Brush mower Vrs Finish mower

[Timber]

OK hear is my dilemma, We have come to the conclusion we are going to buy a rear mount mower for my B7800. Now I have a very nice cub cadet with a 50 inch finish mower under it. I also have some pasture field and some so so lawns around the barn. Personally I would like a brush mower but my question is what kind of a finish am I going to have using a brush mower cutting grass. I always cut grass as high as my Cub Cadet will cut it. I am thinking more along the lines of cutting pasture with a brush mower but I still want it to look nice if you know what I mean. The banker if you catch my drift wants pretty lawns even if horses are trampling it down

 

[John_Mc]

You can get a decent cut with a brush mower if your blades are in good shape. Brush hogs generally do not have their blades sharpened all the way... there is usually a 1/16" or so blunt edge on them. This allows them to take a beating when they hit rocks or stumps without chipping or cracking (or at least without chippin gor cracking as easily).

Even with that blunt edge, I can get a decent looking cut with a new set of blades, or one that have just dressed back to a clean 1/16" blunt edge. Once I've beat a set of blades up pretty good mowing my trails in the woods (we have a LOT of rocks and stumps to deal with), even dressing up the blades doesn't get me that good a cut anymore. What happens is that the repeated hammering on rocks starts to bend the ends of the blades upward, so I don't get a level cut anymore. If you know your pasture and avoid the trouble spots (or eliminate them), you can get a decent mow with a brush hog. The more frequently you mow, the more like a lawn it will look.

To improve the quality of the cut there are a few of things you can do:
1) Mow regularly
2) sharpen the blades to a sharp edge (like a finish mower). Make sure you've cleared the area of rocks, stumps and other obstacles before doing this.
3) play with the front-to-back leveling of the mower deck. For general brush hogging, you usually leave the rear of the mower a bit higher than the front. For more of a finish mowed look, run the front and back level, or even try running the back slightly lower (maybe up to 1/2 inch lower?). NOTE: the reason you normally brush mow with the rear higher is to improve the discharge of the debris you are mowing. Running level or rear low will interfere with this a bit, so it works best if the grass is not too tall to begin with. Running rear low also takes a bit more horsepower, since you are in effect cutting the grass twice: once with the front end, and again with the lower rear end.

If you have concerns about the look of a brush mower, see if you can borrow or rent one (or demo one from the dealer), but remember thte blades may not be in very good shape on a borrowed or rented unit.

Someone posted here in the last couple of months a photo of the finish they got from their brush hog. It might be worth looking for that post.

Hope this helps some.

John Mc

 

[Timber]

Yes it does, Thank you very much. I originally never intended on cutting grass with my tractor. but it turns out that we want to have another machine for this purpose and I would prefer a rough cut mower

 

[Matt_W]

Try this link: I think there is a picture.
Who needs a Finish mower, I hogged my lawn, pic. ( 1 2)

 

[IslandTractor]

I think you could pretty easily cut a pasture to look pretty good with a rotary mower. The challenge however in trying to substitute rotary for finish mower is in trying to do a real lawn. For me, there are too many times when I manage to gouge out a chunk of lawn when the rotary mower chooses to twist and plow with either left or right leading edge when I am trying to cut close and turn or hit a bump. I know that might be due to my adjustments on the 3PT hook up or be related to the hilly and bumpy terrain but I have yet to come up with settings so I can cut as close as a finish mower without risking "plowing" with the rotary. Basically virtually all finish mowers have multiple guide wheels to prevent such mistakes while almost all rotary mowers have just one tail wheel so there is a potential for doing damage to the lawn. Again, I don't think that would be much of an issue in a pasture.

 

[Timber]

Yea I am pretty sure I’m going to go with a brush mower. The lawns around the front of the house will be fine with the lawn tractor. The grazing fields and the trails or more of what I am thinking. The fields are kind of tough on the lawn tractor anyway even to stay n the seat. I get some odd grass out there too because of the horses. I just want to have all my information when I go to buy so I know what I’m looking for and what to expect out of it.

 

[have_blue]

I bought a brush cutter and wish I had bought a finish mower. When I bought my land, I had a lot of brush and heavy weeds, but guess what? After 2 good cuttings, the brush was gone forever. See what I mean?

If you plan on mowing only 2-3 times a year, and have very rough land, the brush cutter is the way to go. If you intend to mow before the grass gets say 6-8" high, the finish mower is the way to go.

If you are determined to get a brush cutter and use it like a finish mower, the good news is, it works pretty good. Keep the blades really sharp, and don't let the grass get too far ahead of you and it will do a surprisingly good job.

I touch my blades up before every cutting. Takes 15 minutes, and they cut like butter. A good bonus is, you can slow your PTO down by 100rpm and still get a good cut, and the blades stay sharp 2x longer.

 

[Soundguy]

I think you could pretty easily cut a pasture to look pretty good with a rotary mower. The challenge however in trying to substitute rotary for finish mower is in trying to do a real lawn. For me, there are too many times when I manage to gouge out a chunk of lawn when the rotary mower chooses to twist and plow with either left or right leading edge when I am trying to cut close and turn or hit a bump. I know that might be due to my adjustments on the 3PT hook up or be related to the hilly and bumpy terrain but I have yet to come up with settings so I can cut as close as a finish mower without risking "plowing" with the rotary. Basically virtually all finish mowers have multiple guide wheels to prevent such mistakes while almost all rotary mowers have just one tail wheel so there is a potential for doing damage to the lawn. Again, I don't think that would be much of an issue in a pasture.

So why not add a 2nd tail wheel ( relocate first one / use it as a template... )

Or get a mower wtih 2 tail wheels. A few mowers DO have 2 tail wheels.

What size are you using?

Soundguy

 

[MiserableOldFart]

One thing to keep in mind, Timber, is the an RFM will cut a lot higher than most lawn tractors. We have a small back field, about an acre and a half that is very rugged, but all grass (and rocks) Our ancient Wheelhorse maxed out at about 4-4.5 inches and you had to be very careful about hitting rocks. My BushHog RFM tops out at 6.5 inches, and went over everything. At that height it doesn't look as good as the Wheelhorse cut, but rocks are not a problem. I have gradually settled back to cutting at 4.5 inches on the RFM and it looks a lot better. If the field were smoother and I could go faster, I'd probaby cut it at 6.5, but since I have to go slow to keep my teeth in my head, I can watch out for the rocks just fine.

 

[MiserableOldFart]

Oh, I should also mention that changing the cutting height on the RFM takes a few minutes, and is a bit of a greasy job.. It's certainly a lot easier on a lawn tractor and probably so on a rotary cutter too.