Grillo G107d for 7 acres (28.000M2) with olive trees

[Silent Arrow]

Hallo to Everyone!!! It's my first post to this site and I am happy to join in this community. Sorry for my English too!

I own 28.000M2 (or 7 acres) of land in Greece which is occupied by olive trees. The olive trees, 670 in number, are planted in a square pattern. The olive trees are separated each other by a distance of 6m (or 18 feet). My land isn't united, I have 4 land parcels of 7.000M2 (~1.5 acre) in different places.
I am thinking of buying a walk behind tractor with a 68cm flail mower and a 68cm tiler. I want to mow with the flail mower my land 3-4 times per year between the trees in order to get rid of the weeds that are growing.
Secondarily I will tile the ground arround the 670 trees (not all the land) with the tiler.

I am thinking of the Grillo 107d walk behind tractor with the Lombardini 11HP diesel engine:
G 17d Grillo Spa - Agrigarden Machines

Grillo in Italy informed me by e-mail that the flail mower is a heavy implement which must be combined with a diesel engine for 2 reasons: a) The walk behind tractor is more balanced with the diesel engine and the flail mower on it b) diesel engines produce less heat than gasoline engines. That's why I rejected the Robin Subaru gasoline engine as a choice.

BCS is not represented here in Greece by a large company.

I want to ask if Grillo 107d with a 68cm flail mower is a good choice or should I look for a 4 wheeled tractor. Take into account that I don't like buying used equipment.

 

[CADplans]

Hallo to Everyone!!! It's my first post to this site and I am happy to join in this community.

I want to ask if Grillo 107d with a 68cm flail mower is a good choice or should I look for a 4 wheeled tractor.
Take into account that I don't like buying used equipment.

Welcome to TBN! :thumbsup:

One major reason for choosing 2WD or 4 wheel tractor is your age.

I own a couple 2 wheel tractors,, but, I would never try to mow 7 acres with it, let alone more than that.

One acre is fun,, two acres is work,,,
4 or more acres, you need a flail mower like this,,,,

The offset mower will reach under a tree branch pretty far.

 

[Silent Arrow]

CADplans thank you for your quick answer!
I am 36 years old and all the land parcels are flat.

My main job is civil engineer. That's why I haven't invested money to a tractor yet. But I think that the time has come to buy at least a walk behind tractor. My neighbor was mowing my father's land the last 20 years with a 4 wheeled tractor, however I want now to take control of the situation myself.

So CADplans you suggest that I should look for a 4 wheeled tractor. There is a topic about flail mowers ('Let's talk about flail mowers') where it is written that flail mowers need 30 to 60 HP Power in order to be used efficiently.
Grillo G107d with a Grillo flail mower costs about 6000 - 6500 Euros here in Greece and my budget is around 7000 Euros. However I don't believe I will find a good used tractor with so little money. That's why I posted to this sub-forum of 2 wheeled tractors.

 

[CodeMonkey]

If you don't need to chop up the vegetation in the orchard, then a sickle mower would go faster and you could put a sulky behind the tractor and ride at a faster pace.

 

[Silent Arrow]

CodeMonkey thank you for your answer.

At first I was thinking of buying Grillo G107d with a cutter bar of 127cm (50 inch). The local representative of Grillo told me that the cutter bar does a great job against weeds. However as you can see from the images CADplans posted the sickle mower cuts the weeds but it leaves them behind as a whole thing and not in little pieces. Earthtools warns for the same thing.

CodeMonkey I see you are an owner of Grillo 107D. May I ask you from your experience if you can use the sickle mower with the 3rd gear and if the flail mower can be used with at least the 2nd gear.

My neighbor will continue to tile my land once a year, I don't expect from a walk behind tractor to do such a great job alone. However I want to cut the weeds between the trees more often (3 or 4 times) in order the land parcels look beautiful.

 

[TimberXX]

First, in my opinion distributors under state the capacity of these machines. For example, in Europe you can buy a BCS 710 with a 24 inch snowblower. But BCS America, says a 710 can't run a snowblower. I find it hard to believe that the gas Grillo 107d with a Subaru can't run a flail mower. Check out the earth tools website and compare "ability".

Now to answer your question on Speed for mowing.

107d in third gear runs 3.2 MPH. With a 26 inch flail you can run .76 acres per hour or 9.2 hours to cut your entire lot.

A Grillo 110 in third gear runs 3.4 mph. With a larger 34 inch flail, you can mow 1.05 acres per hour or 6.7 hours to cut your lot. (Sorry for mentioning a bigger machine.)

If your cutting 2 or 3 times per year, I think a 2 wheel tractor would be great. It would be a long day behind the handlebars or maybe two days. But the money for the machine and Maintence is much less that a 4 wheel tractor.

Plus there are a lot of other attachments you can buy for the Grillo.

* larger diameter wheel increase speed a bit.
* the times above were plugged into a mower calculator online.

 

[TimberXX]

Check out YouTube for flail mowers. I think that some people run them in 3rd, but I'm not sure.

Kubota make a tiny 12 hp gear tractor in England that sells for about £6500. Maybe consider that if your thinking a 4 wheel.

 

[freedomlives]

Do you get grass or weeds there? Especially if you would be mowing regularly? Is there any market for hay?

I can't help you on the specifics-- I've been mowing fields with a sickle bar mower and a too slow walk behind and just went to Italy to get a faster one, and well, you are right to avoid used equipment-- I got lucky the first time I went to Italy for a Goldoni 140 with the powered trailer, but this time the Goldoni 128 I got, while looking beautiful on the outside, has some sort of motor problem that I didn't notice in the 5 minutes I saw the motor running in Italy.

But what I want to say, is that it is definitely peaceful to walk behind a mower. I have some ear buds that block out the sound, so I can be listening to music or lectures on economics and get some exercise all at the same time.

Also, have you considered a Goldoni or their former Yugoslavia licensed producer Labin Progres TPS? I don't know how the prices compare new, but there are a lot more options in Europe for walk behind tractors than just Grillo or BCS. (Though some, like Ferrari, are made by the same company as BCS).

 

[Silent Arrow]

First, in my opinion distributors under state the capacity of these machines. For example, in Europe you can buy a BCS 710 with a 24 inch snowblower. But BCS America, says a 710 can't run a snowblower. I find it hard to believe that the gas Grillo 107d with a Subaru can't run a flail mower. Check out the earth tools website and compare "ability".

TimberXX thanks for your answer. The local distributor in Greece told me that the best choice is the Robin Subaru engine for the walk behind tractor. However in the official site of Grillo in Italy (both in Eglish and Italian language) is written that the flail mower needs a diesel engine. I asked Grillo in Italy by e-mail why the powerful gasoline Robin Subaru engine 9HP can't be used with a flail mower and they informed me a) The walk behind tractor is more balanced with the diesel engine and the flail mower on it and b) diesel engines produce less heat than gasoline engines.

Now to answer your question on Speed for mowing.

107d in third gear runs 3.2 MPH. With a 26 inch flail you can run .76 acres per hour or 9.2 hours to cut your entire lot.

Yes I did these calculations myself too and I found that even with the second speed I can have excellent results.

If your cutting 2 or 3 times per year, I think a 2 wheel tractor would be great. It would be a long day behind the handlebars or maybe two days.

I have no problem to work even for three days. Before purchasing Grillo 107d I wanted firstly to read some opinions of experienced users with walk behind tractors. Here in Greece the walk behind tractors are not famous, I have never seen one, the farmers here use 4-wheel tractors. However for my case, I believe that a walk behind tractor is an excellent alternative to an 4 wheeled tractor.

 

[Silent Arrow]

kubota make a tiny 12 hp gear tractor in England that sells for about ｣6500. Maybe consider that if your thinking a 4 wheel.

Yes I searched for little tractors like Kubota, Iseki, Yanmar but when I was informed that the greek government decided to tax all the 4-wheeled tractors with 300 Euro every year from now on regardless the power of the engine of the tractor, I changed my mind. Here in Greece, we are in deep descension and many decisions that are made by the government are unreasonable. With 300 euros I can have my whole land tiled from my neighbor once a year as my father did until now. However my father confronted the weeds with poisons, something that I dislike.

@freedomlives

Thank you for your answer. I have weeds to confront. One land parcel (1.5 acre) is accessable by sheep, however the sheep don't eat everything. They choose what to eat and what not to eat.
Unfortunaltely Goldoni/Labin Progres TPS are not represented here in Greece.

But what I want to say, is that it is definitely peaceful to walk behind a mower. I have some ear buds that block out the sound, so I can be listening to music or lectures on economics and get some exercise all at the same time.

I believe you, only the image of a clean land parcel of weeds is enough to make me happy.