BCS Flail Mower vs Berta Flail Mower

[josiahgarber]

I was curious why the Berta flail mower seems much more popular than the BCS flail mower. The pricing seemed similar. Is there a big difference in quality or other advantages or disadvantages of each?

 

[farmerboybill]

The Berta Flail mower is heavier built with better blades and an better height control. It also has a removable baffle that allows a person to mow at a faster gear if they don't need the material chopped to a super fine mulch.

 

[rickyd79]

I was curious why the Berta flail mower seems much more popular than the BCS flail mower. The pricing seemed similar. Is there a big difference in quality or other advantages or disadvantages of each?

Hi Josiah
I have experience with both brands (BCS and Berta). I like both of them very well. Yes, the Berta comes standard with thicker and larger Y blades and it does have a removable "baffle" whereas the BCS does not have a removable "baffle". Personally I don't like the hassle of the baffle. In my experience and testing the difference in the size of cut material is very minor when comparing BCS flail to Berta flail with a baffle in. To me, it sounds like a better selling point than it really is. I have not tried it yet, but I think one could easily run a set of the same Y blades the Berta uses on BCS. Price wise, BCS costs more. But most of that cost is due to the fact that BCS comes standard with caster wheels. Berta does have caster wheels but they are optional and sell for about $239. An important difference to me is that Berta comes standard with a roller and that is what it rides on. BCS comes standard with skids. But for folks who do market growing they really need to purchase the optional BCS roller so the flail mower does not scalp parts of their 30" growing beds. Speaking of the roller, its is adjustable in height on the Berta, but on BCS you cannot adjust the roller height. But I don't really think you need an adjustable roller if you have caster wheels. On BCS when you have the caster wheels on the ground the height adjustment is pretty slick with a hand crank that allows for infinitely variable height adjustment. This would be used more when brush cutting or mowing large areas as opposed to cutting cover crop that might be on a 30" wide bed. One other thought when using on a 30" (or any size bed really) and that is: how much room do you have to work with? If your row spacing is very small and you have large plants sort of hanging out of an adjacent row, it is possible for the caster wheels to get in the way. On the Berta you can remove the caster wheels. BCS are not made to be easily removable. On both brands the caster wheels can be flipped upward and locked into position if you don't need to use them. Lastly the Berta has a little bit of lateral/side to side movement due to its slotted PTO coupling. The BCS does not have this. My personal opinion is both mowers are excellent. In most cases I would personally opt for the BCS mower over the Berta flail. However to be the most cost effective, you can certainly get the Berta for less $$ than BCS. I prefer the BCS 30" OR the Berta 26". But probably if cutting large wide open spaces I would opt for the 34 Berta or 35 BCS. If you have additional questions, send me a message. I sell both brands. You cannot go wrong either way.

 

[farmerboybill]

I think the removable baffle is a very strong selling point. Most mowing can be done with it removed. This allows mowing to be done with less fuel consumed and, in many cases, in a faster gear. It only needs to be installed when chopping up garden waste super fine. Even then, The Berta flail mower does a good job chopping fine with the baffle removed. I typically remove the baffle for customers and write what it fits on it with permanant marker. I doubt many of them ever get re-installed, but they have them if they want to.

The front caster wheel height control design is never better than the rear roller height control. The caster wheels are always in the way when mowing. They're terrible when mowing rough ground in an area with lots of obstacles. I would not recommend them for the Berta mower, even if they are optional. The Berta is better built with better features. The BCS mower is an inferior mower.

 

[rickyd79]

I think the removable baffle is a very strong selling point. Most mowing can be done with it removed. This allows mowing to be done with less fuel consumed and, in many cases, in a faster gear. It only needs to be installed when chopping up garden waste super fine. Even then, The Berta flail mower does a good job chopping fine with the baffle removed. I typically remove the baffle for customers and write what it fits on it with permanant marker. I doubt many of them ever get re-installed, but they have them if they want to.

The front caster wheel height control design is never better than the rear roller height control. The caster wheels are always in the way when mowing. They're terrible when mowing rough ground in an area with lots of obstacles. I would not recommend them for the Berta mower, even if they are optional. The Berta is better built with better features. The BCS mower is an inferior mower.

Hi Farmerboybill...Just curious if you have done a side to side comparison of the Berta flail mower and the BCS flail mower including with and without baffle on Berta flail? Did you find much difference in the size of the cut material? I did not find any significant difference in my testing regardless of whether or not the baffle was installed. Of course this may vary depending upon the cover crop being chopped up...,Yes, I think its a good selling point. Just don't think it matters so much in most cases. I like the Berta very much, but in my testing when mowing with the baffle in versus cutting the same area with BCS flail (no baffle), the difference in size of cut material is very minimal. All that being said I sell Berta flail mowers 10 to 1 over BCS (estimate). But I like to let my customers decide. I have had customers out who ran both brands side by side (this summer) and 2 out 2 went home with the BCS flail.

As to better built with better features, certainly this is debatable. I like both brands very well. I do like some things on the Berta more (adjustable roller height, side to side movement due to slotted PTO flange pin hole, thicker/heavier Y blades) and I like some things better on BCS (no baffle to have to remove or put back on, height adjustment on caster wheels, self adjusting debris shield on front of mower). I agree that sometimes the caster wheels do get in the way. In some cases, for example when mowing lawn or pasture that is not super tall its easier to do with the caster wheels down and additionally one has much more control of the height. Some folks do cut lawn with the flail and want it higher than 2" (roughly) in which case the Berta or the BCS without caster wheels on the ground won't allow for this. But I found at times when mowing brush the caster wheels can get clogged with grasses and such. Having said all that, I have NOT done a comparison of the internal drive system of either. I will keep putting hours on them and let that be the judge.

 

[corentin111]

Hi to all,

I own a ferrari 340 (bcs740) running a Honda GX390 engine which I use for work (market gardener)

I would be gratefull if you could answer a few questions

Is this engine powerful enough to use the rollerblade 90cm (the big one)?
Is it quick to modify the height of the Berta flail mower? (BCS seems much better on that)

Thank you very much

Corentin

 

[leonz]

Hi to all,

I own a ferrari 340 (bcs740) running a Honda GX390 engine which I use for work (market gardener)

I would be gratefull if you could answer a few questions

Is this engine powerful enough to use the rollerblade 90cm (the big one)?
Is it quick to modify the height of the Berta flail mower? (BCS seems much better on that)

Thank you very much

Corentin

============================================================================

THe Berta flail mower is better and heavier

 

[rickyd79]

Hi to all,

I own a ferrari 340 (bcs740) running a Honda GX390 engine which I use for work (market gardener)

I would be gratefull if you could answer a few questions

Is this engine powerful enough to use the rollerblade 90cm (the big one)?
Is it quick to modify the height of the Berta flail mower? (BCS seems much better on that)

Thank you very much

Corentin

Hello
To your question about engine being powerful enough, in general yes. But you will of course get better performance from the smaller 75cm version. The 740 or in USA 749/853 also have the Honda GX390 engine. Any time you make the mower wider and the power to "run" it remains constant, you can expect performance to decrease on the flail mower. Basically as you go wider with your cut, your "power per cutting cm" number goes down as well. Now if you are cutting material 4" tall you may not notice much. But once you are cutting your taller/thicker cover crop you would absolutely notice a difference. You may end up having to a whole gear/speed lower in some cases. I am talking about really tall/thick cover crops. So this depends upon conditions.

As to modifying the height, allow from 5 to 10 minutes to modify height on the roller of Berta flail. If you happen to run the caster wheels on the Berta flail, its much quicker. Just a matter or adjusting 2 lynch pins. On BCS allow seconds, literally. If I was regularly changing height of the flail mower and NOT using caster wheels I would pick the BCS 99.9% of the time. The only exception would be if regularly mowing pasture or brush in heavily rutted out and or very uneven ground. But in most cases I don't like or want caster wheels. Of course if one wants to cut higher than 2.5", you will need them. If I don't need to adjust cut height much, I could easily go with Berta or BCS Rollerblade 75cm.

Personally, I own the 26" Berta flail and the BCS 30"/75cm Rollerblade flail (at least when I can keep that one in stock). I like them both very much. disclaimer: I do NOT prefer the larger size implements in most applications. They are just too darn heavy to comfortably work with and maneuver around when not on tractor. I would have to be mowing a lot (dozens or more) of beds on a regular basis to justify the 34" Berta or the 35"/90cm BCS flail mowers. Or if one is needing to mow open pasture regularly and just wants the extra width of cut AND the ground is fairly "even" and pasture is mowed on somewhat regular intervals, I could see (and sometimes do recommend) going with the larger mower.

I hope that helps.

 

[jcraftenworth]

Hi to all,

I own a ferrari 340 (bcs740) running a Honda GX390 engine which I use for work (market gardener)

I would be gratefull if you could answer a few questions

Is this engine powerful enough to use the rollerblade 90cm (the big one)?
Is it quick to modify the height of the Berta flail mower? (BCS seems much better on that)

Thank you very much

Corentin

Hi. earthtools did a youtube mentioning the berta will be available in 30" width, to hit the market any time now. I was thinking bcs for 30" width, but when I heard that I decided to hold off until the berta is released.

 

[rickyd79]

Hi. earthtools did a youtube mentioning the berta will be available in 30" width, to hit the market any time now. I was thinking bcs for 30" width, but when I heard that I decided to hold off until the berta is released.

That would be great. I am interested to find out what the weight is on it... I have heard they were working on a hand crank height adjustment for the Berta Shark (Flail), similar to BCS. I have no idea when it will be ready though. It would be great if its sooner than later.