Mowing Replacement Rotary Cutter Blades Shorter Than Original

[dbchaplin03]

Good evening. I bought a 15-20 year old Woods brush mower. Blades are original and shot. Dealer is over an hour away and has to order and will take 1-2 weeks to get in.

I took the blade into tractor supply and they had a Bush Hog brand blade that is the same identical blade in all aspects except is 1 shorter. Holes, thickness, bend, all are identical as are the BH brand bolts they also had. Only difference is the blade is 1 shorter.

They had them in stock, with my 10% coupon they sent me they are half the price of the dealer and I have them in the trunk.

Question, would having a 1 shorter blade cause any problems? I知 only mowing 3-4 acres a few times per year is all. It痴 a 72 single spindle, heavy duty woods rotary cutter. I can live with a 2 overall narrower cut and even a longer height if that was impacted somehow. Just want to make sure it痴 not somehow unsafe or bad for the mower somehow?

 

[Oldoak]

Being your cutting with a single spindle, I don't think there would be any issues using the shorter blades other than a slightly narrower cut swath with each pass. For the price difference, it's certainly worth a try.

 

[jeff9366]

You will be fine with 1" shorter blades.

 

[Big Barn]

Yes you will be fine. You will lose 1/2” width of cut and slightly diminished quality of cut due to diminished blade tip speed but not likely noticeable.

 

[dbchaplin03]

Big Barn, if you saw how bad the orginal blades are i might not be loosing any quality in the cut :laughing:. The entire tips of both are completely gone. they are wore all the way down to the thickest part of the blade. It is rounded over just like the backside and if it wasn't for the jagged gouges on them.. you may not even know which way the cutting edge was supposed to be lol. I almost feel bad for all the weeds i mowed down with it when i first got it home. They got beat down with baseball bats :drink:

 

[Big Barn]

Haha. Sorry I never even considered that.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

Yes you will be fine. You will lose 1/2” width of cut and slightly diminished quality of cut due to diminished blade tip speed but not likely noticeable.

2" loss in swath width.

 

[Big Barn]

2" loss in swath width.

Sorry. I meant to say 1” width of cut lost. 1/2” on EACH side of spindle.