15 ft finish mower. Anyone own one of these?

[workinonit]

BTW, not sure what kind of deck wheels come on those things now but I had mine foam filled after I got it. Best thing in the world to do. Or get solid wheels.

 

[RjCorazza]

Not a Batwing, but I have mowed with a 7' Befco finish mower for the past 15 years or so. Very well made mower.
I bought it with solid tires and bought air tires shortly thereafter... Big mistake imho, as I had constant flats.

 

[dieselscout80]

I use a Woods 12 ft. batwing finish mower. I bought it used from the neighbor when they moved. They stored it outside and some of the moving parts were seized with rust. I got everything moving freely and replaced some of the gearbox seals and it works good now. i mow about 4 acres of lawn and 6 acres of horse pasture. I mow the pasture once a year at the highest position and it works my NH 3040. If you get one, I would store it inside as there are a lot of moving parts.
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I wish there was a way to setup one of these 12 foot finish mowers so the cut height range was like say 2 and half inches to 8 inches. I like to cut our pastures higher to leave grass for grazing.

 

[joecdeere]

When I was still working, we sold many of the BushHog TDM series multiple deck finish mowers, lots of golf courses and city parts used them. You cover tons of ground in a hurry with one, just remember that痴 it痴 3 times the belts, idlers, tires, and blades, can get expensive, however they do mow well and other than finding a place to keep it out of the sun and weather I can稚 think of a negative if you have that much grass, (remember, this is not a pasture mower)

 

[lman]

I wish there was a way to setup one of these 12 foot finish mowers so the cut height range was like say 2 and half inches to 8 inches. I like to cut our pastures higher to leave grass for grazing.

I believe the highest mine will go is about 6". Spacers are used for adjustments at the caster wheels.

 

[dieselscout80]

I believe the highest mine will go is about 6". Spacers are used for adjustments at the caster wheels.

Yes 5 or 6 inches is the max I have seen.

The other issue is once all those spacers are added to cut high, it looks like the spindles would be easy to bend/damage.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Step, I have that same mower in a 20 foot version. Mine is a Befco branded Frontier. I bought it used several years ago and have had zero issues with it once I got the couple of things that were wrong with it squared away. When I bought it I was pulling it with my old JD 5310 but have since upgraded to a 5090. Mine had the manual deck release and now with a cab I need to add the hydraulic deck release but I'm not able to find it anywhere as an add on. I often times say that this is in the top 5 of best things I ever bought. Had I been relegated to buying it new I probably wouldn't own one because of the price but knowing what I know now I would. I couldn't function without mine.

Good job... That is what I wanted to hear. The one I found is 15ft, probably would mow my 30 acres in 4 to 6 hours.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

When I was still working, we sold many of the BushHog TDM series multiple deck finish mowers, lots of golf courses and city parts used them. You cover tons of ground in a hurry with one, just remember that痴 it痴 3 times the belts, idlers, tires, and blades, can get expensive, however they do mow well and other than finding a place to keep it out of the sun and weather I can稚 think of a negative if you have that much grass, (remember, this is not a pasture mower)

Well, my pastures are very clean, rolling orchard grasses. No rocks or soil mounds. I figure it will be more like 30 acres of lawn, as we don't graze animals or hay. Don't ask... wifey likes it mowed...

 

[TractorGuy]

I've seen the Frontier version.

This one has a neat work around for no rear hydraulics. They just put a 12V pump assembly on it and ran some wires.

 

[Popgadget]

I’ve got a Progressive TD-65, I pull it with a Kubota L6060. I bought two of them and a skid load of parts from a local sod farm that closed. I kept one and the parts. It works great and has been very reliable, but I like the fact that there isn’t anything on it that couldn’t be sourced locally or homemade.
I grease it regularly and replaced a valve stem in a pneumatic caster. Haven’t changed a belt yet, but I’ve got spares.

Cut quality is excellent. I’m sure that the woods, LP or Befco are all similar quality.