19th_VA
Gold Member
Re: Looks like the Kukje twins need their own foru
Glad to see we're having such a lively dicussion. Would just like to chime in on a couple of points. The 720 is a bigger, heavier cutter than the Midwest 30 series, which falls somewhere between the Woods 72 and 720. The 720 weights 1140 pounds has a 120 hp gearbox. The 30 series is a 5' footer and weight 900 lbs. and has an 85 hp gearbox. I quite deliberately chose a 5' cutter to conserve power. I spoke with Jim M. at Midwest about my setup, so I would think he would pretty well qualified to give advice. I could have purchased the 20 series, after all. He felt my set up was good one.
I have another 5 hours of cutting under my belt and would like to make the following observations. First, the weight has not been an issue. Never light in the front end and with the check chains properly adjust to reduce swinging I have not felt the cutter pulling the tractor in any significant way. As for how hard the engine is working, I believe 90% of the time I have been operating the tractor, the engine has not be under very much of a load, judging from how it sounds and feels. Most of the other 10% of the time is when I get into an area I could not see very well and ran into things like barbed wire, a big rock, a dirt mound, a stump. Once my land is cleared, which should take me about another year, the rotary cutter will just be maintaining pasture, so we'll see how it holds up. This is a really good experiment, I feel. Perhaps I'll be converted to Woodbeef's way of thinking but perhaps not.
I am willing to make the experiment for several reasons. First, I could hire out a dozer to do the work, but then I would not have the fun of doing it myself, the topsoil would be ruined, the land would look like crap until we planted and seeded, and we would not be able to save the trees we like. Second, I did a lot of research on the subject and felt that my tractor/cutter setup was the best economically viable option for me. Sure there were other options but this one made sense. Everyone would like to own the biggest and the best, but we can't all. So far I do not regret the decision at all. Land is getting cleared and cleaned, slowly but surely. Out of about 8 acres that I am clearing, 4 have been cut at least once and 2 have been cut, scraped and cut again. This past Friday I finally "dived" into an area I had not previously been to, with some serious hills and slopes and multiflora rose so thick a person could not even machete through it. Had to be very careful, going slowly, and doing a lot of reconnoitering, but **** if the tractor and cutter didn't perform magnificently. Never once felt unbalanced despite the significant slopes (though I did pucker a couple of times!), and I managed to carve an 8' path through stuff I haven't seen since my National Guard unit was in Panama. And boy, was it fun! Didn't have time for pictures but will post some next week. Keep on tractorin'!
Glad to see we're having such a lively dicussion. Would just like to chime in on a couple of points. The 720 is a bigger, heavier cutter than the Midwest 30 series, which falls somewhere between the Woods 72 and 720. The 720 weights 1140 pounds has a 120 hp gearbox. The 30 series is a 5' footer and weight 900 lbs. and has an 85 hp gearbox. I quite deliberately chose a 5' cutter to conserve power. I spoke with Jim M. at Midwest about my setup, so I would think he would pretty well qualified to give advice. I could have purchased the 20 series, after all. He felt my set up was good one.
I have another 5 hours of cutting under my belt and would like to make the following observations. First, the weight has not been an issue. Never light in the front end and with the check chains properly adjust to reduce swinging I have not felt the cutter pulling the tractor in any significant way. As for how hard the engine is working, I believe 90% of the time I have been operating the tractor, the engine has not be under very much of a load, judging from how it sounds and feels. Most of the other 10% of the time is when I get into an area I could not see very well and ran into things like barbed wire, a big rock, a dirt mound, a stump. Once my land is cleared, which should take me about another year, the rotary cutter will just be maintaining pasture, so we'll see how it holds up. This is a really good experiment, I feel. Perhaps I'll be converted to Woodbeef's way of thinking but perhaps not.
I am willing to make the experiment for several reasons. First, I could hire out a dozer to do the work, but then I would not have the fun of doing it myself, the topsoil would be ruined, the land would look like crap until we planted and seeded, and we would not be able to save the trees we like. Second, I did a lot of research on the subject and felt that my tractor/cutter setup was the best economically viable option for me. Sure there were other options but this one made sense. Everyone would like to own the biggest and the best, but we can't all. So far I do not regret the decision at all. Land is getting cleared and cleaned, slowly but surely. Out of about 8 acres that I am clearing, 4 have been cut at least once and 2 have been cut, scraped and cut again. This past Friday I finally "dived" into an area I had not previously been to, with some serious hills and slopes and multiflora rose so thick a person could not even machete through it. Had to be very careful, going slowly, and doing a lot of reconnoitering, but **** if the tractor and cutter didn't perform magnificently. Never once felt unbalanced despite the significant slopes (though I did pucker a couple of times!), and I managed to carve an 8' path through stuff I haven't seen since my National Guard unit was in Panama. And boy, was it fun! Didn't have time for pictures but will post some next week. Keep on tractorin'!