Farm Force 'xb' cutter - tail wheel question

[44trxfun]

Hi folks,

Anyone have a Farm Force 'XB' rotary cutter from TSC? I can't really imagine they intended the cutter to be operated with the wheel arms against the welded brackets (as shown in the picture). Are those wheel arms supposed to sit flat on the mower deck, thus increasing the height options for the wheels? That makes more sense to me but i'm just checking.

Thanks.

[Z-Michigan]

I agree with you on both points. Have you looked up their catalog to see how the arms/wheels are adjusted in catalog photos?

[hdbikercouple]

no i think it is right . if the shaft was straight up and down the wheels would not track right (they would plow instead of turning with the direction of travel). you ajust the hight by moving the spacers

[44trxfun]

Thanks for the responses. I just talked to the guy at TSC. He thinks (but wasn't sure) that the unit is to be operated with the tail wheel legs against the brackets. He said the major height adjustment should come from the 3-point hitch and the wheels are just to keep the mower from bottoming out in the dips. I'll try it that way and report back.

[44trxfun]

Well, I ran the cutter for about three hours and it did pretty well. It became clear the wheel arms are indeed to be against the brackets, although I initially tried it with them flush against the deck. It didn't take long for the weight of mower to move them up toward the brackets.

The cut was fine. I just used the shear bolt and despite going though 1.0--1.5 inch-thick honeysuckle and good-size blackberry, I didn't shear the bolt. Moving slow through the heavy stuff seemed to work well.

I don't know if it's by design but I ended up having to extend the toplink quite a bit to fit the 3-pt frame. That put a pretty good downward tilt on the mower (front lower than the back) but I figured from a safety standpoint that was probably better than the alternative.

All in all, for something I'll probably only use once or twice a year, I suspect this mower will get the job done and save me some $$ that I would have paid for a better mower.

[madpogue]

Originally Posted by 44trxfun

He said the major height adjustment should come from the 3-point hitch and the wheels are just to keep the mower from bottoming out in the dips.

That's only half-right. The height should be set by the rockshaft height AND the tailwheel adjustment. The front and back of the mower should be the same height. If either is lower, you end up cutting at the lower of the two anyway, and you get a less efficient cut. If the front is lower, it cuts first and the blades don't really get to cut anything at the rear. If the rear is lower, the blades cut once in the front, and once again lower in the rear, which is wasteful.

I'm oversimplifying here, but that's the gist of it. It does seem right that the arms on your tailwheels should be parallel to those brackets, as their eventual "settlement" there illustrates. But as hdbikercouple said, you should adjust the height of the tailwheels with the spacers on the tubes. Set them so the mower is level front-to-rear.

[44trxfun]

Originally Posted by madpogue

I'm oversimplifying here, but that's the gist of it. It does seem right that the arms on your tailwheels should be parallel to those brackets, as their eventual "settlement" there illustrates. But as hdbikercouple said, you should adjust the height of the tailwheels with the spacers on the tubes. Set them so the mower is level front-to-rear.

Thanks; all that makes sense. There was some urgency to the mowing so I got the job done, but will work with fine-tuning it as you suggested. You folks at TBN have helped me out on numerous occassions!