut mowers will have the hinged blades? I don't want for the dealer to sell me a "bill of goods" so, excuse my ignorance. I want to make sure what I buy will do what I want.

RoyJackson: >>the weight of the cutter (600 pounds or more) may be the limiting factor. <<

If I remember, my manual says the tractor can only lift something like 350 pounds. I may be wrong about that as I am going by my, quite fallible, memory.

RoyJackson: >>You probably need a bigger tractor...B7800 or L2800 would be my choice for a Kubota.<<

Of course I need a bigger tractor. Would you mind calling my wife and convincing her of that?

Actually, here's my story, if you are interested.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a tornado pass through these parts. Our machine shed was completely destroyed. The horse barn had no damage and the house had minimal damage. We rode the storm out in the basement and were, all things considered, quite lucky.

The good news is that the shed was over insured. We actually profited to the tune of about $10 grand. This windfall, combined with Kabota's 60 months at zero percent financing, put a huge dent in the purchase price of the tractor.

The Kubota will replace a very ugly Allis 190 and a, not too dependable, JD 400. We intend to sell both of these. I think we will come out better that way than if we had traded with the dealer. The AC was more tractor than we needed, for the most part. All we ever really used it for was mowing pastures.

So, our thinking is, with the "profit" from the shed and the proceeds from selling both of the tractors, just put the money in our savings and write a check out of there to pay for the Kubota over the next 36 months.

Again, thanks to everyone who replied.

TBrown · Apr 6, 2006

TSC carries King Kutter implements, and KK has a line of attachments called the XP series specifically designed and sized for sub-CUT tractors like your BX. If you have a TSC in your area, you might want to check them out.

Highbeam · Apr 6, 2006

Highbeam: >>brush hog is a tool of mass destruction<<

LOL. With a description like that, I simply MUST have one.

-------It is a cool machine. You can back it up and over piles of rubbish or old rotten stumps and then lower the blades into them and shred the junk up into little pieces. There's much more to a brush hog than just setting the height and dirving forward in rows. It'll do that too though.

Highbeam: >>The finish mower uses rigid lawn mower type blades while the brush hog uses a pair of 1/2" thick by 4" wide blades that are hinged near the dirve axle.<<

So if I look underneath the machine I am considering and it has a blade that looks like my MMM's, it is a finishing mower? Rougher cut mowers will have the hinged blades? I don't want for the dealer to sell me a "bill of goods" so, excuse my ignorance. I want to make sure what I buy will do what I want.

-------Yes, the blades will be very substantial and are hinged so that if you drive over a huge stump the blades could bounce around the stump while the pto keeps spinning. This provides a weed wacker effect with each wack being given by a huge chunk of steel.

I always wondered how cool it would be to remove a piece of the rear end of the shroud so I could back the blades right into trees. Basicly exposing the blades to full tress just like a weed wacker string is exposed to grass blades. Probably very dangerous.

350 lbs sounds pretty light. My 30 HP tractor lifts nearly a ton. Close to 1750 as I recall at the 3ph.

jinman · Apr 6, 2006

If you want to see what a rotary cutter looks like, go to kingkutter.com and you'll find a wealth of information. The attachment is from their website.

It shows the two blades (12) bolted to what is called a "stump jumper" (14) with two very large bolts that serve as hinge points (13).

Be careful, if you learn too much about rotary cutters, you may know more than the salesman. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

What's the difference between a tractor salesman and a computer salesman?...
...The tractor salesman actually knows when he's lying to you. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

flusher · Apr 6, 2006

I have a KK 48" rotary mower (the yellow one, not the orange one) that I use on my 21HP B7510HST ($675 at TSC last June). It weighs about 420 lb -- no problem for the 3pt hitch since it can lift about 1000 lb @ 24" behind the pins.

With that much acreage to mow, plan on spending a few days for that chore. I have 10 acres and use the brush hog on about 7 acres. Takes me all day with my little Bota.

Recommend safety chains or rubber debris shields to keep flying objects from hurting neighbors or their animals (see attachment).

My KK has a shear pin on the PTO shaft. Some folks like slip clutches better. You can get a suitable slip clutch from TSC for about $100-120.

RonMar · Apr 6, 2006

( I always wondered how cool it would be to remove a piece of the rear end of the shroud so I could back the blades right into trees. Basicly exposing the blades to full tress just like a weed wacker string is exposed to grass blades. Probably very dangerous)

Yea, having a blade exposed might be pretty dangerous as if you can see a blade, something it hits and throws could hit you directly. I try not to back up too much as the hitch and mower structure is weakest going that way. I have however pushed down and shredded 3-4" trees with the cutter raised to the full height. I back up against them slowly with the trunk close along side the center wheel and the edge of the deck pushes the tree away and bends it. As the tree trunk starts to go under the rear edge of the deck, the blades start to cut away at it, allowing the top to bend more easilly. The lower portion of the trunk usually tries to stand back up into the blades and is cut down. Once I cut all the way through, I lower the deck slowly and shred the stump down to just a few inches off the ground. If the ground is soft enough, the bashing on the trunk actually uproots the small stump and the blades quickly shred it as it dances around under the deck.

Real cool but definitly something to be done away from people without good chain or flap guards installed. It can throw sharpened splinters of tree trunk or what's left of the root wad quite a distance.

Highbeam · Apr 7, 2006

I love doing that, I call it tree shredding and then follow up by backing over the now severed tree top leaving nothing but shredded wood all over the place. I don't usually go to 4 inchers though, maybe a weak 3 incher. A quick hand on the 3 point lever is needed to keep the brush hog from stalling the tractor doing such maneuvers.

JoeinTX · Apr 7, 2006

@BillyS

There isn't a darn thing wrong with the KK shredders (and they are called "shredders" in my part of the country

and a quick trip to the local TSC will result in an impulse buy. I came darn close to owning one myself, but the other low-end competitor (Howse) offered bolt-on chain guards for their unit while KK doesn't and doesn't even provide for the easy installation of one...at least on the front. KK is slightly heavier built though, so it's "6 in one hand, half-a-dozen in the other" here.

@High

( I always wondered how cool it would be to remove a piece of the rear end of the shroud so I could back the blades right into trees. Basicly exposing the blades to full tress just like a weed wacker string is exposed to grass blades. Probably very dangerous)

Dude, that is dangerous. A weed-eater and a rotary cutter are two different animals altogether and the amount of damage that flying debris that each can cause is obviously proportional. I've had conventional shredders throw rocks 50 yards and dent fence posts before....some have had them break windows and dent metal. These aren't tree-saws......appropriate equipment is made for that type of work. A 3" tree is still a **** of a beating on the average small cutter and something will break.

It's all fun until someone gets an eye put out... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

MarkV · Apr 7, 2006

Highbeam, the ‘tree cutter’ you visualize is actually made. It has a hinged cover on the rear so you can back into and cut a tree. It also has a bar to push against the tree to encourage it to fall away from you. I watched a guy with a 100hp tractor cut down some 5 to 8” pines with one. I believe they are made by either Rhino or Brown and require some serious horsepower to operate.

MarkV

Billy_S · Apr 10, 2006

I pulled the trigger and bought the KingKutter XB this weekend. It is even orange. I took that as a sign from God.

Thanks again to everyone for the input.