travisbb
Bronze Member
I happen to have a G110 with the GX390 and the 85cm (34") Berta flail mower.
I'm happy with the extra width because when I'm not power limited I can more faster.
Flail mowing is very power intensive and the G110 can run out of power and bog down if things are sufficiently thick or tall. When that happens I either take a smaller cut (half to two thirds the full width) or, if I'm at the edge and can't take a partial cut, go down a gear.
Third gear cuts up relatively easy ground (think 6-8" lawn) alright, but the cut quality is poor and wavy. This feels like the tractor is moving fast enough that some ground moves to the backside of the flail before the hammer has a chance to come around to cut it.
Second gear is where I do most of my cutting. It'll do waist-high grass and small woody bushes without slowing down. Especially thick growth will bog it down, but I find that's usually only a few dozen feet, so I take half strips in the thicker stuff and then return to full strips. This ends up being the fastest overall way to mow.
First gear is slow, but very hard to bog down. I normally use this for the first round of a field where I can't take a half cut.
Other than cost or wheel spacing reasons, I don't know why you wouldn't want the larger flail mower. The gx390 does keep up with the full 34" width in usefully tough material. With the larger mower you can always take smaller bites, but you can't take larger bites with the smaller mower.
I'm happy with the extra width because when I'm not power limited I can more faster.
Flail mowing is very power intensive and the G110 can run out of power and bog down if things are sufficiently thick or tall. When that happens I either take a smaller cut (half to two thirds the full width) or, if I'm at the edge and can't take a partial cut, go down a gear.
Third gear cuts up relatively easy ground (think 6-8" lawn) alright, but the cut quality is poor and wavy. This feels like the tractor is moving fast enough that some ground moves to the backside of the flail before the hammer has a chance to come around to cut it.
Second gear is where I do most of my cutting. It'll do waist-high grass and small woody bushes without slowing down. Especially thick growth will bog it down, but I find that's usually only a few dozen feet, so I take half strips in the thicker stuff and then return to full strips. This ends up being the fastest overall way to mow.
First gear is slow, but very hard to bog down. I normally use this for the first round of a field where I can't take a half cut.
Other than cost or wheel spacing reasons, I don't know why you wouldn't want the larger flail mower. The gx390 does keep up with the full 34" width in usefully tough material. With the larger mower you can always take smaller bites, but you can't take larger bites with the smaller mower.