Befco 12' Flex with a TC33D?

[ecard]

Befco 12\' Flex with a TC33D?

Need help with a feasibility question. I am lookin to purchase a 12' Befco Flex Finish Mower and the recommended PTO HP is 25-60HP, and my TC33D has a listed PTO HP of 26.9. Now that is in the range but am I asking too much from my boomer?

Does anyone have any experience on this - is there a general rule on all attachments that the tractor PTO hp should be some percentage above the min pto hp?

Eric

 

[frank_f15]

Re: Befco 12\' Flex with a TC33D?

eric: a lot depend on the type of grass ua re cutting. i have a befco 6ft(fine peice of equiptment) and have a kubota b2400 with pto hp of 18. it works fine. u may be stretching it a bit with 12ft. this is just my opinon. i don't beleive there is any hard and fast rule for this, but i would be more inclined to stay more in the middle, and not at the high end of your tractors ability.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Befco 12\' Flex with a TC33D?

Eric,

I don't believe you'll have enough torque reserve in that 91cid engine... as well as the weight of that Befco 12' batwing is as much as your tractor...

I purchased this Befco unit for my buddy last year with a Massey Ferguson 1165, 38 PTO hp unit...

If you had an older utility/farm tractor that weighed more and with more engine displacement say above 120 cid, then that "25 PTO min" would apply...{notice a number of older Ford 8n types on golf courses pulling such batwings}

Basically, there's more to it than just meeting the minimum PTO hp rating, which your tractor can do... it's the other stuff, your New Holland would start choking on... /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[ecard]

Re: Befco 12\' Flex with a TC33D?

Thanks for the replies. That is exactly what I was looking for. I have submitted a request to mow a soccer complex next door to me and I am trying to figure out the equipment needs. I felt like the 33D was pushing it and based on the comments that seems right. There is about 60 acres grass to cut and I don't think my 72" woods would be fast enough if I use the 2 acres/hour mark mentioned in other posts.

I guess I will be looking for a good used 2wd tractor for this purpose - that is if they are interested /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thanks for the info - Eric

 

[kevincook]

Re: Befco 12\' Flex with a TC33D?

If you are mowing soccer fields I would think that you should be able to mow 4-5 acres per hour without too much trouble. This should all be wide open and level. Right?

I would think you could pull a set of 12' wide gang reel mowers with your tractror pretty easily. That should work pretty well on soccer fields also.

 

[jimgerken]

Re: Reel mowers... with a TC33D?

I mow a 2 acre grass airstrip (85' x 1000'). Last year I mowed it with an 8 HP riding lawn mower with 28" deck, pulling four reel mowers in a gang (two on each side of the rider's deck coverage), for a total of almost 9 feet of width. It is all flat of course, and no trimming. It took less than an hour to mow the airstrip each week, and took about a half-gallon of gasoline. Reel mowers are so much more efficient that it is almost llike they are free. People will tell you they are more maintenance, but these are people who've never owned any. I have used four really old ones which I reconditioned after they were forgotton for years, left rusting and rotting. After some TLC, they have performed without breakdown and without sharpening for three years running. I mow every week all summer, in southern Minnesota. The only periodic maintenace they've had was a shot of grease and an occasional cutterbar setup (5 minutes per reel unit, once a summer). Agrifab builds and sells nice new gangable units today. Northern sells a couple models too, although they are lighter duty. With a 26 Hp tractor, you could pull a gang of huge industrial ones, or a gang of a dozen small ones like mine (22" wide each).

 

[MikePA]

Re: Reel mowers... with a TC33D?

Seeing these posts about reel mowers brings back memories of my dad. My dad used nothing but a reel mower to cut our suburban lawn when I was a kid. In fact, our first mower was a manual reel push mower. By the time I was old enough to cut the grass, we had a reel mower with a engine. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif (I can't remember the maker but the reel mowers were yellow.) When all my friends were using the new fangled Lawn Boy rotary mowers, there I was using a clunky old reel mower. Why'd my dad use them? They cut better. Every spring he'd adjust the cutting bar, sharpen the blades and we were set for the summer. Sometimes I think we get fascinated by the new (batwings do look neat, I admit) and neglect what has worked well for years, costs less to buy and costs less to maintain.

 

[frank_f15]

Re: Reel mowers... with a TC33D?

mike: you are correct. the old reel mowers really did a good job. back in the 60's me and m dad had a lawn mower repair shop(part time) we used to get lots of reel mowers, just adjust cutting bar , sharpen the bar and blades and set it up so the blades just sang as the reel turned. did a fine job.

 

[MikePA]

Re: Reel mowers... with a TC33D?

I kinda miss that sound! I can still see my dad with a few sheets of newspaper testing out the newly sharpened blades and cutting bar. He used a huge (at least it was to me at the time) screwdriver with a blue handle to adjust the cutting bar until the blades would neatly slice the newspaper.

 

[Bird]

Re: Reel mowers... with a TC33D?

<font color=blue>first mower was a manual reel push mower</font color=blue>

I'm a little older than you; I had to push one of those blasted things for several years; hard work./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif You do get a neater cut if you don't let the grass get too tall before you cut it, but I sure wouldn't want one again./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

About the only thing worse was swinging that "yo-yo" (I think they later called them weed knives).