I am planning on going to the Fall Consignment Farm and Construction Auction on Saturday in Lawerenceville, IL. I am looking for a used rotary cutter to replace one I destroyed, while crushing rocks and hidden tire rims in my neighbors pasture. What do I look for in a rotary mower? All I can see is condition of deck and slap in gearbox when pto is turned. What else can you look at?
Buying Used Equipment at Auction
- Thread starter rfawkes
- Start date
Farmwithjunk
Super Member
rfawkes said:
Look for the obvious signs of abuse/hard useage. That would be dents from the inside out, resultant form hitting rocks/car rims/ect. Bent hitch parts might indicate the mower was dragged into a stump or rock, maybe backed into an immovable object. Extreme wear on the side "skids" might tell you the mower has hundreds or thousands of acres of use.
Oil leaks are always an indicator of some sort of problem. As simple as a failing seal, or as bad as bent input/output shafts, bad bearings, ect.
Excessive wear in slip joint of PTO shaft can tell you that maint. might have been infrequent. Worn u-joints may say the same thing. Check condition of the blades. Big hunks knocked out of them tell of rocks. Excessive wear indicates a lot of use. Blades are the most easily replaced items on a mower, but tell the tale of how much use it saw.
Paint and rusty metal might indicate problems later on down the road. Bush hogs suffer from rust holes. That effects the structural integrety, as well as being a potential saftey issue. The paint doesn't need to be "show car quality", but a solid mass of rust isn't good either.
Tailwheels being bent, missing, or even a lot newer than the rest of the mower is a tip-off too. Signs of abuse or excessive "backing in", where the mower was used as a battering ram.
Slip clutch. Does it look like a mass of rust? If so, chances are it's froze. Do the bolts look like they've had a wrench on them? (chipped paint/worn edges/ect) If NOT, chances are the clutch hasn't been serviced and inspected. (at least recently) Does the slip clutch look to have been HOT at any time. (discolored paint, blueing of metal?) If so, maybe it's worn out and slipping, or just out of adjustment. Does it have a shear bolt instead of a slip clutch? If so, does the bolt look like it belongs there? (Some people put bigger/higher grade/wrong bolts in place of correct grade and size to reduce the frequency of shearing. Sorta like sawing off the business end of a boat oar to make it easier to paddle with in my book. defeats the purpose of having it in the first place)
Finally the gearbox. If you see a "dipstick" check the oil. (Some mowers have a dipstick that screws in the top of the gearbox. Most have a threaded plug. If it's POSSIBLE, take a small cresent wrench with you. Unscrew that plug and look at condition of oil) Water has a way of finding its way inside bush hog gear cases. (condensation, pressure washers sprayed around the vent, ect) If the seals are sealing and bearings tight, water can be removed and fresh oil put back in. No harm, no foul. If it's been used a lot with oil in gear box, look for immediate problems or problems shortly down the road. Slack in the gears is not good. Excessive slack is VERY bad.
If ALL those items check out good, expect to pay near new prices. Good used mowers sell high.