1620 v. 1910 v. TC30

[Anonymous Poster]

Problem is the one w/ leaky seal and welded tie rods is a private deal. I've pretty much given up on that one in favor of the one at the dealer near my home.
Next question, do I need 30+ HP to brush hog or doing anything else? Will I be disappointed with a tractor this is "only" 20 - 25 HP at the PTO?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Irecently bought a TC18 with 14 HP at the PTO, pulling a 4' bush hog. I've put over 30 hours on it already with the box blade, but yesterday we hooked up the bush hog (Rhino SE4) for the first time. Mowing relatively short grass like in the right of the attachment photo, it sailed through like a hot knife though warm butter. You can see the debris in the foreground from some of the brush we took out, no problem.

But, when we got into really thick saw grass out along the highway swale (attachment in next message), every once in a while you could hear the mower start to slow down, so I let up on the go pedal a little until the mower came back up to speed. It still cut, just took a little longer. With 25 PTO HP, you'll likely be running a 5' rotary cutter, and might bog a little in the same conditions.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Attached is a shot of the heavier stuff that caused it to bog every once in a while. You can see it to the left of the mowed path along the fence.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks for the pics Don, it gives me a great idea of what your talking about. I'm looking at rougher / heavier stuff so I think I would want more HP. Plus the more I think about it, I'm more likely to keep wishing I'd gone bigger than smaller. This tractor will definately be a steping stone to something newer and bigger, but I'd like to be happy with it for awhile. I've search extensively around the northeast and it still looks like the 1910 (1500 hrs) w/ loader, woods finish mower, and woods boxscaper, for 11,000 is reasonable and its from a dealer right around the corner from me. I'm hoping this will play well when I'm looking to upgrade. Getting close to making a descision here, any last minute suggestions? I know I should wait for a better deal but I'm getting anxious to get some work done!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I know I should wait for a better deal but I'm getting anxious to get some work done! )</font>

I've spent the first 62 years of my life working on "better deals" instead of actually getting something accomplished. I'm not unhappy about that; the game of better deals is enjoyable, the "work" I had to do was more puttering than serious, and it always got done.

But now, the project is the biggest I've ever done and my years are getting short. It's been a big attitude adjustment to set aside the making of a deal as an accompishment in itself, and to make the best decision I can at the time and get on with it. I find I can adapt to whatever errors I make in making the decision. With the tractor, I find that I'm saving myself thousands by doing it myself, and that the few hundred I could have saved from making a better deal are small potatoes. Anything you buy will do more work than you could before the purchase, and there's no perfect solution.

 

[JohnMiller3]

<font color="blue">...With the tractor, I find that I'm saving myself thousands by doing it myself, and that the few hundred I could have saved from making a better deal are small potatoes...</font>

Don, very well said... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

In other words... don't let life pass you by,... by constantly worrying about "small potatoes"...

 

[Soundguy]

Just to give you an idea of what pto hp does as you go up a little. Most places I see reccomend 25-40 hp on the 5' cutters.

With my 1920, I was cutting with my 5' cutter 10 ac of briar, and ragweed / dog fennel that was 7' tall. yep.. even with the canopy on my tractor... no problems with 3rd range 2nd gear.. I also cut the neighbors well overgrown 4 ac pasture that had about 2.5' - 3' of thick grass. Only in the heaviest areas did I have a problem in 3rd range 1st gear... though 2nd range 3rd gear was fine everywhere on the thick grass.

Soundguy

 

[MODiesel]

Similarily...

Attached is a photo on the day I started mowing the 15ac pasture on some property we purchased last summer. This was after a few initial passes through the "low" spots. Just to the right of the truck you can see the weeds getting taller, and most of them were taller than the truck or about 7ft tall. There wasn't a spot in the field with weeds smaller than about 3ft.

Now, I accomplished this with my TC29D and a 60in Fred Cain rotary cutter. Most of the time I was in "B" range on the hydrostat, with a few passes in the "A" range. I had to leave the FEL on, with the bucket about mid-way up to push down the weeds as I mowed the rows. The tractor really worked, and sometimes bogged down in the wetter spots. But, it did cut them down. The only real hassle was stopping every few rows to clean out the radiator as the temperature went up quick as the radiator became plugged with dust and chaff.

Just another anecdote, with pictures! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Best Regards,
Jay

 

[djradz]

A 5 ft cutter on a 29D did that??? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Wow, what a tribute to the machine.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep that was very similar to my 10ac pasture... brush over the top of my tractor cannopy.. and yep... I had to stop, and stop, and stop to clean the prefilter on the radiator. I did make a big bumper with a perferated metal screen that stood out in front of the grill. Helped a bit with the clogging.. I got about 30 mins per cleaning instead of 15. Also helped prevent brush tangling up around regular bumper and over front axle. My 1920 never did strain in 3/1.. but then, i was using a 60" cutter as well, and had a few more horses to work with.. I'm glad I bought the 1920 instead of the tc18 I drove up to get....

Soundguy