10' Pull-type mower

   / 10' Pull-type mower #1  
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East PA or 750 mi. east of a short man named Dar__
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Kubota, AGCO, New Holland LB
What are the pros/cons of pull type mowers compared to a 3 pt rear mower? Looking at 10 footers. I realize you can use a bigger mower with less tractor since the mower floats on its' own wheels. So I would think I can use a smaller tractor and save money. What is the downside? I would think cleaning would be difficult since the 3pt may not be able to lift it up.

What other differences are there?
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower #2  
Man you would need a BIG-A tractor to pull a 10-foot lift cutter! I have a Rhino Turbo 120 (10-footer) pull-type. The lift-type calls for a minimum of a 60-hp tractor. But I think that would be pushing it! That thing weighs over 1800 lbs.! So you'd better have some good front-end ballast and a 3-pt hitch with a very large lifting capacity. The one big advantage to a lift type mower is that you can lift it. This would make it easier for tight maneuvering, backing up, and such. Think of a pull-type as pulling a trailer. I love my pull-type 10-footer. Not to say that I wouldn't like a lift type cutter too. I would love to have a 7-foot lift cutter but I wouldn't personally go any larger than that for a lift type. My ideal mowing set-up would be a 15-foot pull type batwing and a 7-foot lift type mower. But I haven't won the lottery. . . .yet!;)
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Glowplug said:
Man you would need a BIG-A tractor to pull a 10-foot lift cutter! I have a Rhino Turbo 120 (10-footer) pull-type. The lift-type calls for a minimum of a 60-hp tractor. But I think that would be pushing it! That thing weighs over 1800 lbs.! So you'd better have some good front-end ballast and a 3-pt hitch with a very large lifting capacity. The one big advantage to a lift type mower is that you can lift it. This would make it easier for tight maneuvering, backing up, and such. Think of a pull-type as pulling a trailer. I love my pull-type 10-footer. Not to say that I wouldn't like a lift type cutter too. I would love to have a 7-foot lift cutter but I wouldn't personally go any larger than that for a lift type. My ideal mowing set-up would be a 15-foot pull type batwing and a 7-foot lift type mower. But I haven't won the lottery. . . .yet!;)
Click to expand...

I'm looking at an M-6800 with front suitcase weights to lift it-bout 60 PTO HP. . The only thing is, I want to be able to cut some other parcels down the road, so a 10' might be too wide to pull over the backroads. Might be able to do it with flashers on in non-rush hour times. I hear ya on the batwing. I'd love to be able to fold the wings up for transport.

I'm really looking for mower ideas. I've seen a 10' with an offset batwing, but it's 10 grand.
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower #4  
Yeah the one thing I regret about the 10-foot is the transport. It is a real PITA to go down the road. Think about it, a standard highway lane width is 12 feet. Country roads are often less. That's like threading the needle! I won't even tow my cutter on the highway, let alone pull it behind the tractor. I guess it's here to stay. If I sell the land it'll go with the farm! It's also a bit of a pain to get between paddocks through the gates and absolutely impossible to get into my barn, which has about an 11 foot wide door opening.

A 10 foot offset batwing would be awesome! You could look at the new Bush Hog 2212 too (see my other thread). It's a 12 foot flex wing (3 four foot sections) for 50 to 75 PTO hp tractors.
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower #5  
Glowplug said:
The lift-type calls for a minimum of a 60-hp tractor.
Click to expand...

Let me correct myself. Just looked it up. The lift-type Rhino Turbo 120 cutter calls for a minimum of 80 hp!
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower #6  
What you have to look at is PTO HP so you can do some cutting.:D :D
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower #7  
   / 10' Pull-type mower #8  
Most all the heavy duty cutters have an excessively high minimum PTO HP requirement to cover operating them in the most extreme conditions they'll encounter and/or are capable of handling. Example. If a 10' cutter is capable of cutting 3" to 4" material, that'll take a lot more hp than cutting 2' tall grass and weeds. The minimum rating will be what it takes too cut the 3" trees, and NOT what it takes to handle mowing tall grass.

I've got 3 tractors pulling 15' batwings. 1 is 95 hp. 2 are 85 hp. All 3 are more than enough power to mow in weeds and grass several feet tall. If I was shredding brush and trees, maybe not enough.

I know of several farmers in my area that mow pastures with 15' batwings behind 50+ hp tractors. One uses a 20'er behind a 70 hp tractor. They're clipping pastures and NOT mowing weeds as tall as the tractor's hood though.

3-point mounted mowers are the only way to fly with smaller sizes (8' and under) 10' rigid deck mounted mowers don't lend themselves to easy transport, and they require enough tractor that a larger batwing is usually a better choice anyway.
 
   / 10' Pull-type mower #10  
If you aren't transporting it, a 10' mower is fine.
But getting it down the road (either attached or unattached) is a serious problem. There's a guy around here who has one, he just loads it on his trailer (it's a 10' 3 point) and away he goes...completely illegally (colorado maximum width is 8'6")

My business is transport, that's all I do, so I got an 8' 3 point. Mostly just for width, the tractor barely notices it's back there. 75hp for 8' is pretty much overkill.

I did just buy a batwing for this season (which will hopefully get here soon, where is spring???), and transport is still a 2 truck problem (unless it's really close), but it should scream on bigger acreages.

The cost is about the same as a 8' dual spindle. Batwings make the price go up a lot.
BTW, all cutters are up a lot, steel, shipping (!!!), etc. Like 10 to 20% over last year for new.
 
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