Rotary Cutter Modern vs. John Deere 6' cutter

[daRedbone]

I've narrowed my choices down to Modern Super Sunshine cutter or a John Deere MX6. What say ye??

FYI, I've been using a Bush Hog Model 502 since 1979 with no major repairs.

 

[sweettractors]

We have a MX 7 and love it. It is going to be hard to beat the Deere brand and quality behind the MX 6. Ken Sweet

 

[Johndeere3720]

My dad has an MX6 and it is great! Never had a problem with it. You cant go wrong with a Deere.:thumbsup:

 

[RollingsFarms]

i'm not going to sugarcoat it for you, i have a John Deere MX6 and it sucks. i HATE...no wait....i DESPISE it! what a big ol' heavy piece of crap, to put it bluntly. if i were you i would no doubt buy a Bush Hog 296. just do it, trust me. if i can ever unload my MX6 on some sucker, that's what i will be buying and should have bought the first time. my MX6 has lasted 2....TWO years of the SAME use that my much MUCH older and lighter duty John Deere 205 withstood. the difference? the 205 was abused WAY more and the only thing i ever had to do to it was patch a small hole due to rust....what do you expect from something made in 1978? my MX6? well let's see, so far the pto shaft bent(medium duty my foot) and the top bracket where the top link attatches is also bent. do i abuse my cutters? no. do i use them hard? yes. these things shouldn't have happened and my dealer can't explain why a medium duty rated cutter(MX6) that's only been used 2 years, is tearing up so quickly but yet the 205 which is a light duty mower took it like a champ and never had a breakdown in 30 years. get a Bush Hog and be done with it....that's what i should have done and what i'm going to do very soon.

 

[8404]

Amen to that Bush Hog all the way for me too

 

[daRedbone]

My problem with the Bush Hogs is the metal thickness. One of the gripes I have against my Bush Hog is bent deck and sides.

RollingsFarms, wouldn't the B.H. 286 be more comparable to the range I'm in?

 

[JDMAN4020]

I have a Modern 6' Highway Special. Bought it new in 1989 to replace the 1975 model. The older Modern was in excellent condition, just wanted new mower for new tractor. I would get another one in a heartbeat! I've never liked JD mowers...period!

 

[deere5105]

I run a MX6 on my JD5105 and have had no problems. Mowed around pond dam over the weekend. Some of the trees I was cutting with it were 10' to 15' tall and at least 2" to 3" in diameter. Probably a little more than I should have been doing, but better than walking in knee high grass with a chain saw and weedeater. I like the double wall deck that keeps from showing any deflections and the dome shaped deck that is easy to keep clean. No complaints here.

 

[jenkinsph]

i'm not going to sugarcoat it for you, i have a John Deere MX6 and it sucks. i HATE...no wait....i DESPISE it! what a big ol' heavy piece of crap, to put it bluntly. if i were you i would no doubt buy a Bush Hog 296. just do it, trust me. if i can ever unload my MX6 on some sucker, that's what i will be buying and should have bought the first time. my MX6 has lasted 2....TWO years of the SAME use that my much MUCH older and lighter duty John Deere 205 withstood. the difference? the 205 was abused WAY more and the only thing i ever had to do to it was patch a small hole due to rust....what do you expect from something made in 1978? my MX6? well let's see, so far the pto shaft bent(medium duty my foot) and the top bracket where the top link attatches is also bent. do i abuse my cutters? no. do i use them hard? yes. these things shouldn't have happened and my dealer can't explain why a medium duty rated cutter(MX6) that's only been used 2 years, is tearing up so quickly but yet the 205 which is a light duty mower took it like a champ and never had a breakdown in 30 years. get a Bush Hog and be done with it....that's what i should have done and what i'm going to do very soon.

I had a 206 behind a 3020 seemed like a good heavy duty unit until I used it for awhile. Welds cracking on the deck to frame mountings, bent lower shaft and had to change it out. When it was working it did a bang up job!

So far no trouble after five years on my MX6. :thumbsup: If you need a heavy cutter look at the 609 model by JD.

 

[RollingsFarms]

the deck thickness of the MX6 is good, that's not my problem. it's the strength of the hitch on it and the long pto shaft. the pto shaft is way too long in my opinion and when you raise up the cutter it binds it up, hence bending it. it has a slide feature, which at first i thought was kind of neat, just slide it up to attatch to the tractor pto. the probelm i have found with this is there's no need to slide the pto shaft 3-4 inches, why not just make the pto shaft shorter to begin with and give me 1 inch to have to slide. a local farmer friend of mine even commented to me about the pto shaft being too long. i contacted my dealer about this thinking that maybe they gave me the wrong pto shaft, nope it was the correct one they said. the bracing on the hitch is a joke! the deck maybe medium duty rated, but deffinatley not the bracing. cut quality is good, but that doesn't do a thing for me when my cutter is always down for repairs. if i had to do it over again i would just go buy either a Bush Hog brand mower or some cheap cutter and beat the mess out of it and not expect much from it. i wouldn't be as mad when it tore up that's for sure.