Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower

   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #1  

brownsl

Member
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May 24, 2010
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Location
OH
I ordered a 2630 along with the 72" MMM just over a month ago. My dealer has had difficulty in finding this deck. Kubota is not going to have any available until at least August and no dealer is willing to let go of them if they do have one.

Now my options are to wait for one or look at an alternative. I could go with the smaller deck but I really want the extra width for mowing. I could go with a Landpride Patriot 72" rear mower but I am unsure about how a rear mower would handle. I will be doing a lot of mowing with the tractor and some of it will be up around the house. I could just get close to the house and use a push mower right next to the house. Some pluses with this would be, 1) it is rear discharge which would be nice, 2) I could use it as a counter weight when using the FEL, 3) I can get mulching blades for it, 4) I think I can tilt it up for easy servicing of the blades. Some negatives, 1) maneuverability, 2) difficulty in changing mowing height. Not sure about other pluses and minuses.

I am looking for any more experienced advice on whether I should go with the Landpride or just wait it out.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #2  
Depends on how much acrage you're cutting and how many things you have to cut around. On a residential property, you'll have your head turned the whole time.

The BOD of the sportsmans club that I belong to thought that a rear RFM was the best option, they were wrong. 10 acres need cut, but around the building, trap houses and trees that thing is a real pain. A 60" MMM would have made life much easier.

The RFM does mak a nice ballast though.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #3  
Unless you yard doesn't have much open area you should be fine. I use a 7 foot Landpride RFM. The only place it's hard to cut around is my fence, but that's because I don't want to damage the fence. With the HST you can put this mower anywhere you want. The only time I look behind me is when I'm backing up or trimming around my well, mailbox, trees etc... But you would still have to be careful with a MMM. The landpride will give you a great cut. When I had a 6 foot on my B7800 I ran Gator Mulcher blades and had good results. See if your dealer will let you demo a RFM.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #4  
I personally would wait. I have two RFM's and while they are great for open field mowing or paths, when I was using them for my yard, I was constantly doing the "Messerschmidt Twitch" to keep from clipping something and was not always successful. I still use them in addition to ten foot rotary cutters, but never was satisfied with a RFM and eventually bought a mower with MMM and have bought three since then. YMMV
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #5  
I would personally wait also. A big factor for you to consider might be how many attachments do you plan to use and what's involved with changing them. Can you use a MMM and a 3 point attachment together?

Good point, I rarely remove my MMM and use a rotary cutter as well as a box blade, back blade or tiller.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #6  
Most decks have a clip to lock them in the up position so the three point has full movement and other attachments can be used.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #7  
I ordered a 2630 along with the 72" MMM just over a month ago.

Rear tread width on a 2630 is in the 50 in range. Standard bucket sizes are 54/60. A 60 in mower seems a nice fit. A 72 in mower and I'd be worried about clearance mishaps.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #8  



Buy a land pride flail mower in Kubota Colors with side shift and you wony have any issues about a stiff neck and never worry about throwing debris and hitting someone or something.

Agrissupply has an internet special price for for their Caroni flail mowers and they ship right to your door with freight included in the price.

The flail mower will not scalp either and the full width roller keeps full contact with the ground and the mower is shorter in overall length and the flail knives have more total cutting edge length than a belly mower or rear finish mower AND you only have to hose them out to clean them if you want to and they are less work to take care of in addition to the golf course grade of cut they give AND the mower design with the Verticut knives cuts and lifts the grass over the rotor and throws it back on the ground.

You will be able to buy dethatching/overseeding blades too.

The individual flail knives are mounted on a hanger that folds back when it hits an object and avoids damaging the mower too.

If you damage a flail knife they are easy to change and sharpen too- we still have 30 plus year old mower knives and they last a long time too.


If you have long grass the flail mower will slice it into very small bits which will compost quickly and you will not have to rake either.

(you should also ask you dealer if the land pride flail mower wit four rows of knives will be eligable for the zero percent interest rate-it should with no issues since you are stuck waiting and the 6 foot kubota/land pride flail mower will come to you a lot sooner than the belly mower as they are made in Canada By RAD like the Kubota snow blowers.


The Caroni flail mower with four rows of knives is less costly than the kubota flail mower the last time I checked and they have them in stock at all times and i believe they have a side shift option available for most models.



leon







 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #9  
I ordered a 2630 along with the 72" MMM just over a month ago. My dealer has had difficulty in finding this deck. Kubota is not going to have any available until at least August and no dealer is willing to let go of them if they do have one.

Now my options are to wait for one or look at an alternative. I could go with the smaller deck but I really want the extra width for mowing. I could go with a Landpride Patriot 72" rear mower but I am unsure about how a rear mower would handle. I will be doing a lot of mowing with the tractor and some of it will be up around the house. I could just get close to the house and use a push mower right next to the house. Some pluses with this would be, 1) it is rear discharge which would be nice, 2) I could use it as a counter weight when using the FEL, 3) I can get mulching blades for it, 4) I think I can tilt it up for easy servicing of the blades. Some negatives, 1) maneuverability, 2) difficulty in changing mowing height. Not sure about other pluses and minuses.

I am looking for any more experienced advice on whether I should go with the Landpride or just wait it out.

I'd wait for the 72" MMM. I have one for my B3030HSDCC & it's a real nice mowing deck. While you're waiting you might want to consider getting the high lift blades. They'll help keep that deck nice & clean underneath.
 
   / Delay in MMM Should I Go With A Rear Mower #10  
I have a B2910 with the 72" MMM ..... I would not buy one again .... and am a bit disappointed in the dealer for recommending it - mostly for the PR/sales pitch I got when it was sold to me: "cuts pretty good" (yeah, it does - but it ain't that good) ...... "it's easy to remove and install" (well ... your idea of "easy" is a little different than mine ....)

While it does a decent job - the front R4 tires always squish down a fairly wide swath of grass as you run over it - and, depending on your mowing height, it may result in the grass that has gone under the front tires not being pulled all the way up when being cut (unless you plan on redlining your tractor every time you mow) ..... after a few days (a little post-mowing rain always seems to help) the grass that went under the front tires is a bit longer than the rest .....

This seems to be aggravated by mowing the lawn higher (which I would prefer to do for the health of the grass) ..... if you mow if shorter, it doesn't seem to happen to the same degree.

My largest complaint is the PITA that removing or installing the MMM is .... on smooth concrete in an air-conditioned shop it would probably be much easier ..... try it in the sun on an old asphalt driveway, when it's 88 degrees and 90% humidity ....

On the 72" MMM, that PTO shaft is a long ways up under the tractor - I'm over 6' 1" with fairly long arms and I find it to be a pain ...... the 72" width makes reaching and accessing the mid-PTO more difficult ...... and I ain't getting any younger .....

This really wouldn't be too much of a problem - if you were mostly using the tractor for mowing .....

But if you are using it alot for other stuff (particularly 3PH work) often, where the MMM mower needs to removed often, it has got to be way more hassle than a 3PH rear mower. The rear mount is still going to have the issue of ALL the tires running over the grass before you cut it ..... but at least the pain and suffering of removal and installation is minimized .....

Ideally, I'd like to have a Kubota F-series front-mounted mower .... but I haven't reached that level of affluence quite yet ....

I have to say, although I have no personal experience them myself, leon'z making a good case for a flail mower ... if I were looking, I think I'd have to consider it as an option.
 
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