Mowing Using a small tractor 18-25hp with Belly Mower For Lawn Mower

[goodoleboy]

I am getting tired of working on the Deere lawn tractor and figured if I spent double the money of a new one around, $6K for a small cut i could close to a nice used deere 4200 or Kubota 5350 with under 800 hrs.. small cut in 18-25hp range to use with mid mount (belly mower) as my lawn tractor plus have the options of front end loader later in when fund become available..I will need turf tires also.

Any pros or cons to this? Are the belly mowers able to be used as mulching mowers or am i stuck with cheaper made lawn tractors for mowing?

 

[bigdad]

I have real good luck with my Kubota B7510 with a belly mower for lawn work. I even have Ag tires. 60" deck.

 

[Compact1]

I use a New Holland TC-33DA with 72" belly mower and have great results. I really like the rear discharge!

I realize my tractor is higher horsepower than you were asking about but...my tractor is heavier with industrial tires and a larger deck and still provides a quality cut. As you mentioned, a CUT would offer more versatility (loader & attachments) than your current lawn mower. I vote for the CUT! It's fun spending other people's money.

 

[BigD23]

Kubota BX23 here...54" MMM and it works like a champ...Good luck.

Don

 

[dodge man]

I also have a Kubota BX SCUT. A BX2350 to be specific. I have a 60 inch deck with the mulching kit added. That is pretty much what they are designed for, someone that wants a mower and some tractor abilities.

 

[Soundguy]

i'd prefer a real tractor over a lawnmower ANY day of the week... I used to cut my lawn with my 66 IHcub with 44" belly mower.. cept' it goes a lil fast and has a front blade on it.. and I didn't wanna hit nuttin valuable..

soundguy

 

[LBrown59]

Kubota BX23 here...54" MMM and it works like a champ...Good luck.

Don

I also have a Kubota BX SCUT. A BX2350 to be specific. I have a 60 inch deck with the mulching kit added. That is pretty much what they are designed for, someone that wants a mower and some tractor abilities.

I like the 60 inch over the 54'' but prefer a 54'' over a 48'' .

 

[Bill_C]

My Ford 1100 came with a 48 inch belly mower. Granted, its a smaller tractor than you describe, but I had two problems that made me eventually abandon the mid-mount mower. The main problem was that I didn't have any ground clearance with the mower mounted, I couldn't raise the mower up hardly any at all. This was a show-stopper for me, I needed more than an inch and a half of ground clearance (that's about all I had even with the mower raised!!). The other problem was that the mower I had was actually attached to the 3 pt hitch and was driven by the rear PTO. So with the mower on, I couldn't use any other attachments. And the mower wasn't real easy to disconnect either.

A belly mower that gave enough ground clearance and didn't attach to the 3PH (and didn't use the rear PTO) would've been nice.

 

[EastTexFrank]

When we first moved here 12 years ago, I cut the 4 acre + yard with a JD 318. When it blew, I got a B2400 with rear mounted mower & mulching kit. It's worked well for 9 years without a problem and with the 5' finishing mower I knocked almost 3 hours off my mowing time.

I didn't get a MMM because I also used it in the pasture and wanted the ground clearance when bush hogging etc., and I'm far too lazy to keep taking the thing off and putting it back on.

 

[irvingj]

I've been amazed at how capable my GC2310 is with the 60" MMM. I had my doubts, but... it does a better job than my push mower, the tractor/mower is easily able to go down & up some steep slopes (4WD only, please), and it has cut my lawn mowing time by close to 2/3!!

I don't have any 3PH implements at this time, so I just removed the 3PH arms so they wouldn't dig into the dirt at the bottom of the steep slopes. I also removed the discharge flapper chute --to gain space for parking-- and found that it will broadcast clipping pretty evenly out to the side instead of leaving furrows of cut grass.. great!

I remove the BH and FEL for mowing, not really hard to do; I've also discovered that, even with turf tires, I still have enough clearance to slide the MMM under the tractor for hook-up in the garage. Overall, VERY happy with it!

 

[JoelD]

This is a good topic, I've seen many say, to mow, get a dedicated mowing machine, like zero turn or the like, something that is purpose built and will mow fast and clean.

Then tractor for all other tractor sort of stuff.

I'm on the fence, personally I don't have option to mow with tractor as my mowable property is 1/2 acre or so, but if I had to mow more, I'd think hard about a used dedicated mower, particularly with the frequency with which most of us have to mow. No deck on and off when ground engagement calls.

I'd think long and hard though about getting a used, purpose built mower for mowing and a tractor for all other.

Joel

 

[markwmo]

I think it depends on what you're mowing. In my case the area around my house has a lot of trees, shrubs, etc. I wouldn't want to have to mow around all that with a tractor style mower. I use a Scag zero turn for that. I also have a couple of lots that we try to keep mowed too and normally use a Bobcat CT120 with a mmm for that. In hindsight I wish I would have purchased a 3pt finish mower to use with the Bobcat. The MMM is not trivial to take off and on and like others have mentioned there isn't much ground clearance with it on.

 

[bp fick]

To each his own. So many variables. The variety of needs and realities vary soooooooo much from person to person.

Me? Naw, I want a lawn mower for a lawn mower and I need a tractor. Dedicated. That's just me. I 'm the same way with most of my other tools.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have to agree with BPFICK. I like purpose built equipment, lawnmower to mow yard, bush hog to mow pasture. If I could afford it I would have a tractor for each implement so I could just start and go, but alas we all have our limitations as Dirty Harry used to say. But to get back to the original question, I think a 3 ph finish mower would be the ideal thing to have if one was to forego a lawnmower and try to use a SCUT for the lawn and also keep it easily available for some rough work.