Ground contact or Suspended mower ?

[Rusty]

1. so my question is will the ground contact mower do a pretty good job ? ( that's all i need grass cutting wise is pretty good not golf course )

2. will the cutting rough terrain with the ground contact be a aggravating experience ?

thetooth - It is difficult to answer your questions without actually driving your property. How rough is rough? I don't know.

I mow about 2.5A of finish lawn and about 7.5A of horse pasture and former hay field with a B7500 and RCK60-24B MMM. The lawn has rolls and dips and other changes that affect the quality of the finish cut. The final product is not showcase, but is satisfactory to me.

The pasture and hay field are much rougher. The furrows from when it was a beet/bean field are still noticable. I mow with the furrows as fast as I am comfortable, and a little slower while crossing furrows. The bouncing tractor is the limiting factor for me not the MMM. However, when mowing the pasture and hay field, I have the MMM pinned up in the transport position - so it is actually a suspended deck at that time. I am sure I would slow down if the MMM was on its own wheels, but it is hard to say how much.

I have been mowing this way since 2003 and have 1,100 hours on the B7500 - about 80-85% of the hours were mowing. IMHO the B7500 is comfortable and the RCK60/54-24B is strong and will hold up, however my advice is to keep pushing to get the tractor and MMM to your property for a actual test mow of your entire lawn.

Best wishes!

 

[DelSc]

I have been cutting my "lawn" with suspended decks for years but then bought a larger tractor that has a ground engaging mmm last year. Much of what I mow is old fields that are level or gently rolling hills, however they are rough.

I find that I mow faster with the ground engaging deck, however it has nothing really to do with the deck. The larger tractor that I bought last fall has larger wheels and so I can travel faster with out it feeling like I will bounce out of the seat or shake the tractor to death. I know I am mowing faster because both my last suspended deck and the ground engaging deck I use now are 60", and it takes me much less time to mow than previously. I feel I get a better cut with the ground engaging deck because it follows the contours of my "lawn" better.

The ground engaging deck (RC60-30B) is built quite well and seems heavy duty. It doesn't seem like it is taking a beating while I am using it, but time will tell.

 

[thetooth]

thank you Rusty and DelSC . i really appreciate your experience and input . i am really am going to try to have them bring the tractor out . we will see .

i actually talked to the guy who mows my neighbors lawn about the ground contact deck he thought the same thing that it would follow the contours better .

thanks

 

[aczlan]

We have a B7510 with a 60" ground contact deck and a BX2660 with a 60" suspended deck. The 2660 has a nicer cut and can go a little faster on bumpy terrain, but as been said, when mowing a field, you will probably have the deck all the way up.

IMO, unless you mow when it is wet out you will probably not notice a difference.

Aaron Z

 

[d1king]

I have a b2400 with 60" mmm. Ground is pretty rough in south Missouri, rocks etc. What happens if I mow with deck suspended or even in transport position? Called dealer in Arkansas, they didn't know if it might stress the lift system, etc or not? Thanks, Don

 

[aczlan]

I have a b2400 with 60" mmm. Ground is pretty rough in south Missouri, rocks etc. What happens if I mow with deck suspended or even in transport position? Called dealer in Arkansas, they didn't know if it might stress the lift system, etc or not? Thanks, Don

My guess would be that being in transport position would be better than being suspended. The reason being that in transport position (at least on the B7510 we have), the deck is tight against the upper stops, so it cannot bounce up and down. But if you were to mow with the deck 1/2 way up, it would bounce up and down. This could cause extra strain on the deck lift mechanism and could cause an uneven cut.

Aaron Z