which 6' rotary cutter by HP rating would be good for me??

[leonz]

There are a lot of good used John Deere 25A flail mowers around
that are seven footers and work with small mules.

We had ford Jubilee and we used a JD25A that was used to reclaim old
pasture with 12 foot plus goldenrod with no issues other than just taking
the time to do it.

 

[TomSeller]

Medium duty it is. Since all of my mowing is done for now and I am keeping my 52" cutter until I find a 6' one I should be able to be patient and find a good used one.

That is what I did and saved over half the cost of new.

 

[MESSMAKER]

Lot of pain involved in buying a "new" cutter. Nice and pretty till you use it a couple of times in rough stuff and it looks about like all the other non-rusted used cutters that you could have bought for 1/2 price.

 

[WM75Guy]

You definitely can get too heavy a cutter. The weight of the cutter and whether or not you have an FEL makes a difference on balance. My 6' Bushhog Squealer was not a problem on my TC40DA 40HP. I put it on my Boomer 8N 50HP without FEL and it lifted the front end if I raised it too high such as trying to put it on the trailer. I put 200# on the front and it's better but I may go with another 300#. The heavier the tractor the better the ride while cutting.

 

[JRobyn]

I'll disagree just a bit on "heavier is better" and "used for a good deal". My FIL who is REALLY frugal (cheap) just bought a light-duty 5ft bushhog RD5 for his Cub Cadet 7260 with 27 PTO HP. He has a few suitcase weights in front. The tractor will lift something like 1200# at 24in, but this little cutter is only about 520#. The light weight is fine for his cutting needs and will reduce the tendency for the cutter to push him around in use. Much easier to HANDLE. $1250 with full guards and a shearpin. Typical stout Bushhog construction.

We looked at a number of used cutters. There were ones that looked nice, and appeared to have little use, and thus lower risk of needing major repairs. They were all only about 20-30% less than new. And there were a bunch of beat-to-he11 rust queens that would likely take 3 hours of repair work for every 1 hour of use. Maybe not, but one just cannot be sure.

With new, he has a known good-quality tool that will work correctly, last him a long time and NOT be just a bunch of maintenance and repair headaches. And he's quite proud of it!

- Jay

 

[TomSeller]

I'll disagree just a bit on "heavier is better" and "used for a good deal".

I believe he has this year's mowing done so he has all off season to find one. Yes, there are rust buckets out there but mine had the new paint shine at less than 1/2 price. It was bought by a large city Fire Department and then they outsourced their mowing so it went up for surplus.

 

[davethegundoctor]

A "Medium Duty" Wood's bush hog is a model BB720 . It is over 1200 lbs. way to much for your tractor.

 

[RoMad]

A "Medium Duty" Wood's bush hog is a model BB720 . It is over 1200 lbs. way to much for your tractor

Too heavy for my L3710 with FEL?

 

[davethegundoctor]

The casting for the 3 pt arms will not take that much weight.They break off and cost $$$ to fix. My dealer has had this happen on Wood's BB720 or worse BB7200. It would be fine on a Kubota 50 HP & up. Now I am talking 1200 lbs to 2000 lbs.

 

[TomSeller]

The casting for the 3 pt arms will not take that much weight.They break off and cost $$$ to fix. My dealer has had this happen on Wood's BB720 or worse BB7200. It would be fine on a Kubota 50 HP & up. Now I am talking 1200 lbs to 2000 lbs.

Good reminder about the 3 pt arm casting. If the pastures being mowed are rough, there is a lot of impact force with a heavy duty mower on the casting when you drop into and bounce out of a hole you might not have anticipated. I use a 6' standard duty for the pasture trimming and have a smaller heavy duty 5'. Some times I get in a hurry mowing the pastures so I go a little faster on the light trimming which would make it really hard on the casting with a heavier than needed mower. So it all depends on what and how you are cutting.