Mowing HP to run 4" rotary mower

[beersngars]

I have 28HP at the PTO and use a 5' Woods BrushBull and it works fine. Since I have most of my heaving brush cutting done, and am only mowing as maintaince, sometimes I wish it were a 6' model. Of course now random thoughts of a flail mower cross my mind.

 

[citytransplant]

run a 4' rotary mower ... fence rows ... Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

Ideally you don't want to run a 4' cutter behind a tractor that has a wheelbase greater than the width of the cutter. Makes it difficult to cut along fences, trees, structures, etc. among other reasons.

 

[flusher]

How many hp tractor do any of you reccomend to run a 4' rotary mower?
I have a 26 hp gear drive and it will run a rear mount 66" finish mower but not to my satisfaction.
I'm wondering what it will take to run a 4' rotary(bush hog type) mower satisfactorally with a hydro trans. This will be in waterways and fence rows, some pretty tough mowing.
Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

I ran a 4-ft KK rotary mower with my Kubota B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto). No problems handling that mower in 3-4 ft tall weeds. Just had to take it easy and let the tractor and mower do their thing.

 

[pennwalk]

I use a 4 foot KK behind my Yanmar 186D. It has 18 hp at the engine and about 14 hp at the pto. It will bog down in thick weeds if I try to mow too fast. Over all It is pretty workable and will chop up what ever I can run over. It can be scary as it will launch a stone the size of a football an amazing distance across the field. You got to be careful if there are people around.

Chris

 

[J_J]

If you are struggling for HP, keep the blades sharp. Makes a big difference. Dull blades require more work force. You can tell by the sound of the engine how things are going.

 

[Soundguy]

that and choose a lower gear too.

soundguy

 

[Carykong]

ran a 5' howse brush cutter on my CASE VAC 1952,about 15 horsepwr, first gear mostly,keep the rpm up since PTO was variable speed, would annihilate small trees and brush, heavy grass raised engine temp but still did the job,if it bogged down just raise the deck a little

 

[Soundguy]

Havn't seen many tractors where the pto wan't variable speed.. IE.. ratio locked to engine rpm...

soundguy

 

[Charlesaf3]

b3030 has no problems with a 5 ft woods brush bull. Even in heavy brush, and I think its 24 pto.

I'm surprised a 5.5 RFM was a problem. Are they usually more drag than a bush hog? Wouldn't have guessed so.