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ArtVandelay
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RollTideRam said:
I think I might go with a Mahindra instead. They seem to be excellent quality, really heavy duty, and very well priced compared to other brands.
How good does a sharpened rotary cutter cut?
- Thread starter ArtVandelay
- Start date
I think I might go with a Mahindra instead. They seem to be excellent quality, really heavy duty, and very well priced compared to other brands.
Soundguy
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As alan said.. it makes a halfway decent 'shaggy' lawn if you sharpen the blades up.
Cut height will depend on the mower design.. usually sidewalls.
I've got a KK I can cut down to 2" with when adjusted correctly for that..
soundguy
Cut height will depend on the mower design.. usually sidewalls.
I've got a KK I can cut down to 2" with when adjusted correctly for that..
soundguy
Be sure to check out the specs on the cuter before you buy one if you need a lower cut. My KK has a minimum cut height of 4", but that's with the side rails dragging. It typically looks like a 5" cut when I'm done. This is due to the high sidewalls. It works great for bush and heavy stuff, but there are times now that I wish I had a lower cut option.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I started out cutting my place with a 6 foot rotary cutter. It does a fine job of cutting the grass, weeds and saplings, but not a great job. I'm happy with the results and would be happy to have just that alone, as I'm not too picky of how a field looks, as long as it's all pretty much one length. A day or two after I cut, there are lines of cut grass left behind, but they go away pretty quickly.
My biggest complaint about the rotary cutter for cutting grass is the dust it creates. If I cut an area with any exposed dirt on it at all, I'm eating dust. My latest thought is to cut an old tire to create a shield along the front of the mower deck to cut down on this. It's an idea that's building in my brain, so I'll probably do it sometime soon.
My next complaint is that on uneven terrain, I have to really pay attention to what's going on back there to avoid scalping or burying the blades in dirt. Lots of my land is pretty rough. I've taken out trees, filled in holes and moved on to other areas. When I cut down the weeds in those areas, it's very rough terrain.
This past spring, I bought a used finish mower. It's a little bigger then my rotary cutter, but not by much. They are both made by Land Pride, so this might be a fair comparison. The gear box on the finish mower is less then half the size of the one on the rotary cutter. The finish mower has three fixed blades, while the rotary cutter has two massive blades that spin around from the center.
They do a totally different job, but when just mowing grass, the finish mower is so much better at it then the rotary cutter that it's not even close. I can mow the same area much, much faster with the finish mower and have a much nicer result. The finish mower has wheels on all four corners, so it follows the contour of the ground. There is no weight on my lift arms as the attachment to the finish mower moves up and down. I keep the lift arms about the middle of this range of travel and never adjust them while mowing.
Since there is no weight on the lift arms, I'm able to mow when it's still wet outside and even closer to the shore of my lake without getting stuck. I'm also able to mow at a greater side angle faster and easier. It's really night and day the difference between the two.
My main two grass species are bahia and bermuda. Both are pretty tough on mower blades. When the grass is a foot or tall, it will bog down the rotary cutter. I've cut grass that tall with the finsh mower and it will also bog down if I go too fast. I just go slow enough to keep my RPM's up. I don't know how much is too much, but so far, I've cut everything I've wanted to with it. In those areas that it's really tall, I'll cut it twice to get a nice finish to it. The first cut leaves it a little ragged with some stalks coming back up. I just go over it again and get a beautiful finish.
My biggest complaint about the finish mower is that I get allot of flat tires on those wheels. I'm about done playing with tubes and fixing flats. The next time I get a flat tire, I'm replacing them with solid tires. I don't know where I'm buying them yet, but that will be my goal.
I also want to replace the blades with news ones as I think they are original. I don't know where the best place to do this is, or what type to buy. There seem to be serveral styles of blades out there, so I'll have to do some research on that. The blades just unbolt real simple and easy, so that part will be straight forward.
Changeing blades on a rotary cutter means getting a very large socket, an impact wrench powerful enough to take apart those bolts. On mine, the socket is 1 11/16 that are torqued down to 450lbs. It wasn't fun the fist time I had to do this!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I kind of got it figured out and can replace a set of blades in less then an hour, but that first time allot longer!!!!!!!!
Good luck,
Eddie
My biggest complaint about the rotary cutter for cutting grass is the dust it creates. If I cut an area with any exposed dirt on it at all, I'm eating dust. My latest thought is to cut an old tire to create a shield along the front of the mower deck to cut down on this. It's an idea that's building in my brain, so I'll probably do it sometime soon.
My next complaint is that on uneven terrain, I have to really pay attention to what's going on back there to avoid scalping or burying the blades in dirt. Lots of my land is pretty rough. I've taken out trees, filled in holes and moved on to other areas. When I cut down the weeds in those areas, it's very rough terrain.
This past spring, I bought a used finish mower. It's a little bigger then my rotary cutter, but not by much. They are both made by Land Pride, so this might be a fair comparison. The gear box on the finish mower is less then half the size of the one on the rotary cutter. The finish mower has three fixed blades, while the rotary cutter has two massive blades that spin around from the center.
They do a totally different job, but when just mowing grass, the finish mower is so much better at it then the rotary cutter that it's not even close. I can mow the same area much, much faster with the finish mower and have a much nicer result. The finish mower has wheels on all four corners, so it follows the contour of the ground. There is no weight on my lift arms as the attachment to the finish mower moves up and down. I keep the lift arms about the middle of this range of travel and never adjust them while mowing.
Since there is no weight on the lift arms, I'm able to mow when it's still wet outside and even closer to the shore of my lake without getting stuck. I'm also able to mow at a greater side angle faster and easier. It's really night and day the difference between the two.
My main two grass species are bahia and bermuda. Both are pretty tough on mower blades. When the grass is a foot or tall, it will bog down the rotary cutter. I've cut grass that tall with the finsh mower and it will also bog down if I go too fast. I just go slow enough to keep my RPM's up. I don't know how much is too much, but so far, I've cut everything I've wanted to with it. In those areas that it's really tall, I'll cut it twice to get a nice finish to it. The first cut leaves it a little ragged with some stalks coming back up. I just go over it again and get a beautiful finish.
My biggest complaint about the finish mower is that I get allot of flat tires on those wheels. I'm about done playing with tubes and fixing flats. The next time I get a flat tire, I'm replacing them with solid tires. I don't know where I'm buying them yet, but that will be my goal.
I also want to replace the blades with news ones as I think they are original. I don't know where the best place to do this is, or what type to buy. There seem to be serveral styles of blades out there, so I'll have to do some research on that. The blades just unbolt real simple and easy, so that part will be straight forward.
Changeing blades on a rotary cutter means getting a very large socket, an impact wrench powerful enough to take apart those bolts. On mine, the socket is 1 11/16 that are torqued down to 450lbs. It wasn't fun the fist time I had to do this!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I kind of got it figured out and can replace a set of blades in less then an hour, but that first time allot longer!!!!!!!!
Good luck,
Eddie
Soundguy
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Ford850: Your KK wouldn't happen to be a newer yellow one.. or one of the older HD ones would it? I've seent hem with higher side walls than the old 'red' series that TSC used to carry years ago.. etc. ( my old one is like that.. very low side walls. )
Soundguy
Soundguy
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Eddie,
What an excellent dissertation explaining the pros and cons of the two cutters.
Although I don't have a finish mower, I can surely relate to the RC experience you describe. I was going to add that the radiator and air filters clog up like crazy while using the RC and you need to keep an eye out for overheating. If you come up with that idea to reduce/eliminate the dust, please let us all know.
Thanks,
What an excellent dissertation explaining the pros and cons of the two cutters.
Although I don't have a finish mower, I can surely relate to the RC experience you describe. I was going to add that the radiator and air filters clog up like crazy while using the RC and you need to keep an eye out for overheating. If you come up with that idea to reduce/eliminate the dust, please let us all know.
Thanks,
unreconstructed
Platinum Member
Thanks for that narrative on the mowers/ cutter issue. Have been thinking of getting a 261 RFM for my 2320. Really did not want to try sharpening rotary cutter ( know as shredders out here) blades.
travis potter
Silver Member
Eddie you might try foam in your tires. A place in Houston does it makes them solid rubber no flats ever. Min is $ 20.00 per tire or $ 1.00 per # I had it done to my tractor 1485 # but will never have a flat. My place is west of SA and everything has a thorn.
RoyJackson
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I've got the same problem with cutting the Eddie Walker has...the acreage is just pretty darn rough. The fix would be to get a dozer in there and really clean it up...but, since it's a power line right-of-way (Power companies don't own the property...they just have the right to run the lines over them. I guess the land under each tower is owned or leased by the power company though.), I don't think anyone is going to do that.
So, I'll go slow and scalp every now and then...but it'll never be a lawn (see attached picture). It's not really that steep, BTW...I was using a phone cam and didn't have it level.
There was a TBNer a while back who was going to add casters or other type wheel at the front on the cutter to prevent scalping. I don't know if he ever actually did this...but if you want a smoother cut from a cutter, that might be something to consider. In fact, the wheels and spindles off a scrapped finishing mower would work, if they can be found.
Eddie has a good point about the dust...and a guard isn't going to help. This is one of those jobs where a face mask is pretty important. It's not just the dust the cutter is kicking up, it's all that pollen from the brush being cut. If the area is level, this job could be done after a rain to reduce the amount of dust and pollen kicked up.
So, I'll go slow and scalp every now and then...but it'll never be a lawn (see attached picture). It's not really that steep, BTW...I was using a phone cam and didn't have it level.
There was a TBNer a while back who was going to add casters or other type wheel at the front on the cutter to prevent scalping. I don't know if he ever actually did this...but if you want a smoother cut from a cutter, that might be something to consider. In fact, the wheels and spindles off a scrapped finishing mower would work, if they can be found.
Eddie has a good point about the dust...and a guard isn't going to help. This is one of those jobs where a face mask is pretty important. It's not just the dust the cutter is kicking up, it's all that pollen from the brush being cut. If the area is level, this job could be done after a rain to reduce the amount of dust and pollen kicked up.
Attachments
RAILTRAC
New member
Eddie got it right about changing blades on a rotary cutter, just dropped them on a frontier RC1072, diffently a two man job.The blades are attached to a pan that's heavy. Also replaced the stripped grade 5 bolts to grade 8 bolts on were the gear box is bolted on to the cutter frame. Also had to wield a small crack in the same area. I'm going to sharpen the blades before we put it all back together and I will let evryone know what happens. Hey not bad for a first post.