Tractor Sizing What Size More/Deck for 1 Acre ? 20 Acres ?

[beenthere]

For the 20 Acre lot as little as possible. Folks would be volunteering their time to cut it so time would be of the essence.

Asking for trouble if volunteers are using the equipment. IMO. No good answers for you.

[Raw Dodge]

Asking for trouble if volunteers are using the equipment. IMO. No good answers for you.

Agreed,equipment will spend more time in the shop than mowing...forget that idea,IMO,a machine needs to have one operator only,or one person to oversee the machine before/after every use.. if the machine is to be kept in operational condition....more than one opens up problems,and gives the operators too freedom to break things without being held accountable....I was brought up,you break it,you buy it,and when it broke,i had to fix it...It didnt take me long to figure out how to run equipment .

[gwjd]

1 acre yard just mowing get a la jd series and save you money

20 acres rough cut well obviously a rc size = 5hp per foot and much smaller than 6 foot would take for ever i would guess that a 6,7,8 will be most economical when you figure in dollars per hp and fuel cost, you can do it with a 4 foot but a scut x2 hours is prolly more fuel than a cut for 1x at 7-8 ft

if you are just rc the prices on the jd 4005, and 50x5 d and e series are affordable and you maybe can get away with 2x4

i agree with the idea not to let others operate unless they have experience and training/ accountability some how. i was mowing for pay at 18 but if i was knowingly rough on equipment i would have been looking for another job.

[MESSMAKER]

A $2500 garden tractor for your yard and pay to have the other cut unless you already have a tractor. Cost about $700 per cutting. A good 60' used Bushog can be purchased for about $500. You can mow it about 14 hours if it is fairly level. It's up to you

[MESSMAKER]

I have a 50" scag zero turn that's rated at 3.8 acres per hour. They may come a little smaller but not much. As far as the 20 acres, I'd go for at least a 7 footer and it's still goig to take sometime. If finished grass on the 20, you'd be better off with a 6 foot commerical mower. They'll do about 7.5 acres per hour.

If your 20 acres is rough and tall, don't count on anything close to the 3.8 acre rating.

[EddieWalker]

Buy a decent mower for your one acre yard and hire out the 20 acres to be mowed.

For the yard, an acre isn't much, but what you buy is really dependent on your budget. I have a Scag Wildcat that cost $8,000 for my nice areas. It does a heck of a job and is ten times the mower my Craftsman riding mower was that I bought used for a grand. I used that Craftsman to mow a half acre yard once a week, then then to do several areas when I moved to where I live now. It worked fine and I was looking around to replace it with another when I went crazy and bought the Scag. You don't need that much mower for a nice residential yard, but it sure is nice.

Buying a tractor and cutter to do 20 acres is going to cost ten to twenty grand. It takes allot of HP to run a bigger mower, or cut tall grass. If you do it once a month, you can get by with a smaller tractor, but then you're also out there allot more often and putting hours on the tractor. Then there is maintenance, repairs and storage.

Figure out what it will cost to buy it and run it and you'll find that hiring it out is going to be allot cheaper.

If you've never sat on a tractor and mowed anythng of any size, in rough condition, you're in for a big suprise there too. It's only fun for about the first hour, then it turns into work and then it becomes uncomfortable, painful work. Once you buy the tractor and cutter, you'll be stuck having to run it all the time, or find somebody else to do it. Most will want to the first time, but then never again.

Again, hire it out and see what happens with that approach.

Good luck,
Eddie

[mostly_gas]

The 3.8 acres per is based on smooth flat land. My rear finish mower (60") is rated for 3 acres per hour. Between hills and obstacles I mow 80% of 3 acres in about 2 hours. I would echo the idea that the 20 acres get hired out. The only you can use volunteers is have some who knows enough about brush hogging to head up and train the volunteers. By the time you figure maintenance on the equipment, you spent as much or more then hiring it out.

[Soundguy]

A $2500 garden tractor for your yard and pay to have the other cut unless you already have a tractor. Cost about $700 per cutting. A good 60' used Bushog can be purchased for about $500. You can mow it about 14 hours if it is fairly level. It's up to you

14 hours? a 5' mower on a tractor should be able to cut quite a bit faster than that.. perhaps more like 10-11 hrs.

if he owns the 20ac.. might as well turn that 700$ per cut into a tractor payment... or heck.. buy a 50-60's era machine.. like a ford 660 or 860 and a 5/6' mower and pay about 3500$ and then mow it that way on the cheap..

soundguy

[beenthere]

sierra1
That sounds like the best solution so far. Win win

[TripleR]

You could hire someone to plant the 20 acres in hay, and then find a local farmer who will cut it for free in exchange for the hay. That approach has been working very well for me.

S1

Even though I have a couple of ten foot cutters and my renter has two fifteen foot bat wings, we are going to go that route this year on one of our properties. No use wasting fuel and time when it can be put to good use; very good idea.