If You Were To Get A New 6 Ft Finish Mower - What Would You get?

[JohnnyMX]

I had one of these and found it to be a POS. Cheap plastic or no bearings at all, light duty deck, crappy wheels, gear box failed within 5 years. The landpride replacement is built like a tank in comparison, still going 30 years on.

I'd get a rear discharge finishing mower that has 4 run flat wheels you can just drop on the ground and go, greasable everything with zerks that can be accessed without removing safety covers, bearings in the wheels, easy clean fabricated deck (not stamped) that doesn't hoard grass clippings, beefy spindles. Rounded front corners on the deck to slide past trees instead of sharp corners that tear off bark and get caught on rocks and fence posts.

The Woods finishing mower was free and probably the late 80's or early 90's model. That one was built great. As with most things, they don't make them like they used to. Definitely get one with enough wheels to just drop it and go for sure.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Well, I would not get a damn 4' wide finish mower to mow the acres my family cuts... It works, but it's too small. I can whip around on the 8N with it, and get a pretty good job done on the "lawn" acres in 2 or 3 hours. When I run the same area with the Walker with the 42" deck, it takes way longer, but the trimming is done tight. Of course, the Walker beats me up with no suspension, and a lot of rougher ground.
Going to look at a JD 272 later today. At least that puts me at a 6' cut. It's a stopgap as I'm still working on getting my 6' finish flail going.
It's almost like my father and uncle just wanted to spend as much time as possible cutting grass... I like the grass cut, and I'll be cutting just as much, but the equipment is for sure going to get bigger/faster, and anything I need to do fussy trimming around is going to get simplified somehow... There's way too many other things I would like to be able to do than just cutting grass. (and yes, I love seat time, but I can be in the seat doing other things too.)

Trimming? What’s that?? Seriously though, I’m with you, keep trimming to an absolute minimum.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It also depends on how rough your ground is. Today I mowed the 5 acres with my neighbor's zero turn. Was thinking of getting one, but wanted to try one before I bought one. My "lawn" is more like pasture topography. Not smooth at all. The zero turn beat the snot out of me. I'll take my tractor and the 7' finish mower any day over the zero turn.

My 2¢.

You should have said "over THAT zero turn".

NOT all zero turns "beat the snot out of you".

My front deck Grasshopper rides decent and it's diesel engine is very fuel efficient.

SR

 

[Bill Guenthner]

You should have said "over THAT zero turn".

NOT all zero turns "beat the snot out of you".

My front deck Grasshopper rides decent and it's diesel engine is very fuel efficient.

SR

You should have said “rides decent on my property”

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You should have said “rides decent on my property”

Not only "mine" but everyone's property I've tried it on.

SR

 

[BigBlue1]

My property is pretty bumpy. Enough that it affects the speed I can mow with my X758 garden tractor. That's one of the reasons I went with the Bad Boy Rogue zero-turn. It has front and rear suspension that really does smooth things out and make mowing easier and faster. It also has a suspension seat.

 

[mikester]

Not only "mine" but everyone's property I've tried it on.

SR

Bring yours over and we'll race! Trade seats for fun part way through. Bring your kidney belt.

 

[DK35vince]

I 'm wondering why if someone owns a tractor their yard is so rough.
Our yard was very rough when we first moved here.
I've spent a lot of time smoothing up our 8 acre lawn with the tractor.
Still has a few slightly rough spots, but night and day smooth compared to what it was.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Bring yours over and we'll race! Trade seats for fun part way through. Bring your kidney belt.

Better idea, you bring your tractor and mower here, I can supply any kind of terrain that pleases you, to test them both.

How many acres do you want to mow??

SR

 

[toolslinger]

I 'm wondering why if someone owns a tractor their yard is so rough.
Our yard was very rough when we first moved here.
I've spent a lot of time smoothing up our 8 acre lawn with the tractor.
Still has a few slightly rough spots, but night and day smooth compared to what it was.

Well, I can only speak to our place, but the "yard" is old fields, and horse pasture. Has there been time in the last 50 years to manicure it, sure... Then drive across it once when it's wet, and you have new texture to bounce across from the ag lugs.
Don't drive when wet? That isn't really an option as we're the drain for our section of mountain. You can literally hear the water running underground in areas of our place. Doesn't take much for the top to go to mush. We have enough slope that running turf tread isn't an option on any of the tractors. The Gator, and the Walker run on turfs (and slide around), but that's about it.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Well, I can only speak to our place, but the "yard" is old fields, and horse pasture. Has there been time in the last 50 years to manicure it, sure... Then drive across it once when it's wet, and you have new texture to bounce across from the ag lugs.
Don't drive when wet? That isn't really an option as we're the drain for our section of mountain. You can literally hear the water running underground in areas of our place. Doesn't take much for the top to go to mush. We have enough slope that running turf tread isn't an option on any of the tractors. The Gator, and the Walker run on turfs (and slide around), but that's about it.

From around late November to mid April you can't drive a tractor or UTV on our slope unless the ground freezes. You'll slide 400' down into the trees while peeling the grass from the wet ground beneath. Even at this point your sliding sideways trying to get across, screwing up the grass. I do roll it and plug it 2 times a year in an attempt to keep the old cow pasture looking like a nice yard. I also spend a little bit of time each year with 5 ton of screened topsoil chasing bare areas (lot of clay here) and depressions (often from animal nests or my dogs trying to get shrews and such)

An old farm pasture is a chore to convert to fairly smooth yard, no doubt. I've been on this ground since 1990 and still playing with it.

 

[rdewey]

Get a Woods TK or TKP finish mower. They have the best cut quality and discharge pattern of any rear discharge 3-point mower in the industry. There is a study done by Penn State proving it.

 

[oregonrr]

I'd get another landpride, mine won't die after 30 years

Agree. I have the Land Pride FDR1660 60" Finish Mower and it is built like a tank. Floats on four wheels and rear discharge is even.

 

[mudking]

FWIW, although I use a BEFCO C70-110A now, a Del Morino XRM 235 served me very well for a dozen years. IMO the Del Morino was Woods quality without the Woods price. I (and my teenage son) used it fairly mercilessly on 10 acres of "lawn" that is closer to pasture than golf course and I still got $800 trade on it as a fully functional deck when I bought the BEFCO.

These are "Finish Mowers".

The one that gets people into the silly contest that is 'Brush Hog/Bush Hog' is a... "Rough Cut Mower".

 

[Bentrim]

Is it Brush hog or Bush hog? Model number by chance? Not finding much yet but like the sound of it.

Home - Bush Hog

bushhog.com

 

[HayFarmer]

I considered a large Z turn but first thing is I won't use it anywhere else.
I also tried one out on one of these areas and it was a rough ride.
I'll look at Agri. 7 is too big since I can't trailer it! But a 6 is good.

I have 6' from them. The green one - forget the make . I put bolts in the caster pivots because shrubs grab lynch pins. Nice mower

 

[5030]

Today, the best implements are made in Italy, only exception would be Land Pride IMO.

 

[OzarkChris]

Ok, I'll clarify a little.
Considering replacing my 6 foot finish mower.
The main thing I would like is not only a rear discharge but one with a good discharge pattern. Not one that discharges in clumps like mine does.
Mine has a "chute" type discharge at the rear so it restricts the discharge some and causes clumping. I first took the chains off and it was a little better then took the chute off and it is much better but it also blasts the left rear wheel with clippings turning it into a big green grass ball!
I've seen a few that look like they discharge across the whole back of the mower. Wondering how well these work?

It also needs to be a pretty heavy duty mower. Not so much blade wise but just overall construction.
The areas it will be used on are not perfectly smooth!

Thanks for suggestions. Used in great shape is also an option.

Have you considered a flail mower? Almost as good as a finish mower IMO, and doesn't leave clumps..

 

[m5guy]

I have bueler farm king, made in Canada, 7 footer. Bought it at a sale. Parts are cheap and available. Built like hoss. Cut 10" tall grass, no clumps. Only thing I have had to replace is the run flat tires, they were so rotted they fell apart while I was mowing.

 

[redobbin]

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