JohnCar....sounds like you have a good place.....had though you were in West Australia, but the only Gympie I find is in Qld, north of Sunshine Coast.....that where you are??
You are absolutely right about good machinery....and while there are plenty of other good machines, one needs to carefully analyze what will be best for their particular situation and budget. Most things like this are expensive, especially in OZ, and thus our used municipal (council) machines fit the bill easier than brand new....mine is no thing of beauty, but mechanically has lived up to expectations.
Your F should be able to tame most of your block if set to max height (about 120 cm) and take it easy - small bites - and walk any areas first to find the odd fence wire, big rocks or old machinery bits before the blades do. Our place is only 4+ acres but had all of the above and vegetation was chest-high all over. Once finally tamed with multiple passes (and all with just a single V belt versus the twin it was supposed to have and now does), it is a piece of cake, although the steep parts are still just as steep! My wife has no desire for any seat time on the F as she is often afraid to even look at where I routinely go with it.....that's OK, as I will gladly stay out of her garden!
Carry a pair of small bolt (heavy duty wire) cutters if any chance at all of running into old fence wire....also be familiar with tilting the deck to vertical as that is one of the biggest advantages of an F-type over any other type of mower when in the field and having to untangle something from it.
There are Flail (drum) mower heads available for these front mower machines, and they raise what you can routinely tackle to another level or two.....they are expensive (especially in OZ - AU$8+K) new and difficult to find used, but if you find significant parts of your place too much for the rotary deck to handle, that is an option..... have your dealer be on the lookout for one or keep an eye on GumTree. They are all mostly made in Europe, so could import one directly. I considered one initially, but figured I would see how the rotary deck did and it was so beat-up I did not cringe when I was pushing it, but it did the job!. I guess you can always slash (bush-hog) the real nasty stuff first with your other tractor.
Cheers, Rip
Yes Rip,
Gympie Queensland or nearby Glastonbury actually NW from the Sunshine Coast.
I have been pleasantly surprised as to the capability of the Kubota F mower. It seemed very hard to actually get any official info on what angles they can safely work. The one I bought was ex Qld govt dept of Communities. It only had 480 hours but not all that well serviced but cosmetically not in bad condition.
My Block is very hostile with lots of rock, old fences, logs, old mining equipment (gold mining) and no haven't found any nuggets yet, but always looking..
Did I mention rocks!! yes there are everything from pebbles to the size of a truck floaters and some that are attached to china I am sure.
There has been a lot of mining across my block over the last 100 years or so I guess with plenty of old mullock heaps from the mines and it is red soil scrub country.
So yeah things grow very well here which is good for the cattle etc but plenty of work keeping it under control.
The upside is that it is a very nice place to live and in my opinion well worth the effort. We love it here..
For the heavier work I have a 80 hp Tractor with multiple implements including a fairly robust 6' slasher and it is set up at about 9-10" blade height to try and miss a lot of the rock, but I still manage to find them. I have recently built a stick rake that fits onto the front end loader which finds most things before the slasher does. But I will never attempt to clear the whole block as some of it is just too steep and rugged, just the bits that are sensible to do so and within our capability.
So yeah areas that I have slashed and pushed with the tractor a few times and rock picked a few times are now being mowed by the Kubota and it is just starting to look nice and under control in those parts..
On the Kubota I removed the standard blades and from a second old set of worn out blades I made up a set of swing back blades. So not a real easy job cutting and drilling the old blades being tempered but managed it OK. So now I have the old blades cut down and just used as blade carriers and have fitted deutscher flat blades swinging on the ends. To me the advantage is that the deutscher blades are much cheaper, about $12 a pair, easy to sharpen and expendable if hitting something nasty. They also seem to cut cleaner with less load on the engine and transmission to the deck. They don't throw the clippings out as well though which has it's pros and cons, the upside is that the machine and me gets covered in less grass and a downside is that I will get a few clumps when mowing thick grass. I am mowing with it set at B-Y which I think is about 4 1/2" (110mm), seems to be going OK at that.
The flail mower idea would be interesting to try but unless I stumble across one at a bargain price it is not likely to happen. They are a bit pricey to buy and lots of bits to service over time. One of my neighbours just had his serviced and repaired with half of the cutters and bolts replaced and pretty sure he said about $1000 for a dealer shop to do it. Not sure how many blades are on the thing but it looks like a lot.
A pair of slasher blades seem pretty cheap by comparison.
Having one mounted on the front end loader however would be handy at times but would need a good hydraulic circuit to run it. I could do some serious damage with that.