First Mowing With 2520 and 62D

[Runner]

I finally had the opportunity to mow with the new 62D over the weekend. Having had some experience with a Frontier GM1072R on this same tractor, I thought I'd give my perspective on the differences.

First, I have noted in the past that the GM1072R seemed to be a little heavy for a 2520 when used on hills. On my property, it tended to drag the rear of the tractor sideways on the hills and I needed to be in 4WD most of the time to keep the rear tires from spinning and tearing up the grass. So, I decided to try a belly mower.

The 2520 handles beautifully with the 62D, seems more stable on the hills, I didn't need 4WD and it is, of course, more maneuverable. However, I noted that the belly mower also has some shortcomings as compared to the rear mower. First, the rear mower tends to follow the terrain better and gave an overall smoother cut, particularly when going around corners on a hill, where the belly mower tends to leave a "stairstep" appearance. Second, being a side discharge, I think the belly mower fails to distribute the grass clippings as well as the rear discharge RFM.

While the belly mower is more maneuverable overall, I did miss the ability to back under trees and into corners. Otherwise, the 62D performed beautifully and the new front gauge wheel arrangement seemed to work fine (no gouging).

By the way, the hill in the attached picture is about a 20 degree slope and is one of the steepest areas I've tried to mow sidehill. I would note that the machine felt very stable with either mower in this situation, although the belly mower did help alot with traction as mentioned earlier.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Nice comparison Runner, and nice action shots too! That kind of good input helps the rest of us a lot. How did the time mowing compare?

 

[Killer_B]

Thanks for the comparison, Runner. Nice hat!

KB

 

[Runner]

I guess the fact that the 62D is 10 inches narrower pretty much cancelled out any speed difference made by the greater maneuverability. Also, about half of the 2 acres I finish mow is so rough and hilly, I can't use high range.

I was able to use high range on the flatter/smoother areas, but there aren't enough of those to make a difference. It takes me 2 1/2 to 3 hours to mow that 2 acres, nomatter what I do. I can actually mow my 4 acre field with the 5 foot rotary cutter almost as fast as I can do the 2 acre finish mowing around the house. Good thing I like to mow...

As for the hat, it was a cheapie my original selling dealer gave me when I bought the tractor that just had the dealer's name on it. When I bought my 46 backhoe (from a different dealer) he took me over to the "hat area" in his store and offered me any one of the "real" JD hats I wanted, so I got a good, khaki, embroidered denim hat from that deal. Yup, even hats can be a sore spot...

 

[bz1]

I hear a lot of people complain about the wind row left by the MMM. I haven't tried it yet with my 62D but with my old deck on 4100 tractor I found it made a huge difference when I tied the plastic chute in the up position using a bungee cord. This effectively allows the grass to shoot out of the deck and spread out much more rather than pile up in a wind row. I used this trick many times when the grass was too long to cut without raking and this helped spread it out so that raking was not necessary. Try it out. Just make sure you are in the wide open with no people around just in case your mower throws something. The chute is on there for a reason so always use extra care when modifying any safety device.

 

[Runner]

BZ,

I know what you mean and I'd imagine it would work better. I have always run my lawn tractor with the chute tied up, but I don't have the guts to try that with this big machine. I'm afraid I'll put some object through a window or worse.