Mowing Belly Mower vs 3 Pt Finish Mower

[bpence]

That's how I do it as well....just run up on the ramps, off with the blades, sharpen away, and in 15-20 minutes it's back to mowing.

Bob Pence

 

[richfromPA]

hey doc,
i have a bx2200 with 54 belly mower and last nite after work i had 10 yds of wood chips to move 40 ft and spread. after about 15 minutes i figgered id better take the mower off, which ive had off before, well anyway, it took 1 minute. the dealer said to rotate the antiscuff wheels 90 degs and roll it out. well this time i didnt rotate them and to my amazment it rolled out just as easy. the wheels are spherical and there isnt any resistence. id bet i could remove and reconnect as fast as a 3pt one. i was gonna get the 3pt instead but didnt and im glad. i didnt want to get boxed in to anything. if you have hills or tight areas the belly is the way to go. more stabilty, no need for up front weight and alot less swingaround to crash into stuff. believe me i know, my dad had 28 acres and i did alot of mowing with a JD 2010 with bush hog 3pt mower. plus yer more likely to get hit with debris. big flat open mowing is good for a rear mower, but thats it. this aint no opinion, it is a fact!! the only pain in the butt is ya gotta sit on yer butt to dis and re connect the drive shaft, BUTTT really that aint no biggy. oh, BTW the wood chip pile was done and swept up in 1.5 hour. this machine can move as fast as a skid loader. one hand on loader, other on wheel, and hoof on pedal. way to go.
rich

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>big flat open mowing is good for a rear mower, but thats it. this aint no opinion, it is a fact!!</font color=blue>

Hmmm, OK, if you say so./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif But I've got to mow around a barn, shop building, the house and patio, rose arbor, another rose bush, a swing, a mailbox, a newspaper box, 3 culverts, a blackberry patch, two garden plots, 4 flower beds, 5 power poles, and 28 trees, not to mention fences. Several of the trees have limbs too low for me to get under with the tractor, but I can back the 3-point mower under and right up to them, same with the rose arbor. I can also back it into the corners of the fences. A belly mower certainly has some advantages, but I'd have a lot more trimming to do with the DR trimmer/mower if I had a belly mower instead of this 3-point./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I'd much rather ride a little longer than walk./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[DrDan]

Oh I'm sure there are benefits to both, but a biggy is if I had bought a rear mount last time I changed tractors instead of the belly I wouldn't be buyuing another one right now. I am pretty good at backing into spots too. You know "farm boy" could back a manure spreader in with an inch to spare on both sides of the bunkers. Now I can't tell you about backing two hay wagons with steerable wheels on both. Now that's an impossible situation!!!

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>backing two hay wagons with steerable wheels on both. Now that's an impossible situation!!!</font color=blue>

Nope, t'ain't impossible, but it sure does take some thought and practice./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[DrDan]

LOL I could get em about 3 or 4 feet - does that count?

 

[Bird]

Well, it ought to count for something./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Couple of years ago, I discovered that a neighbor was towing the two 4-wheel trailers to the field behind his truck, unhooking the rear one and pulling away from it, then loading the front one (had to slide 5 bales on from the rear one at a time using a hay spear on the 3-point on his tractor), then unhook that trailer, hook up the other trailer to the truck and load it (couldn't load it without it being hooked to the truck or he'd just push it forward when he tried to slide a bale on). Then he had a hard time hooking up what had been the front trailer and was now going to be the rear trailer. The trailers dump those round bales off the side when you get where you're going. I asked him why he didn't just leave everything hooked up and back the rear trailer off to the side so he would have a clear, straight shot at the back end of the front trailer with the rear one hooked up but jack-knifed almost 90 degrees and out of the way. He said it couldn't be done, so I showed him how and spent the day driving the truck for him. He says he still can't do it and tells people he doesn't know how I can./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

But 40 years ago, I worked for the Post Office in Dallas and we had some mail handlers who could back 3 and 4 of those 4-wheeled mail wagons behind an electric tractor, and I could barely manage one. Never could understand how they could do it back then.

Bird

 

[richfromPA]

hey bird,
howya doin? i got my smiley face on but dont know how to post one, just so ya know im smilin. anyway i got a house, garage, small pole barn, dog pen, 43 trees, patio, 4 beds, swingset, slidin board, 150 ft of fence and 1 hedgerow to mow around and in my application the rear wouldnt work so good. yer right, maybe my comment about flat open mowing with a 3pt probably wasnt the correct way to word it but i was at work and trying to sneak in a post before dad caught me, hehe. at my house alot of areas would not allow room for the swing required and some steep areas. i did notice i had more push mowin to do since it traded in my grasshopper ZTR. and about the low limbs, saturday i temporarily removed the rops to take it to work and cut it and make it foldable. i almost broke off a nice limb on a pin oak. and since i have done alot of welding work to get all these trees, we cant be breakin limbs. i quess on here it is hard to visualize what everyones back forty looks like. im glad that there is alot of differing opinions on here because it helped me decide on my bx2200. have a nice day buddy and remember this post would have smiley faces if i knew how to post em.
rich

 

[Bird]

Rich, I guess that's the reason they make different kinds of mowers; some types work better some places for some folks than other types./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

And you don't know how to do the smiley faces? I'm shocked./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Click on the FAQ at the top of the page, then scroll down until you see the different faces you can use and it tells you what to type to get that face./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[scruffy]

Rich, just add an open bracket, the name of the face, close bracket, and away you go! One each smiley face of whatever personal choice you made. i.e. (smile) but use brackets instead of parenthesis. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif