BCS Mower Experiences and Thoughts

[wstr75]

Its springtime and a man's thoughts (speaking as a nearly 60 year old man) go to mowing grass and cleaning up property. I have the following mowers:
38" BCS lawnmower with bagger
34" Palladino flail mower used
30" BCS sickle mower
A 28" Zano brush type mower is on its way to me

The 38" lawnmower, 34" flail mower and the 28" brush mower are used with a diesel 853. A Honda powered 737 runs the 30" sickle mower.

The 38" mower does a good job cutting a lawn. The bagger attachment makes it easy to drive the rig into the garden and dump out the clippings for weed choking mulch during the spring and summer.

The Palladino flail mower with "Y" blades is good for cutting and mulching tall field grass and small saplings. I hired a fellow a week ago to clear out some land that has Kudsu vines, briars and brush. Flail mowers and vines don't go together at all. This is why the brush type mower was ordered. Nonetheless, the areas without Kudsu are now looking great like a country version of a city park.

The sickle bar mower is mounted on the 737 and it is a good tractor/mower combination because of the way the reversing level can be easily engaged. I run the mower in 3rd gear with the engine just a bit above idle and can shear off saplings up to about 1.5" in diameter. It is good for safely trimming heavy brush and small saplings alongside a creek running through the property.

I look forward to running the 28" Zanon brush mower. Will let you know how it does with Kudsu vines and how where stuff like sapling chunks gets thrown out of the mower.
Bill in NC

 

[wstr75]

The guy clearing the brush out of the property for me is mechanically challenged. Good outdoorsman, but tough on equipment. The Palladino mower apparently had a zerk grease fitting that plugged, thus not taking grease and this led to the left side mower roller bearing's backing plate transmitted enough heat to discolor the outside paint. The flail's out of commission for losing three Y blades. Really shakes hard when missing some flail blades. The guy was still using the mower in that condition. Of course, I instructed him to cease fire! Could have used a brush mower and saved some major wear and tear on the flail mower. At any rate, the flail mower is great for thick grass, briars and other stuff but not suited for vines. The BCS is great for tight locations and hilly sites not well suited to a four wheeled tractor with a rear brush type mower.
Bill in NC

 

[BCSSHOP]

Hello Bill

Thank you for relating your BCS mowing experiences, very enlightening. Being older than you and having some of the same mowing tasks I too use the BCS and have similar and some different experiences. Having many rocks protruding from the ground I have had to give up in brush hog mowers (too many thrown blades and near life threatening incidents) and use sickle bars and flail mowers with front wheel regulating cutting depth. I use the BCS duplex for as much mowing as possible on an old BCS 850 and mow very slowly in rocky places. It loves grape vines up to about 1 1/2". If I can get them out of the rocks I will mulch them up with my trusty old 30" HD Mower.

I use the 24" BCS Blade Runner set to maximum height for very tall weeds where I can get them down without hitting rocks or scalping in valleys. When I can see the rocks after the first cut I will mow them lower with the Blade Runner or the old 30" HD. I mow across dried by creek beds where I can't get my zero turn lawn mower. My roller regulated Palladino cut weeds well but always scalped in dips and sounded like bad things were happening when it hit rocks. I sold it.

I have a 38" twin blade lawn mower attachment. I love the cut but a 48" zero turn will cut the 2 1/2 acres in less than 1/3 the time.

Great to hear mowing experiences. We can all learn.

 

[wstr75]

BCSSHOP, what flail mower do you recommend that has the front wheel height control? I, too, have the same experience with the Palladino "digging in" when fording across a gully or other dip in the land.

What speed do your run brush mowers? We have lots of rocks in my area and the likelihood of catastrophic stuff being thrown out of the mower is my number 1 concern.
Thanks for your insights!
Bill in NC

 

[wstr75]

I answered part of my question by looking at the BCS site. I see now the "Blade Runner" you mentioned is a flail mower. The front wheels height control of the Blade Runner would stop most of the porpoising experienced by the Palladino when mowing over dips. How many bearing grease points does the Blade Runner mower have? Does it utilize two V belts side by side like the Palladino?
Bill in NC

 

[wstr75]

Video of Blade Runner doing a brush on a steep hillside.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxwxwTarYck]TRINCIA SARMENTI BCS 630WS BLADERUNNER 75CM - YouTube[/ame]

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Bill,

Looks like you can get wheels for your Palladino mower. The website doesn't show them, but they list "• Anterior revolving wheels for front assembly"

Palladino agricoltura FRESATRICI FISSE TRINCIAERBA / SCARIFICATORI FRESATRICI SPOSTABILI TRINCIAERBA MOTORIZZATI DECESPUGLIATORI TRINCIASARMENTI TRINCIASTOCCHI ARIEGGIATORI giardinaggio green star costruzione vendita

I'd give Joel a call and see if he has a set of wheels for your Palladino.

 

[BCSSHOP]

Bill in NC

You found a video of the BCS Blade Runner. I set the wheels to cut much higher (It so easy to just turn the crank to any setting up to 5"). The hillside being mowed in the video is likely much steeper than it appears in the video. Like shown I mow rough areas in first gear and more uniform weeds and brush in second gear on a 732.

The blade runner has two parallel belts but the only grease fitting are on the pivots of the caster wheels. The bearings are sealed type and enclosed. You can download part diagrams for the mower (and anything else BCS) at BCS America Parts, Service and Operator Manuals.

I have great concerns about things being thrown by mowers but I have even more concerns about the mowers throwing blades. In cutting green vegetation the BCS 26" brush mower works fine and likely poses any real hazard to anyone. In rocky and stump ridden fields a whole set of hazards emerge. I have documented five blade throwing incidents. These are my customers experiences and I only sell 6 to 10 of these mowers a year.
1 One went right thru the side of the deck in a clean cut
2. One blade was found 150ft from where the operator was mowing. "What if my 8 year old step son was playing there?"
3. A blade cut threw the tire tube and into the rim.
4. A blade just recently cut the deck where the skids attach leaving the skid hanging and getting hit by the remaining blade
5. A blade cut the top off the operators Red Wing steel toed boot like it was opened with a can opener. Luckily his foot was not hit. I repurchased the entire unit even though it was two years old and badly damaged.
I keep a badly distorted blade bolt on my desk to remind me to be extremely careful who I sell these mowers to. I have a whole set of liability concerns about selling power equipment that has a significant possibility of causing injury but that is for another thread.

 

[joebobbill]

That video reminded me of my own not-so-pleasant mowing experiences. I've mowed over rocks and shrub-stumps on steep banks. Most of my mowed areas looks like a normal lawn, but rocks and old shrub-stumps are lurking in the tall grass, in odd corners. Lawns transition into wild areas and under those tall weeds lurk more stumps and rocks.

My solution has been to get cheap used push mowers off Craig's List and set the blade to a tall position. When I bend a drive shaft, I get another. I'm tired of the physical struggle and headaches, though. I've already bent one blade this year.

I'm interested in riding mowers, but they seem to be designed for suburban lawns, not unseen stumps and rocks. I thought I'd stop by here to see if 2 wheeled tractors offer solutions. The comments here about thrown blades do not comfort me, though.

Any suggestions?

 

[BCSSHOP]

Hello joebobbill,

I like your simple solution and I do that myself at one of my properties. The sickle bar on the two-wheel tractor offers a relatively hazard free way to mow over rocks and stumps but it does not mulch the cuttings into small pieces. Here is where the brush hog type and flail mower leave the cut area looking like a second tier lawn. I still like the simplicity and low cost of the junk lawn mower approach.

Stihl and others make a 12" long power scythe as an attachment to some of their 2-cycle brush mowers. It like a 12" hedge pruner on the end of the hand brush cutter. I've recommended it to many people who have dangerous areas to mow. I don't own one yet but I'm about to.

 

[joebobbill]

Here are a couple of images I found on this site that suggests the issues that make me interested in the BCS:

Raw terracing (from Terraced Vineyard)

Finished rock work and planting(from Terraced Vineyard)

This terraced hillside is all dirt. My hillside is a bit shorter (25' from top to bottom) and the slope is flatter. The top 1/3rd of my hillside is exposed chalk with lots of layering. The middle 1/3 is loose rock and soil. Native chalk layers are 1 to 5 inches below the surface. The bottom 1/3rd is largely soil, though rock is a large component. Native rock is 3 or more feet down.

Small rocks are constantly rolling down from the upper levels. Two or three big rocks (3 cubic feet or so) seem to be slowly sliding down the hillside, moving an inch or two a year.

I started growing grapes at the bottom of the slope, but have moved up the hill each year. The vines seem to like the rocky stuff better than the 'normal' soil where I started.

I'm trying to characterize the scale one has to maneuver amongst the rocks and vines. Don't get me wrong. This isn't what my hillside looks like. This example is a work of art. Mine is a collection of odd gardening projects. The rocks, weeds and debris are in control.

JoeBobBill

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Jobobbill,

You're farming the way the Italians farm - on steep, terraced hillsides. This is what the Grillo and BCS machines (among several other European manufacturer's machines) are designed for.

I just posted a new thread regarding the Del Morino mowers as I didn't want to step on Bill in NC's very good posts on his thread here.

Bill in WI

 

[PGC]

First post! I think it will work at least.


Gents, thank you for this thread. I have an 832 on the way (4 more days!) with a 30" tine box and have been looking at all the various mowers.

Throwing blades? Holy ****. There is a reason to get some insurance if I've ever seen one.

If it turns out I have anything else to say maybe I'll post again, but in the mean time I'm going to look through more of these threads.

Cheers!

 

[PGC]

First post! I think it will work at least.


Gents, thank you for this thread. I have an 832 on the way (4 more days!) with a 30" tine box and have been looking at all the various mowers.

Throwing blades? Holy ****. There is a reason to get some insurance if I've ever seen one.

If it turns out I have anything else to say maybe I'll post again, but in the mean time I'm going to look through more of these threads.

Cheers!

Thought of something. I had first purchased the BCS 718, but have returned it (and paid dearly) for the big 832. Why? The 718 is an awesome little machine, but I found out right away that it is exactly that...little. Tiny. The 18" tine box would have you rototilling for days. For contract work, no go. I also found out, when working my own potato patch, that it cannot straddle a furrow made by the standard BCS furrower, which I just couldn't agree with. I'm hoping the 832 will be the one. She'll be brand new and hopefully stay with me until the day I die.

 

[BCSSHOP]

Using the appropriate mowing attachment for the mowing task saves many problems. If you are reclaiming an old field where the vegetation is tall and the underlying ground is unknown, using a sickle bar to perform the initial cutting is good practice. Running the sickle bar slowly will discover the rocks, stumps and hidden treasures fairly quickly and safely. With the knowledge of what the ground is like you can decide what mower is best for maintaining the field. A rocky surface suggests that flail mower set to the highest cut can be used to mulch the debris. If it is very rocky continued use of the sickle bar may be a the best approach.

If you can clear the rocks and stumps, using the rotary brush mower will leave the field looking like a continuation of the lawn. Repeated mowing with the rotary brush mower will eventually make the field become very lawn like.

The trouble comes when you use rotary brush mower in totally unknown conditions which turn out to be full of rocks. Setting the mower at the highest setting helps a little but knowing what you are mowing helps a lot.

I'm a great advocate of initial mowing with the sickle bar but there are hazards that can damage cutting teeth. You must avoid steel fencing, metal fences posts, property markers and reinforcement bars someone may have used to mark something. Also from experience, hitting a wasp nest will test your running ability like few other things.

 

[PGC]

Excellent advice. As luck would have it the first mower I have found used is a combination bar.

Do you think that just a little fence wire would damage the teeth? At the least they must be as hard as a pair of Stihl hedgers, no?

I too have been motivated to explore my top speed by a swarm of encouraging bees, freshly disturbed.

 

[wstr75]

The Zanon 28" brush mower arrived this week and we put it to work mowing kudzu vines, briars and saplings on a hillside. It was on a BCS 853 with Lombardini diesel. The diesel seldom complained. The Zanon did a good job and large chunky items seemed to be expelled with relatively low energy for a rotary type mower. The owner's manual and the actual design do not jive as the owner's manual shows a traditional rectangular bar on the drive hub with two swinging blades. The actual mower has a disk with three swinging blades. The blades are mounted above the disk and each blade can rotate around on its securing bolt 360 degrees. This may explain what appears to be a lower expulsion energy of large chunky objects.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8767118@N05/6920179570/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8767118@N05/6920179928/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8767118@N05/6920180248/in/photostream

Bill in NC

 

[joebobbill]

Thanks for the photos of the Zanon 28" brush mower.

If I understand this, the flail has 3 blades which freely rotate on a bolt. The disk is spun by the motor, but the blades have no fixed position on the disk, nor connection to the motor. Is this correct?

 

[wstr75]

I think what you are saying is correct. The disk spins. Each blade is spaced 120 degrees apart and each blade is held by one bolt. The centrifugal force of the spinning disk orients each blade outward. The disk is the direct connection to the PTO. The blades are along for the ride and bounce back inside the disk diameter when hitting an object.
Bill in NC

 

[kimbi51]

Video of Blade Runner doing a brush on a steep hillside.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxwxwTarYck]TRINCIA SARMENTI BCS 630WS BLADERUNNER 75CM - YouTube[/ame]

Hi, I have a new BCS Ferrari 340, with a 75 Bladerunner, and have found it very good in long, dry grass. We put two short youtube videos on recently which are quite different to the Trincia Sarmenta one you have highlighted. Search for "BCS Ferrari Bladerunner" on youtube. It mulches up sticks, bark and leaves hidden in the grass very well, and I work it in second gear in the dry grass and third gear in long, green weedy grass.Very happy so far with the unit, and the rotary hoe is excellent.