Anyone buy a DR Power brush mower? Have lots of weeds, scrub along a creek. May take a Year to clear it but their mowers look interesting.
I like the self propelled models with electric start and power reverse.
Any comments appreciated.
We have a ProXL30 22hp and it's been a great purchased for the property; had it 2.5yrs. I'm on 5.5ac of hilly, sandy terrain that is surprisingly productive in forage and vegetation. The brush mower bridges the gap between a lawn mower and a mulcher on machinery. It is smaller and easier to get under trees and into tighter areas. It can go uphill, downhill or sideways. It's been uh put through it's paces mowing the creek banks and pond.
We have a lot of oaks and dead fall is one of the toughest materials here. The bigger stuff is picked up, but limbs <2" are left. Those get chopped up pretty well, not in short pieces but more cleaned sticks (I'll try to find an example area and grab a picture for you). The mower produces good large starter sticks for a camp fire. Makes them easy to hand pick or just let rot on the ground and return to the soil. There's also a lot of undesireable wild brush plants, I apologize but I'm not sure what some of this stuff is but they're no match for the mower. Even in thick bunches.
The mower itself is heavy but with fwd and reverse, it's manueverable. Maintenance is easy, just did the annual maintenance in Sept. The mower will destroy what it runs over so, be careful of what you run over. It starts easy with the key. It does have brakes and a throttle safety lever.
It likes fuel, I'm not sure of a good hours/gal figure I can give you but I'm not sure comparing a strong gas engine to the expectations of a diesel sipper are fair. It's compareable to my Cub Cadet XT2 25hp riding mower. You get at least a good few hours of work. The engine sounds nice, the Intek Vtwin, good stock exhaust note. I kinda wanted to pimp it with a sweet muffler...but I got a funny look from my other half. Oh, of course ear protection is a must, just like the log splitter, chain saw, etc.
In the two years had a couple things break/wear out. First was the choke knob I think that got caught on a low hanging tree limb and broke off. Easily replaced. Second is the front rubber discharge flap at the front of the deck. Ours eventually was torn up by the flying wood debris. I'll be replacing it shortly, just bolts, on and off like a mud flap. The mower will throw debris a long way. Like as is good mower practice don't mow in a direction towards vehicles, windows people and pets. They might get hit by what is discharged from the mower, especially if the flap is gone
The price tag at $3500 makes you spit your drink out when you first see it. For this property it was one of the best machine purchases. The capability level was the right choice. There will be a time on the property the brush mower may not be necessary anymore, if the land maintenance is kept up. But it'll be around as long as it is necessary.
