Brush cutter (RC) deck vs finish cut deck

[Alan L.]

I sold my finish mower. My wife mows about an acre around the house with a Craftsman lawn tractor and I mow everything else with the Rhino brush hog. I like the way it looks for several acres although not quite as fine cut as what the lawn tractor does. But with the brush hog you get better results when you (a) mow fast and (b) the grass is tall or thick, than you do with a finish mower. The finish mower will tend to leave grass standing if you go too fast, more so than the brush hog does.

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect the blade tip speed is much faster for the brush hog because it has the one wide swath blade, whereas a finish mower has 2 or 3 short blades running off of belts.

 

[MossRoad]

We need to get a list of the mowers, because there seems to be some confusion, here.

I have a 60" finish mower. It has three lawnmower blades. There are three spindles.

I also have a 48" brush hog that has two massive swinging blades that are attached to one large hub.

What other types of mowers are available for the 400 series?

 

[stray]

same here on the brush hog. I have the 48" finish mower with 3 each 16" blades.

 

[toolz_not_toyz]

Ack. I was under the impression that the RC deck had a single hinged blade. That's what the price list indicates but it could just be a typo. The web site states "Hinged blades" (plural) whereas the price list says "Hinged Blade" (singular). For the other decks (48" and 60" finish) both the web site and the price list specifically state "3 blade." Has there been a design change for the RC at some point? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[KentT]

The 48" rough cut mower has a single arbor/spindle/whatever you wanna call it... in the center. It's the stump-jumper type, with a large flat bottom.

That arbor has a swinging blade on each side of it... Kinda like this:

--o--

The blades are held onto the arbor with a single bolt each, and swing freely, in case they hit something.

 

[tracdoc]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The blades are held onto the arbor with a single bolt each, and swing freely, in case they hit something.)</font>

And Murphy dictates that sooner or later they will do exactly that /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Piedmont3]

The odds are they will hit something way before Murphy could even start his dictation. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[BillCroasmun]

Toolz,
I think the confusion comes from the definition of a blade. The "finish mower with 3 blades" has three spindles with one "blade" per spindle (sharpened on both ends for 6 cutting edges) where as the RC has one spindle with two "blades" per spindle (one cutting edge per blade) The cutting arm on the RC spindle has removable blade tips so each tip is considered a blade even though it's a single cutting arm.

Hope that makes sense?!? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Someone with better mower vocabulary can probably explain better. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[KentT]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Hope that makes sense?!? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Someone with better mower vocabulary can probably explain better. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

)</font>
That's why I tried a crude "picture" -- /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[BillCroasmun]

Crude? I thought it worked out pretty good!