Rotary Cutter Discussion

[str8six]

You will never regret buying a good cutter. I have a family member with the County Line 6' with the shear bolt shaft and it does alright. He seems to go through shear bolts quite regular and he only mows grass. He installed a grade 5 bolt and ended up twisting a yoke pretty bad on it.

I have a mowing business and after many years of every brand of cutter I found the absolute best cutter brand for me about 5 years ago. I got rid of them all and replaced them with Bush-Whacker cutters. These are by far the heaviest duty cutters I have ever seen. They offer medium duty and heavy duty stuff and I found their medium duty is comparable to everyone else's heavy duty. I believe their biggest customers are states and county road departments so you don't see a lot of advertising from them. They use a lot of standard parts so they are easily sourced but in 5 years I have never had to buy a single thing for any of my cutters except blades and they are standard and sourced locally. They make a nice medium duty 6', HD-72 that would go great behind a 50ish HP tractor. I have a couple of their heavy duty 6' cutters, ST-7210 along with some of their batwing cutters and it will blow your mind at the weight and size. It is way overkill for the average person but they are great on pricing.

The best part was the pricing. They are or were priced well below the competition. We ran Woods cutters for a few years but that was a huge mistake for us. These Bush-Whacker cutters with 5 times the specs of a Woods and cost the same as the Woods.

Products Archive - Bush-Whacker

HD-72 - Bush-Whacker

 

[Hay Dude]

Caution: Field mowing/cutting can be addictive. I started doing it 25 years ago. Started with a John Deere MX-8 and a 60HP tractor with 2 or 3 customers and now pulling in an extra 40K a year with ~20 customers running a 15’ batwing and a 135HP tractor. I’m still amazed at how much opportunity is out there if you want to pursue this as a way to make
Would like to get a 20 footer. lol

 

[EddieWalker]

I think you made a good decision. Be sure to have several grade 5 bolts in your tractors tool box, and two wrenches to tighten them, along with a hammer to knock out the broken bolts when they snap.

For me, I started out with bolts and they rarely broke, but then for whatever reason, they started braking on my all the time. It might be that I got more comfortable with the tractor and I started pushing it harder. But it got to the point that I would break two sheer bolts in an afternoon of mowing.

Eventually I damaged the driveshaft, so I replaced it with one that had a slip clutch. I had read how much better a slip clutch was, but until having one, I didn't understand. Whatever the cost, having a slip clutch is worth the money!!!!

 

[Darth_DMack]

Well, I got the County Line (TSC) 6' Rotary Cutter all hooked up and made my first mow this weekend.

This is the first time I've used the PTO on my tractor, and it worked like a champ. The County Line cutter was perfectly balanced and ran super smoothly. I could not believe how "quiet" it was when I engaged the blades.

I was able to start slow, mowed my ditches / roadside frontage, then oved into some interior stuff. Forwards and Backwards, it worked well.

I kept my RPM's around 2000 to 2100, and it worked flawelessly.

I did break the sheer pin, when I hit a dirt clump that I did not see. Changed it out, and back at it I went.

I have the front / rear chain guards on order from Tarter Parts, once I get them installed, I will show pics.

So far, so good! I'm gonna get a lot of use out of this thing!

Front and Rear chain guards are ordered. This is the 200 series from Tarter, sold to TSC as County Line.

I found that 1800 to 2000 rpm on the tach, is almost perfect for the CL Rotary Cutter on my tractor. I have a Mahindra 5155 with 47 PTO HP at 2300 rpm... the gear box on the CL Rotary Cutter is a 45 hp gear box, so I figure 1800-2000 is about the sweet spot.

Gives a very nice, even cut... So far, I like it. My next add is a Hydraulic Top Link... that is coming SOON!

 

[EddieWalker]

I would buy five bolts and nuts at a time and keep them in my tractor tool box for my 6 foot rotary cutter. Sometimes I would go months without snapping them, other times, it was almost daily.

I waited until I damaged my driveshaft by getting into a situation that resulted in bending it. Once bent, it has to be replaced. I bought one with a slip clutch, and realized how much better that is.

 

[Darth_DMack]

I would buy five bolts and nuts at a time and keep them in my tractor tool box for my 6 foot rotary cutter. Sometimes I would go months without snapping them, other times, it was almost daily.

I waited until I damaged my driveshaft by getting into a situation that resulted in bending it. Once bent, it has to be replaced. I bought one with a slip clutch, and realized how much better that is.

Yes Sir!

TSC has the driveshaft / slip clutch for this unit on the rack at my local store... it's $400ish for it, but worth it. I will make this upgrade one day soon.

 

[big bubba]

nice set up. do take caution mowing on your highway corridor, esp given the nature of multi tasking, poorly skilled drivers these days.
plus, always good to check the factory fill gearbox, often they are just minimally filled, regards

 

[Darth_DMack]

nice set up. do take caution mowing on your highway corridor, esp given the nature of multi tasking, poorly skilled drivers these days.
plus, always good to check the factory fill gearbox, often they are just minimally filled, regards

Mine came completely empty... but there were stickers on it, saying...
"You MUST fill gear box before use"... I used Lucas gear oil, took a full quart to get it all topped off. I will change out the gear oil after about five hours of use, just to get the break in oil out. Cheap insurance. I was amazed how quiet it ran, and how smooth.. the blades were balanced very well.

 

[big bubba]

6' heavy duty hog is ideal for your setup.

 

[deserteagle71]

I found that 1800 to 2000 rpm on the tach, is almost perfect for the CL Rotary Cutter on my tractor. I have a Mahindra 5155 with 47 PTO HP at 2300 rpm... the gear box on the CL Rotary Cutter is a 45 hp gear box, so I figure 1800-2000 is about the sweet spot.

The real question is...at what engine RPM is your PTO turning 540 rpm?