Mowing Has anyone run a 90" mower with a JD 3520

[DHAUG]

I have a 3520 cab tractor that puts 30hp (I think) to the pto shaft. My dealer says it will turn a 7 foot 3pt finish mower or a 15 foot batwing finish mower. The batwing is out of my price range, but I would like to get rid of my MMM in favor of a 3pt mower, and I can not decide between a Landpride 6 foot, or a Landpride 90" mower. If my tractor will have enough power, I would like to get the 90" mower. Has anyone run one of these, or something like it behind a 3520?
I like these two mowers better than the 84" that landpride offers because of blade tip speed, but I am open to suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your help on this.
Dan

 

[Johnagain]

I just bought a 84 in landpride mower for my 4310 which has 27 pto hp. I can bog it down in some very heavy grass but no more than my 5 ft brush cutter on the same grass going about 7.5 mph travel speed. About a foot high heavy grass going up a hill.
I think a 90 in mower would be no problem.

 

[DHAUG]

How is your cut quality mowing that fast? With John Deere's 72MMM I can only go about 3.5mph if I want a good cut quality. I rarely cut grass more than 7" tall. That is why I am interested in the 90" mower over the 84" mower (it has a higher blade tip speed).

 

[Grrrr]

I have a 3520 cab tractor that puts 30hp (I think) to the pto shaft. My dealer says it will turn a 7 foot 3pt finish mower or a 15 foot batwing finish mower. The batwing is out of my price range, but I would like to get rid of my MMM in favor of a 3pt mower, and I can not decide between a Landpride 6 foot, or a Landpride 90" mower. If my tractor will have enough power, I would like to get the 90" mower. Has anyone run one of these, or something like it behind a 3520?
I like these two mowers better than the 84" that landpride offers because of blade tip speed, but I am open to suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your help on this.
Dan

I think you would be pushing it with a 15 foot batwing. You would slow down to a crawl.

But I think the 90" finish mower would be fine.

 

[Killer_B]

I can bog it down in some very heavy grass but no more than my 5 ft brush cutter on the same grass going about 7.5 mph travel speed. .

7.5 MPH? Holy cow that's flying. Does it actualy give a satisfactory cut?

 

[orlo]

Hi:

I ran a 15' wing mower with my 3720 cab (There is a thread with pictures... ).
I mowed at up to 6mph, had to slow down to 4mph a couple of times.

You'd have absolutely no problem running a 90" with a 3520. I've actually have an 84" RFM ordered. Anything larger than 84" (The JD 90 or 110) I looked at had a much lower blades speed and most had swinging (rotary cutter type) blades that wouldn't give as good a cut quality?

Does the 90" landpride your getting have fixed or swinging blades? What's the blade speed? (Most I looked at were below 15,000 for that size.

 

[DHAUG]

Hi:

I ran a 15' wing mower with my 3720 cab (There is a thread with pictures... ).
I mowed at up to 6mph, had to slow down to 4mph a couple of times.

You'd have absolutely no problem running a 90" with a 3520. I've actually have an 84" RFM ordered. Anything larger than 84" (The JD 90 or 110) I looked at had a much lower blades speed and most had swinging (rotary cutter type) blades that wouldn't give as good a cut quality?

Does the 90" landpride your getting have fixed or swinging blades? What's the blade speed? (Most I looked at were below 15,000 for that size.

The blade tip speed is shown at 18,500. I beleive these are regular non-swinging blades. Here is the website that I am getting the information from.

http://www.landpride.com/ari/attach/lp/public/specs/310-229s.pdf

thanks for the advice, and I would love to hear opinions on this particular mower.
Dan

 

[orlo]

That looks sweet. 3/4" to over 5 is a great range. I wish I looked at those before I ordered my 84" Frontier (Made by Woods). I just looked at Frontier and Woods. Woods makes a 90 but it's swinging blades, etc.

18,500 is faster than my 7 iron MMM (is around 18000). You'll get a great cut with that. Tip speed also helps when you are cutting high stuff as it mulches it up better.

 

[DHAUG]

Do you think I will get a better cut than the 72MMM I am using now? I have the large R-4 tires and wonder if the extra tires (the rear's) running over the grass before the mower gets to it will affect the cut drastically.

 

[Grrrr]

7.5 MPH? Holy cow that's flying. Does it actualy give a satisfactory cut?

I don't think that that is going that fast for a rough cutter.... I go along in 2nd in our MF135 with Multi Power and I think that is about 10MPH. (But that is with a 6 foot cutter which is pretty small for the tractor)

 

[wippster]

I have seen 3520 pulling 3 offset 72" buhler RFM's. @ at minimum 4.5 MPH

 

[Johnagain]

7.5 MPH? Holy cow that's flying. Does it actualy give a satisfactory cut?

Most of the places that I cut are pastures with a few cows or horses on them. I cut at theat speed at the 5in setting and it looks better than the brush cutter finish but it's not as good as a yard that is cut weekly. My customers like the new finish that the RFM gives the pastures and I don't think they would want to go back to the field being cut with a rotary mower as I was doing before.

If I change the height of the cut to about 3 inches then I have to slow down to 4-5 mph. It just starts to bog down. Most people would use a rotary cutter in the places I use the RFM, but I still only cut grass with mine no brush.

I did make one modifcation to the mower deck and that was to cut off about 1in of the skirting in the front to allow the blades to be lower than the front of the deck so the grass doesn't bend over as far so it cuts easier and doesn't leave lots of spikes standing.

 

[DHAUG]

Thank you for all of the input, I am trying to find the best deal on the 90" mower right now. Do you think this mower is going to scalp my rolling hills? My 72"mmm gets the grass a little short in some places, but it does not scalp. As always, any advice is helpful and I thank you in advance.
Dan

 

[Nuru]

Thank you for all of the input, I am trying to find the best deal on the 90" mower right now. Do you think this mower is going to scalp my rolling hills? My 72"mmm gets the grass a little short in some places, but it does not scalp. As always, any advice is helpful and I thank you in advance.
Dan

i would also like to know that too, as I am thinking of a larger mower for the rear like a LP84 or a 90" rear deck.

 

[radman1]

I just purchased a rhino 84" RM rear discharge. Replaced my previous rhino 72" side discharge. My JD 3720 had no power issues with either mower. Plenty of power. Little to no drag on the mower in grass 6-10" tall. The 84" does a better job with less tire marks and skips. Faster blade tip? Sharper blades? I think the rear discharge lets the grass out faster and therefore does a better job of mowing with less skips and cleaner cut. I had considered a 100" rhino but cost was considerably higher. The 84" was last years model and he wanted to move it. The 84" was $1950 and the trade in on the 72" was $1250. Paid difference of $700. I actually bought the 72" used on a farm auction earlier this year for $850.
The 84" seems to run quieter. I don't think rhino makes a side discharge any more.

 

[Nuru]

So for those of you experienced with rear discharge mowers, doesn't that make it more difficult to recut the clippings into smaller clippings than a side discharge mower?

 

[radman1]

So for those of you experienced with rear discharge mowers, doesn't that make it more difficult to recut the clippings into smaller clippings than a side discharge mower?

I hadn't considered the size of the clippings before. In my relatively limited experience, the rear discharge does a better job of spreading out the clippings over a larger area. With my KK and rhino side discharges, the grass is not spread as widely and in heavy grass, I would raise the side discharge shoot to get better spread. In heavy grass, it will clump at this discharge shoot and occassionally plug the opening.

 

[Nuru]

I hadn't considered the size of the clippings before. In my relatively limited experience, the rear discharge does a better job of spreading out the clippings over a larger area. With my KK and rhino side discharges, the grass is not spread as widely and in heavy grass, I would raise the side discharge shoot to get better spread. In heavy grass, it will clump at this discharge shoot and occassionally plug the opening.

hmm, I did look at the pics of the LP 84 and 90" and i did not consider that it was spreading the grass over a wider swath than the side discharge units. so I can see that it might not be an issue. Thanks for opening my eyeballs on that perspective! So the rear discharge version do a much better job of spreading the grass clippings, very good.