Rear Finish Mower I want advice on finish mowers never owned one

[dayrunner]

I have roughly 5 acres that I need to mow and have been doing it with lawnmowers. The problem is its kinda rough and thick grass which keeps bogging them down and looks like crap when done. So I'm considering a finish mower for my L3200 but I seen somewhere that they don't work well in thick grass or on rough terrain. So I would like to know everyone's opinion on how to tackle my small problem.

[WilliamBos]

We have a 60" rear finish mower, and it works great inthick grass. It also has a floating hitch, which is great on rough terrain. The entire rear of the mower is the dischage, kicks the grass slightly to the right. Its an MF badged Alamo built rear finish mower.

[dayrunner]

I'm looking at a 72 but am not sure if that would be to big for my tractor. From what I've seen it would be at the low end of the HP range. Although still suitable for some.

[Ed of all trades]

I have a 60 in mmm on my massey and it does well in heavy grass and rough land. It took 5 hr to mow with a 48 in deck on my JD lawn mower, with the massey it takes about 3.5 hr. I hear the massey MMM does better than most on rough ground, but I don't really know that.

[leonz]

About your mowing needs,


1. How much you can afford to spend on a rotary finish mower or a flail mower
2. It depends in your ACTUAL available time for mowing
3. how nice you want it to look
4. the turf quality itself(if you have seeded turf or simply reclaimed pasture).
5. the amount of debris or frost heave that can raise imbedded glacial stones every year.

Please read the section regarding flailmowers as we heave several hundred postings
and it is very informative about mowing in general.


I dont like finish mowers because they can throw things over two hundred miles an hour
if they impact them. This would not occur using a flailmower as anything the the flailmower
knives fold back and any loose object stays within the mower hood until the mower passes over it.
A flail mower is much safer to use around pedestrians and four legged rug rats and along road sides/verges

The other big issue with a finsh mower is the blades themselves; one cutting edge is always following the other and
only half of the actual cutting edge length is available where in the case of a flailmower the entire width of the flail mower
is cutting grass and brush with the finish flail mower side slicers cutting a very small portion of the grass stalk as it passes
over the grass blade with the remaining side slicers removing what little is left to slice with much less damage and mowing
shock to the individual grass blade in a good sod lawn.

[RickB]

I would stay with a 60" finish mower with your available HP. A conventional finish mower will work fine and consume less power than a flail mower.
If you have been mowing the area with lawn mowers, presumably there is little concern about flying foreign objects.
LandPride mowers are a great blend of value and performance. There are other brands out there that enjoy great popularity. What brands are available to you with local service and parts support?

[easygo]

I think you wold have no trouble with the 72" mower as long as you are not trying to cut grass that is meant to be cut with a bushog. I use a 72" mower with my 22 pto hp tractor and it does very well with the regular mowing chores.

[chim]

After 10 years with a B7500 and a 60" Landpride RFM that worked fine, I recently swapped it in on an L3200 and a 72" Landpride RFM. The 5-footer was a side discharge and the 6-footer is a rear discharge. There are plenty of horses for the 6 foot RFM. Yesterday I drove over to the neighbor's place and made 3 passes mowing before I realized it was still in high range from the trip. Whenever I'm in the seat of the 3200 there's a big grin on my face.

[samandmax]

Choose a deck that is wider than your rear tire width. You will be able to glance to one side and see how much overlap you have. Make sure you have solid tires, will save you alot of headaches. A side discharge will allow you to clear grass or leaves off of your driveway or areas of lawn, especially when going backwards.

[WilliamBos]

Rear discharge does a better job of spreading more evenly, and no windrows unless left uncut for long amounts of time!