12' Flex Wing Cutters, what have you had success with?

[rutwad]

This isn't an exact comparison but I had a Bush Hog 1812. Now I have a Rhino TS10. I think my Bush Hog left a cleaner cut that the Rhino. But that's comparing a 12 ft to a 10 ft

 

[KenBike]

Have a Woods BW12 for the last 3 years. Pull it with a Kubota L6060 and so far no issues or problems.
As someone noted the wing hinges are tite and no grease points. I store my mower in a shed so it does not see rain and have no issues with the wings not coming down.

Looked at Bush Hog, Rhino and Woods and liked the build quality the best.

 

[EddieWalker]

I made another video mowing with my 12 foot batwing. It's been two years, and I'm still amazed at how nice it cuts!!!

 

[deserteagle71]

I made another video mowing with my 12 foot batwing. It's been two years, and I'm still amazed at how nice it cuts!!!

But it looks like one of your PTO shafts is about to shake itself apart?

 

[japody]

I made another video mowing with my 12 foot batwing. It's been two years, and I'm still amazed at how nice it cuts!!!

I am also really pleased with the cut quality on my Ironcraft 12 ft batwing. Eddie - what camera set up do you have?

 

[hayden]

I'm seriously considering a batwing mower and this thread has been really helpful. I still have a number of questions that hopefully everyone can help with.

The terrain here in Vermont is very steep and uneven. They are nothing like Eddie's fields in his videos. I currently use a 6' cutter and it's the widest I could possibly use without excessive gouging, and even with 6' I still get a lot of gouging. So a bunch of my questions about batwings relate to operation on steep and uneven terrain.

How well do the individual mowers track and follow the terrain, and are their different arrangements of tail wheels and/or lift cylinders that are better or worse? I've just started looking at these mowers, and some seem to have two central tail wheels, where others have both central wheels plus a wing wheel. Or am I not remembering that correctly? It seems that for my needs, a tail wheel on each wing is essential.

It seems that the cylinders that lift the wings need to float when mowing? Does that mean you need remotes that have a float function? Mine don't so it might necessitate changing to one or more remotes that do have float.

How many remotes do you need? I have three, though one is more or less dedicated to the hydraulic top link.

These mowers seem to weigh in around 2500 lbs which is a lot heavier than my 6' mower. I want to be sure I don't end up with a mower that drives my tractor on steep terrain, vs a tractor to drives the mower.

I'm using a Kubota L5740 with both wheel weights and loaded tires, so it's pretty stable. I'm also considering a larger tractor like a Massey 4700 or even 5700 series. I mow about 12 acres, but typically only once a year in the fall

 

[EddieWalker]

My 12 foot mower has three decks. The center deck is the biggest with a 5 foot mower. The side decks are both four foot mowers.

To set my deck height, I have a series of solid metal spacers that fit between the cylinder that lifts the deck. When I lower the deck, the cylinder goes to the point where it hits the spacers, and that's the lowest it will go, which is how tall everything is that I cut. Just guessing, I think I'm cutting everything to four inches.

My Massey 4707 has 2 remotes, but the Iron Craft batwing only takes one remote. When I lift it, the wheels bring it up off the ground, and then each deck raises. Usually one is faster then the other. To lower it, I just release the pressure and it all slowly lowers back down. Again, one deck is faster then the other, and sometimes it's so slow, I get out and give it a little pull to get it down. Or I just drive along and the bouncing of my roads will get it to come down.

I own 68 acres that I'm mowing 3 times a year. Out of that, over half is woods, buildings, ponds and other things that don't get mowed. I doubt that I'm actually mowing 30 acres. The 4707 and 12 foot batwing is big enough for me to do this. With my 6 foot cutter and 37 hp tractor, I was never able to get to all of it in a single year. I would do certain areas multiple times because they where where we hung out, like the pond, but other areas where lucky to get mowed every other year.

With 12 acres to mow, once a year, and already have a good sized tractor, I would look at a 10 foot batwing.

 

[rockinbbar]

I'm seriously considering a batwing mower and this thread has been really helpful. I still have a number of questions that hopefully everyone can help with.

The terrain here in Vermont is very steep and uneven. They are nothing like Eddie's fields in his videos. I currently use a 6' cutter and it's the widest I could possibly use without excessive gouging, and even with 6' I still get a lot of gouging. So a bunch of my questions about batwings relate to operation on steep and uneven terrain.

How well do the individual mowers track and follow the terrain, and are their different arrangements of tail wheels and/or lift cylinders that are better or worse? I've just started looking at these mowers, and some seem to have two central tail wheels, where others have both central wheels plus a wing wheel. Or am I not remembering that correctly? It seems that for my needs, a tail wheel on each wing is essential.

It seems that the cylinders that lift the wings need to float when mowing? Does that mean you need remotes that have a float function? Mine don't so it might necessitate changing to one or more remotes that do have float.

How many remotes do you need? I have three, though one is more or less dedicated to the hydraulic top link.

These mowers seem to weigh in around 2500 lbs which is a lot heavier than my 6' mower. I want to be sure I don't end up with a mower that drives my tractor on steep terrain, vs a tractor to drives the mower.

I'm using a Kubota L5740 with both wheel weights and loaded tires, so it's pretty stable. I'm also considering a larger tractor like a Massey 4700 or even 5700 series. I mow about 12 acres, but typically only once a year in the fall

The lighter batwing cutters will mostly have only 2 center axle wheels, but the heavy cutters will have 4 wheels to handle the weight. 2500-3500 pounds is pretty light, and most only have 2 center wheels.

Your wings are mostly controlled by hydraulics to raise and lower the wings, like to go through a gate, or narrow area, etc. ...What keeps your wings level in operation is a turnbuckle that is set to hold a level cutting area between the wings and the center deck. The wings will follow the terrain, but when on more level areas, will go back to same level as the center deck to give a smooth, level cut. You CAN use the float feature on the remote control, but the wings move more freely up and down, and some people have had that constant friction at the same point on the cylinder shaft wear some on the seals of the cylinder, or the cylinder shaft itself. I personally don't use "float" on the wings much.

A batwing cutter is pulled like a trailer, so it follows the terrain better than a 3 point setup, which is ridged to the tractor itself. So you get less gouging in un-level areas.

Both my cutters have the wing cylinders plumbed together, separate from the deck height cylinder, so I use only 2 remotes. One raises and lowers the main deck, and the other raises and lowers the wings.

I don't care much for "steep", but when I do cut steeper slopes, I cut straight up the grade, or straight down the grade when possible. Your tractor will be much more stable, and less risk of rolling that way.

For just shredding 12 acres once a year, I'm not sure I would invest in a bigger tractor, or a new batwing cutter. Might look at a dual cutter solid deck if you want to get done quicker. ( DS10.40 Pull-type Dual-spindle - Woods Equipment )

 

[Richard]

You asked about 12....so I don't qualify. I've got a 15' and to add to that, it's hydraulically powered. Given it's hydraulically powered (separate PTO pump and fully enclosed system), it could in theory (forgetting about any inherent dangers) cut with the blades vertical. There's no driveline to bind up.

Made by Alamo however, I bought this used and it was made prior to being bought by Alamo so it's branded a "Terrain King".

I've used 3-point (10') I don't think I've ever used a pull behind, like this one.

I sometimes wish I had gone with a traditional shaft drive. Blow a hose? You've got a mess. Don's ask me how I know. Still, I do like that I can drive down the road and cut the ROW which at times, dips way down....and at other places, can become pretty steep (live in hilly area). This will do all of that without blinking whereas a shaft might complain a bit more.

I have a 'speed increaser' hanging between the PTO and the hydraulic pump. It takes my 540 and multiplies it by 4 so the pump is really spinning.

What I don't know, but have wondered.... if I ever got a PTO powered generator, could I also utilize the speed increaser to tone down the engine speed while keeping generator at input speed. I don't know the ramifications, if any, of something like that BUT, it's dawned on me that if it DID work, I already have the parts to do it (other than the generator!)

No idea if they make a smaller version of this type mower (other than the side cutters that they use for ROW)

 

[hayden]

I sounds like the three mowers are in a rigid plane on mowers with only center wheels? So whatever angle the center section is at, the wings will be at the same angle? If so, that's exactly what I don't want. My terrain is uneven enough that I get a lot of scalping and gouging with a rigid 6' mower. A rigid 12' mower would only be worse.

I'm hoping for a mower where each of the three sections more or less align with the slope of the terrain below them. So if I'm along a area where the ground slops off on one side, the wing on that side will be angles gown to more closely follow that part of the mower's path. I think that means that the wings need to swing freely (within some limits), which I think means that the lift cylinder either needs to have a hydraulic float, or be connected with some linkage that allows wing movement, king of like the way a 3ph mower can move up and down with respect to the top link.

I do mow up/down the slope, but you still need to turn at the top and bottom, and there are still areas where you have to get sideways.

Re the whole "is it worth it" question, that's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. It's not a huge acreage to mow, but it's very time consuming, and takes me 4-5 days to cut right now. But I'm at a point in my life where if I can spend some $$ and make my life easier and/or more enjoyable, I'm open to it. Some of what I mow is small and particularly fussy like log landings, and probably 10 miles of trails. I would continue to mow them with the 6' mower.

As for a bigger tractor, I'll start another thread on that since it's about more than just mowing.