paccorti
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2000
- Messages
- 481
- Tractor
- TC35D with 16LA Loader
I have a Woods XT172 (72") light duty rotary cutter. So far I have been pretty happy with it. It is rugged and has even helped break up some rocks! Now here is the question.
I've noticed that some heavier duty rotary cutters have chains in the back. My XT (and many other rotary cutters that I've seen) has a solid metal flange that goes all the way down in the back. I assume that this is to keep material in the rotary cutter so that it gets mulched up even more. This works fine unless the grass is so tall that you end up with a LOT of grass confined under the deck. For example, today I was cutting 3' high wet grass. Then my TC35 started to bog down (I have the cutter set on the lowest setting 2" cut height). While moving forward, I picked the cutter up with the position control and was astonished at the HUGE amount of grass that dropped out of the cutter. No wonder it was slowing down. If the material could get out the back then the grass wouldn't bog the tractor down. Chains in the back seem to have another advantage. When backing up to cut, the flange severely pushes down the grass before the cutter has a chance to cut it. Perhaps there is some disadvantage to having chains in the back.
Now of course I could raise the cutter up (which I did). Unfortunately, this means that I'm not cutting as low as I would like (2nd pass required). The tractor can cut the grass, it's the accumulation of grass under the cutter that is causing problems. Thoughts anyone?
Peter
I've noticed that some heavier duty rotary cutters have chains in the back. My XT (and many other rotary cutters that I've seen) has a solid metal flange that goes all the way down in the back. I assume that this is to keep material in the rotary cutter so that it gets mulched up even more. This works fine unless the grass is so tall that you end up with a LOT of grass confined under the deck. For example, today I was cutting 3' high wet grass. Then my TC35 started to bog down (I have the cutter set on the lowest setting 2" cut height). While moving forward, I picked the cutter up with the position control and was astonished at the HUGE amount of grass that dropped out of the cutter. No wonder it was slowing down. If the material could get out the back then the grass wouldn't bog the tractor down. Chains in the back seem to have another advantage. When backing up to cut, the flange severely pushes down the grass before the cutter has a chance to cut it. Perhaps there is some disadvantage to having chains in the back.
Now of course I could raise the cutter up (which I did). Unfortunately, this means that I'm not cutting as low as I would like (2nd pass required). The tractor can cut the grass, it's the accumulation of grass under the cutter that is causing problems. Thoughts anyone?
Peter