Rotary Cutter Finish mower or rotary cutter

[Builder]

All excellent mowers gents, but consider that the OP tractor has only 33.6 PTO hp. He needs advice down in the six foot arena

//greg//

You are right, the SQ85 needs 35PTO, but I think he'd be OK as long as it wasn't too tall or thick.

 

[wingdwolf56]

Thanks for all your replies.
My 9N already has the over riding clutch and I'm thinking about a 5 or 6 ft mower. I don't cut the entire pasture area every week. I don't really want to since we're here mostly only weekends and I don't want to spend the whole time mowing. So I'll probably mow about once a month. The problem with the pull behind is that it has a single blade and it leaves quite a bit uncut especially were the atv tires roll so I end up cutting half widths to get a somewhat even look.
I thought bushhogs or rotary cutters were for rough cutting thick weeds and brush, so I thought a finish mower would be better.
Basically I'm looking for something that will cut evenly, keeping in mind my once a month cutting. I'm just trying to keep it under control for now but when we build and move permanantly I would like to have it look more like a lawn. Have I cleared anything up? I'm rather new to this ( as if you couldn't tell) and have a lot to learn

 

[rbargeron]

Sorry - I didn't pay close enough attention to your first post. The available power of a 9n is going to be marginal for a 6' finish mower - better for a 6' rotary, best for a 5' rotary. Finish mowers or flails do a lot of secondary cuts and need more power per foot of width. Also, the direct bevel gear drive of a rotary is more efficient. Another condition that may influences your mower choice is that the 9n in first gear moves a bit too fast for a 6' cutter. It will bog down if the grass is dense. The 9n would probably be happiest with a light-weight 5' rotary rotary mower. (Also the lowest cost) If the blades are sharp a rotary cutter can do a very nice job. The cut from a rotary tends to look rough if the blades are dull or if they are bent so they cut at different height.

 

[wingdwolf56]

Sorry - I didn't pay close enough attention to your first post. The available power of a 9n is going to be marginal for a 6' finish mower - better for a 6' rotary, best for a 5' rotary. Finish mowers or flails do a lot of secondary cuts and need more power per foot of width. Also, the direct bevel gear drive of a rotary is more efficient. Another condition that may influences your mower choice is that the 9n in first gear moves a bit too fast for a 6' cutter. It will bog down if the grass is dense. The 9n would probably be happiest with a light-weight 5' rotary rotary mower. (Also the lowest cost) If the blades are sharp a rotary cutter can do a very nice job. The cut from a rotary tends to look rough if the blades are dull or if they are bent so they cut at different height.

Great Replies from all! This puts it best for me tho. 5' rotary cutter. The more I've read and reserched, the more I realize that a finish mower needs more power because it does more. For now, a rotary cut mower and my 9n will do. After I build, maybe a bigger tractor will be a nice housewarming gift from my wife!!!

 

[ChuckinNH]

I'll play devil's advocate here, and say that if you are not happy with the Swisher mower, you won't be happy with the cut, or windrows of grass a rotary cutter will leave. Actually, most tractor manufacturers recommend a larger rear mounted finish mower for the same horsepower than they do rotary cutters. I have 19,or so pto hp, and Kubota recommends a 48" rotary cutter, and a 60" finish mower. If you don't have a lot of rocks, and stumps, etc. to deal with I would go with the finish mower. The other thing that I have found is that my rotary cutter will dig in, and scalp on corners especially if I try to cut any where near as close as I would with a finish mower............ even 4"-5" sometimes.

 

[Johnagain]

I'll agree with Chuck and state that you can run a bigger finish mower than a rotary cutter anyday. I use a 84in LP RFM and a 5 ft rotary cutter and would never dream of using a 7 ft rotary cutter behind my 27 hp PTO tractor.
A good rule of thought is if the grass is much over 12inches high then I use a rotary cutter if not or the grass is thin then I will use the finish mower.

Not to hijack the thread but,
zzvyb6 where are you getting you blades for the LP? I just spent $190.00 for a set from the dealer.

 

[Builder]

Thanks for all your replies.
My 9N already has the over riding clutch and I'm thinking about a 5 or 6 ft mower. I don't cut the entire pasture area every week. I don't really want to since we're here mostly only weekends and I don't want to spend the whole time mowing. So I'll probably mow about once a month. The problem with the pull behind is that it has a single blade and it leaves quite a bit uncut especially were the atv tires roll so I end up cutting half widths to get a somewhat even look.
I thought bushhogs or rotary cutters were for rough cutting thick weeds and brush, so I thought a finish mower would be better.
Basically I'm looking for something that will cut evenly, keeping in mind my once a month cutting. I'm just trying to keep it under control for now but when we build and move permanantly I would like to have it look more like a lawn. Have I cleared anything up? I'm rather new to this ( as if you couldn't tell) and have a lot to learn

With that in mind, a finish mower would gag on month tall grass.

 

[Johnagain]

With that in mind, a finish mower would gag on month tall grass.

You could also cut it every two weeks and only spend about 2-3 hours cutting it with a 6 ft finish mower. He stated he has only 5 acres to mow.

 

[suncoast]

With that in mind, a finish mower would gag on month tall grass.

That is very true. When it rains here every day (every spring) the grass is amazingly long after only one week. If I would wait a month, my 72" Bush Hog" FM would take at least 2 passes at different heights. I have plenty of PTO power to do a single pass, but this is not what a FM is made for. Once a month is really not for a finish mower.

 

[TDVT]

I mow a few small fields around our house, the largest about two acres, using our 8N (approx 24 pto/hp, 9N around 20 pto/hp), initially with a 7' sickle bar & later on a 4' bush hog. The sickle bar did an OK job but clogged alot if the grass was too tall & would get caught occasionally on the uneven ground & fold back. Another field was as bit more grown in so I decided I wanted a rotary to mow everything.

When I bought the rotary mower the old timers around here were evenly divided between a 4' & a 5" being the optimal size for a N tractor. Not having experience with rotary mowers, I erred to the side of caution & we bought the 4'. Now having many hours mowing behind me I would have definitely bought the 5' but I think a 6' would be too big for an N. The rotary does a good job but does gouge, leaves windrows & ours being narrower than the tractor, makes it tough to do edges.The 5' would be the same width as your track making things easier with out being too heavy.

As mentioned above, with an N you HAVE to use the over-run coupler to avoid any "incidents". Without one, the centrifugal force of the mower can keep you moving whether you want to be moving or not.

However, we now have a 35hp Kubota in addition to the Ford & after seeing flail mowers in action I have decided to head that route eventually. I'll probably sell the other two as I don't use the mowers for land clearing, just maintaining established fields & I can go to a 7' flail. Seems like the best of both worlds: lighter, no windrows or flying objects but able to deal with more than grass when needed. If we were to expand any fields a little I'd cut out the saplings first anyway.