BCS Bush mower questions

[ottawarob]

Hi there!

I'm strongly considering getting a 853 BCS tractor for a number of tasks on a 15 acre property I'm moving to soon. I'll have a 2.5 acre fenced area I want to mow, and some other areas I'd probably knock down once or twice a year (I'm really looking forward to having a bush hog mower!)

The 2.5 acre area butts up against a forest and is a field on one end, so I was thinking I'd get a 32" bush mower with the sulky. I was curious if anyone can comment on the job the 32" does. I'm really not concerned about a perfect yawn, I just want to keep it under control.

Is there much of a concern with shooting rocks with the bush mower?

The other option is I could also buy a mower for it, but I'm trying to keep the budget under control.

 

[leonz]

Hello Ottowarob,

YES YOU WILL will shoot a lot of rocks out from under the rotary brush mower and the brush hog will not go back and recut the previously mowed brush to shred it further. The BERTA flail mower will recut the brush for you in the second pass and you will have very little left of the clippings after the second or third pass. This is because the side slicer knives lift and recut the clippings for you with ease.

Mowing once or twice a year will not keep your mowing job under control you need to mow more often to prevent invasive plants like poison ivy, oak and sumac from growing in heavier or taking root.

You will want to burn the brush with a propain fired weed burning torch or use round up annually along the fence row as you will not have a lot of mobility with the BCS UNLESS you plan on mowing at the crawling speed.

If your mowing scrub that has never been mowed or not mowed in a very long time your going to want to pass on the bush hog rotary and invest in a Berta Flail mower for the BCS 853 2 wheel mule and a sulky that you want to purchase.

I would advise you to purchase the ride along trailer rather than the sulky as your going to want to carry drinking water, a dry hat, mixed gas, a weed eater, spare flail mower drive belts and a pointed shovel to dig out rocks as you find them and then toss them in the trailer as you mow to get rid of them.

Please forget about buying a bush hog or a lawn mower attachment as it will spit lots of rocks and debris a very long distance and cause bodily injuries and property damage and you will spend a fortune on new brush hog and mower blades due to the rock damage.
A Berta flail mower attachment or any good flail mower will not spit out rocks.

Your also going to want to wear a good dust mask that seals well like the 3MN model 93 dust mask. using the model 93 dust mask with the exhalation valve will prevent you from overheating and also prevent the dust mask from becoming clogged due to the moisture from you breath by purchasing the dust masks with the exhalation valves they will last longer. Typically a 3M model 93 dust mask without the exhalation will work well for 2 or three long mowing sessions.

It will be simpler for you to hire out the mowing the first few times and then decide whether you want to invest in BCS853 with a flail mower or a smaller scut with a rear flail mower to do the mowing as an 853 with a flail mower or a brush hog will reach close to 10K in Canadian loonies.

 

[cmyoung2]

Not sure if I agree with everything leonz says, but I do agree with the overall recommendation . Bush hogs have their place, even with a BCS, just depends on what you need. I have a BCS 850, only tractor. I do have the 30" combo mower, a better bush hog than finish mower, and it works. It does not re-chop material, does leave a windrow, but will cut almost anything you can push over. Mine is for sale. The issues I have is that it does not cut a garden, i.e. mulch, very well. And it is fairly long, as in makes the tractor long, harder to maneuver , and I tend to get hung up fairly often. I really didn't notice it throwing stuff, but any rotary mower will.
I got a Berta 26" flail mower, mows rough stuff great, maybe a little slow in real heavy grass, mulches, and is a lot shorter than the other mower so I don't get hung up near as often. Much more maneuverable. The flail will throw stuff, but not as often or as far. Hit a golf ball today, it went about 40 yds. Size wise, a 26" is big enough. I have the big Honda motor, waist high thick fescue will slow it down.
I do agree that hiring it done at least the first time will let you see how much can be done with a 4wheel tractor.
As far as the sulky, you need big, open spaces to turn, and unlevel ground can be an issue.
But I would not trade my BCS for anything, it is a real workhorse.

 

[jcraftenworth]

sickle bar, let it drop, wilt and degrade, then afterwards you will be able to see rocks and obstacles. if you want a finer cut, then you can use a brush hog or regular mower if it's cleared of obstacles. If you don't know what's in there, go in with a sickle bar

 

[Coyote machine]

Dr. Field and Brush Mower would allow you to go in first with their disk with three hexagonal pieces of heavy duty cutting string; It's slightly thinner than a pencil, but cuts like crazy. Then you can go back in with their heavy duty metal blade to cut whatever can't get cut by the hex line. I've had mine since forever with a Kawasaki 15 HP engine. Their newer models go up to 17 HP, which I'm sure bumps the abilities quite significantly. It's a locked constantly differential, at least on my model, and has aggressive AG like tires.
I also have their mower deck with three blades for cutting as a walk behind mower. It used to be my primary and only mower for my lawns. Now I use it mostly for brush work and other machines for lawn care.
They usually have free trial periods for buyers to try it and return it if not completely satisfied. Check it out.
Country Home Products, All Terrain mowers.

 

[Maine Hills]

We bought a BCS 749 with a sickle bar mower and a flail mower a year ago to mow about seven acres of former pasture and blueberry field on the side of a hill. The former pasture which has lots of large rocks was mowed with the sickle bar mower in August when the grass was three to six feet tall. The sickle bar rides over the rocks with no problems. The cut grass has decayed since it was cut. The Berta flail mower is used to cut in tight locations such as next to fences and around stumps in the blueberry field. It makes noise when a rock is encountered, and very occasionally a small rock will be ejected out the front of the mower. The flail mower sometimes clogs and bogs down on grass over three feet tall. It is also used to mow around the edges of the lawn and provides a satisfactory cut, though perhaps not quite suitable for a garden club tour.

More about our experiences at http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...027-bsc-749-mowers-experience.html?highlight=

 

[farmerboybill]

I don't understand everyone's instant fear and hate for rotary mowers. I have a 30" Bellon for my BCS 850 (also have a 26" Del Morino, but really don't like it), a 6 foot Skidpro model for my skid steer, and am planning on buying a 15 foot batwing this summer. I've seen stuff thrown out of all of them, but it is usually to the front. A good pair of steel toe boots will protect you from much less common rearward discharges that somehow make it past the chains on the back to prevent them. Forward launches shouldn't be an issue if you keep people and animals out of the area to be mowed. Frankly, one should always walk an area they are planning to mow to find the sticks and rocks, and get them out of the area before mowing. With best practices, the chances of injury are very slim.

That said, I don't like the rotary mower on my 850 for very rough areas. I haven't used it since I put tracks on it, but will need to in the next couple weeks because the brush is getting bad in some fencelines. I had oversized tires mounted on it before, but it would still occasionally hang up when going through a ditch. As CM mentioned, the flail mower is shorter and less likely to have this issue.

Forget about the mowing sulky. It really isn't all it's cracked up to be - wide turning radius, more difficult to control the machine, just not that great.

 

[leonz]

Bill and I agree on more things than we disagree on.

But I will tell you that having the ability to have extra tools with you to untangle goldenrod or dig out rocks you run over or having a weed wacker, and mixed and straight high octane gas on the work detail is the best way to manage things only because you have everything there all the time and the ride on sulky would be a must have for me as I have trouble walking due to nerve damage.

Out of habit I always have the trailer behind my LA115 filled with tools and fuel since my place is not the greatest place to mow or deal with due to rocks from frost heaving or filling in rock holes and especially carrying around a propain fired weed burner and a 40 pound propain tank to feed it while burning weeds off. I do not use chemical weed killers as I become very ill from the smell even with masks.

Candidly I have owned and used flail mowers for most of the 38 years I have been married and owned land and I would not be without one of any size. I still have the 48 inch motorized lawn genie that my my father bought a year or two after he bought the 36 inch lawn genie as he needed more capacity to carry shredded leaves from the old house and grass as we mowed 6 plus acres weekly and 4 acres of the property needed to be be picked up with the Lawn Genie pick up mower as my dad used a lot of fertilizer to feed his lawn.

The Berta folks make very good equipment and a 36" Berta flail mower properly adjusted with a 2 inch height of cut and used to mow half cuts on tall brush and scrub will work very well for you. It will take you a little longer but once you have it knocked down the mowing will not be so bad with the flail mower as you can then take full width cuts by driving in a spiral pattern.

Driving the 2 wheel mule in a spiral pattern lets you save gas and avoid excess braking and backing up and turning around and it will save you time as you can overlap on every spiral to shred the brush up even more and it will not be left to rot on the ground and create dead spots.

The issue with sulky trailer is minor as you can always uncouple it if you do not think you have room to work or are uncomfortable with it the first few times you are mowing in smaller area and then just back up to it and hook it back up and go back to mowing.

Having the sulky dump trailer gives you flexibility to carry your cell phone in a safe clean bag, drinking water, a shovel, wasp and hornet killer, a weed wacker, mixed and straight high octane gas and more clean work gloves as your going to get very sweaty hands from using the weed wacker and mowing. You may also want to carry a heavy pry bar to help dig out big stubborn rocks too and you can just throw them in the trailer and get rid of them later.

Not trying to spend your money as much as preparing you from my years of experience.


Just keep in mind it may cost you less to own big box tractor with a small mower for the first few years to clear off the property to the point where you are better able to manage it with all the scrub vegetation gone AFTER you hire someone to come and mow it with a rotary cutter at least twice a year OR MORE before you start working on the property yourself as the rotary cutter will be the best way to do this unless and I mean UNLESS you have a neighbor that has a flail mower that you can hire to do the mowing which will get you on the property quicker and find all the hazards that much sooner as their will be no grass clumps to deal with.

I am not trying to spend your money but the lesser expense will cost you less money in the beginning and you can buy a big enough trailer to tow behind the lawn tractor to do the work too so..........

 

[ottawarob]

Thanks for all the replies! This is quite helpful. I've been eyeing the combo mower, I think this is actually a better fit for my use. The area I would like to turn into a lawn is big and flat, good sulky territory. It's a lawn (ish), but I'm more concerned with keeping weeds low to discourage ticks and critters than to have a pristine lawn. I grew up with rotary mowers, I think flail mowing 2 acres of lawn would be slow, but maybe not if it's kept reasonably short?

I'll walk along the forest, and in the fields I'll leave it really high or give it a pass with the flail or sickle mower.

I've also been considering getting a small BX Kubota instead, I feel the mid mower for it would make short work of most of this really well, and then I could get a weed wacker to knock down the boarder stuff. You sure get a lot more tool with a BCS for the same price as a BX.

 

[leonz]

Hello ottowarob,

The BX1870 is an option but the belly mower will plug up as sure as sin with tall brush and
lawn mower spindles are very expensive to replace.

If your time is an issue then the BX1870 is a better fit. Using an entry level flail mower like the three point hitch mounted Caroni 48 inch finish mower with 4 rows of side slicer knives would work well and cost less than a Kubota belly mower.

I am unsure how much a quick hitch front mount Kubota flail mower would cost but they are available in your part of Canada as well but you may need to move up one power class to a B series to own one.

I candidly do not like my rotary mower as it is more trouble than its worth(like most of them) and the Kubota belly mowers use the mid mount PTO with a center gearbox and belt drive for the outside spindles so keep that in mind when you go shopping.

A rear mounted flail mower has a belt drive that is easier to service and repair just like a towed motorized flail mower has.

When I took care of my fathers place it required mowing six acres of good sod grass at least once a week and the six foot belly mower was an energy hog and left lots of grass to pick up too. A flail mower will shred and recut the brush and grass
a rotary mower will not and if you expect to turn it into lawn your going to have to do a lot of raking unless you buy a lawn sweeper.

It tool four hours to mow six acres with the towed flail mower and I burned a gallon and a half of gasoline in the flail mower and the same amount in the wheel horse tractor when I used the wheel horse to just tow the pick up flail mower.

I used double the gas or more when I used the wheel horse tractor alone and I still had to pick up the clippings if they were heavy anyway.

Just go in with your eyes open and do not commit to anything until you talk to a BCS owner with a Berta flail mower attachment if you are really set on owning one.

You can also talk to Joel at Earth Tools also about this and if you decide to pursue it you can buy a BCS or a Grillo from him ready to work as he always runs the machines for a few hours on his truck farm before he sells them or ships them to the new owners to make sure there are no problems with it.