Best light/medium 5' rough cutter?

[Limecuda]

I have a galvanized Modern cutter. It has a one piece deck and cost right at $900.

 

[Ben3130]

One other option to consider is shopping used. A short while back I was looking at some used equipment at the local John Deere dealer, and they had a bunch of used rotary cutters 'discounted'. Most of them I wasn't interested in, but they had a couple of Howse cutters that were in real good shape, with guards, for right around $800. They had some dings and scratches on them, but they didn't look any worse than some of the 'new' KingKutters at my local tractor supply

 

[Gamemaster]

I'm happy with my KK cutter and made my own front and rear guards for less than $40.00. You need a drill, nuts,bolts,lock washers,some fender washers and some 2x2 angle iron. I got some used mud flaps from a local trucking co. They change them on a regular basis, got some pretty new looking ones from a pile (free),. They cut like butter on a band-saw, had to driil some holes in the mower deck and iron, bolt it up and start hogging. I have hit rocks and such, no problems, just keep some clearance so the cut debris doesn't build-up under the deck.

 

[Soundguy]

I think a KK or howse 5' mower should be great for light to medium duty cutting.. and come in inthe 600$ range.

Guards can be made for about 20$ and a set of truck mud flaps.

Soundguy

Well that's not good. I don't have a friend like that.
Do the BH/Woods come in under $900 WITH guards?

 

[N80]

I'd also recommend shopping used. I got a JD LX-6 in really good condition with full chains and heavy duty laminated tail wheel for about $800.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Well I got a local guy to quote me on a Howse medium duty with chains and over ride cluth for $925. Appears to be the price to beat.
M60 Series

 

[john_bud]

I had a blade snap in two at full speed. Figure the the launch speed at 15,000 ft/min and the weight at about 10 pounds+. It isn't something you want to be smacked by. I have full chains front and back and to to this day, have no idea if it went out the front or the back. I assume the back as nothing was seen going out the front!

For most things, my little one is right out with me. But for cutting, he is in the house. Period -- end of story.


jb

 

[chrisjbell]

I've got a Rhino cutter. It works great, has put up with terrible abuse. I don't remember what it cost, and mine's a 4' anyway.

I'll second the thought about not having anyone around when cutting. Haven't lost a blade, yet, but have launched some rocks with the thing and they come out at a fantastic speed. Those things are beasts - anything that will split granite (and that thing will) is creating an enourmous amount of force.

 

[Soundguy]

Thrown blades a re bad news no matter how you 'cut' it. At work, we had a blade come off and go -thru- a chain guard.. ripped 1' of it off the mower. Had 2 other occasions where a blade came off / broke and one went thru top deck, and one went thru a mower that had solid guards ( circa 1998.. or so )

I know a guy that was mowing with a 6' mower.. broke a blade.. had no guards, luckily he was in a pasture.. said it thru it a couple hundred feet.

Another guy had a blade drop and it came forward and went right thru a tire!

bad stuff!!

Soundguy

I had a blade snap in two at full speed. Figure the the launch speed at 15,000 ft/min and the weight at about 10 pounds+. It isn't something you want to be smacked by. I have full chains front and back and to to this day, have no idea if it went out the front or the back. I assume the back as nothing was seen going out the front!

For most things, my little one is right out with me. But for cutting, he is in the house. Period -- end of story.


jb

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I had a blade snap in two at full speed. Figure the the launch speed at 15,000 ft/min and the weight at about 10 pounds+. It isn't something you want to be smacked by. I have full chains front and back and to to this day, have no idea if it went out the front or the back. I assume the back as nothing was seen going out the front!

For most things, my little one is right out with me. But for cutting, he is in the house. Period -- end of story.


jb

Summer of 2000, our church bought a semi-wooded 2 acres parcel of land that adjoined the church property. Planning on expanding someday, we decided to clean it up and create a softball field for the time being. Myself and another member brought our tractors over one saturday morning to mow off the lot. The other guy wanted to run nose to tail, either in front of me or right behind me. I was trying to stay on opposite sides of the field. I lost. He finally got the point that I didn't want him in front of me, so he started trailing me. After about 20 minutes of that, I pulled off by my truck and just let him go at it. I was tired of trying to mow AND watch what he was doing. No sooner than I pulled off, he stopped. I thought he was waiting for me to rejoin the party. After a few minutes, he walked over to where I was standing. It seems that his mower started vibrating like a bowling ball in a blender. He didn't know why. We walked back over towards his tractor. About 50 feet from the tractor was sitting, I almost tripped over something laying in the weeds. It was about 75% of a bush hog blade with the cleanest break you'd ever want to see. Snapped like glass. Upon further inspection of the mower, it had gone directly through the side of the mower deck......through 1/4" plate steel.....A gash about a foot long. The guy who was at one point mowing not 20 feet from me said he never felt a thing, heard a thing, nor did he even know for sure when it happened. As it turned out, the blades were almost brand new, just replaced that spring. All I could think of was how if it went through 1/4" steel, how much "resistance" would a human victim offer to 10 pounds of flying iron. I've also thought about why I suddenly decided to get away from him just seconds before it broke. (Always thought it had something to do with the fact we were with-in the shadow of a church steeple....)