There's a reason Woods has been making mowers for over 55+ years. Remember, you get what you pay for. If so called "better other" brands were as good as Woods, Bush hog...etc... then you would see them everywhere. Everyone has an opinion, and personally, you get what you pay for. period.
Comparison Fair to compare Woods & King Kutter?
- Thread starter tillboy2001
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sweettractors
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FWIW, I have doing this machinery business for 34 years now and my observation is that you are correct on this, most of the time. However, In some instances, a customer will pay 10-15 percent more for a products name and all he gets extra is bragging rights on the brand. Woods is a great company and to back that up, we just bought a new $11,300 15 ft batwing from them this year for the farm. That being said, It is no better than the less expensive M & W 15 ft batwing that we replaced. We paid 10-15 percent more for the "Woods" name and knew what we were doing. Ken Sweet
Diamondpilot
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What turned me on to them is a friend has mowed his 200' wide by 2,600' long runway with one for about 20 years behind a Ferguson 30. He finally just wore it out. He probably mowed 30 times per year. He replaced it with another.
If you do the math and figure 5' of coverage per pass it takes 40 passes to mow it at 1/2 mile per pass. Thats 20 miles of driving per mowing. Then times that by the aprox 30 mowings per year equals 600 miles. Now do that for 20 plus years and the mower has well over 12,000 miles.
That was proof enough for me.
Chris
sweettractors
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We stock the quill spindle assemblies,drive belts and gearboxes for the Caroni for future references. Ken Sweet
TripleR
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We more or less stumbled on them as when my FIL was looking for something, Caroni was the only one anyone had in stock. The first one worked so well, he bought a second. The first was a 7' and second 8' I believe. The second one has blades with detachable tips that rotate similar to a rotary cutter and will mow some fairly rough material. Good mowers.
LAWALLSTRACTOR
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No one has mentioned a Buhler Farm King. A Canadian made top quality machine.
k0ua
Epic Contributor
I ran a BEFCO 5 foot rear finish mower for a few years. and I really think it was a great mower, never had any problems with it and it made a very nice cut, and it was very easy to maintain. What do you all think about BEFCO? It went when I traded off the tractor, and I dont need it here were I live now anyway, but it sure was a good mower for me when I mowed 7 acres .
James K0UA
James K0UA
sweettractors
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We sell Buhler/Farmking and do parts support for a lot of them across the nation. They are fine machines. They tend to be a little pricey. You can get more bang for your buck and as many features with First Choice or Phoenix brands. We sell those also. Ken Sweet
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tillboy2001
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Well, I normally would ignore a sales guy offering me something on a forum....but when Ken Sweet mentioned this finish mower, I decided to give it a look. I discovered that it's an Italian built unit badged as Phoenix, Caroni (?) and First Choice (and maybe more?)...and I couldn't find any bad comments about it. So I looked and looked and looked some more. I compared prices of various brands and models and nothing could touch the price of the First Choice and I really couldn't find anyone saying bad things about them. I was interested enough to find out more about the company that makes it and except for a few features like a self-tensioning idler pulley to keep the belt properly tightened, I really didn't see any deal breakers. Anyway, for what we're using this for, the price was right and I am pleased with the deal. I drove down (2.75 hours) to the store and picked it up myself.
I attached some photos I took a short time ago. The metal on the deck is actually thicker than the Bush Hog RDTH72 we used to have. I opted for the anti-scalp roller too. That thing is pretty beefy as well.
P.S.. I think Ken needs a new camera. The mower really looks better in person than in the pictures he sent to me. Ken, for $250 you can get a really nice Panasonic Lumix digital camera. Photography is a hobby of mine...trust me, it be good for your business to be able to show potential customers better photos ;-)
I attached some photos I took a short time ago. The metal on the deck is actually thicker than the Bush Hog RDTH72 we used to have. I opted for the anti-scalp roller too. That thing is pretty beefy as well.
P.S.. I think Ken needs a new camera. The mower really looks better in person than in the pictures he sent to me. Ken, for $250 you can get a really nice Panasonic Lumix digital camera. Photography is a hobby of mine...trust me, it be good for your business to be able to show potential customers better photos ;-)
