Rotary Cutter Help with choosing 6 foot shredder/cutter

[Nokindadancer]

I own a JD 3520 that I purchased in 2007. I originally bought a Frontier 5 foot shredder to go with it. I would like to upgrade to at least a 6 foot shredder. I have it down to another Frontier, Rhino, or Landpride.
Does anyone have any recommendations as to which I should choose ?
I have the 300x front end loader bucket on my tractor, but no weights on the front. I maintain 10 acres.

Thank You
GM

 

[leonz]

You wont regret buying a flailmower with grass knives; they have a 2 year old 6 foot landpride at castle equipment in georgia in excellent condition as of last week for $1600.00

leonz

 

[KennyV]

I have a 7 foot Land Pride finish mower, 6 foot King Kutter shredder and a couple flails... all are very handy but IF I had to have only one catch all type mower it would most likely be a flail... bigger the better... KennyV
PS back to your original question... between the ones you listed, I would go with the best price of the 3...

 

[Z-Michigan]

IMHO Frontier is selling green paint to a great extent. I would choose the better priced between Rhino and Landpride.

It's off topic but I would third the recommendation of a flail. I recently got a Caroni flail after having used a 6' JD LX6 for several years, and I like the flail much better in all ways.

 

[nunyabinis]

Caroni TM1900 flail.



http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers-96.html#post2048582



It's a tough machine.





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[ThrowinDirt]

Don't mean to hijack the post, but are these flails as good as a bushhog for cutting heavy brush or are they strictly grass cutters???

 

[leonz]

No, you are not kicking sand at anybody about this; they are better than a rotary brush cutter; granted I am a flailmower and formula one snob and marvel at how the five acres looks again today with no wheel marks and nice ribbons and turf that is not stressed by a rotary mower.

The flail mower has more total cutting edge surface than a brush mower or finish mower which only has a limited amount of cutting edge over 1, 2,3, or more blades.

You can buy a heavy brush mower with hammer or cup knives and have a great patch of ground after cutting.

The flail mowers entire width is cutting at all times while operating at 540 PTO speed and high power.

The thing is the flail mowers rotor is traveling at 100 miles per hour or faster swinging all the knife blades SLICING just a tiny bit of material while moving forward with a reverse or forward rotor rotation.

The slower you travel and the more grass knives you have the finer the clippings and this applies to brush as well as it will knock your weeds down the ground--you may have to go over the thicker stems with the flail mower raised and lowered a second time at a lower cutting height but that will destroy the stems quickly.


You can mow slowly in a spiral and shred everything down to the ground with no issues and mow nice turf after you mow brush if you have grass knives.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Don't mean to hijack the post, but are these flails as good as a bushhog for cutting heavy brush or are they strictly grass cutters???

Based on dozens of hours with a Deere LX6 RC and the first few with a Caroni TM1900, the flail is just as good for heavy grass, heavy weeds of all kinds, and the occasional sapling or tree branch. And it makes weeds DISAPPEAR, in a way that the RC did not.

Heavy brush means different things to different people. The Caroni would not be up to land clearing, but neither would a light duty RC. There are heavy duty flails that are up to land clearing, as there are heavy duty RCs for the same. Within a duty class I believe they are comparable. From what I've seen so far the Caroni I have will handle a moderately large amount of brush with no issues. If I were primarily mowing saplings and small trees I would want something heavier duty.

 

[doall]

if you are just cutting grass, weeds, and some sapplings a flail is fine. but if you need a bush hog (rotary cutter) you need a bush hog. unless you want to spend a lot of money on a flail that will handle pretty thick brush.

 

[Nokindadancer]

Thanks to you all for your guidance. I have nothing but grass/weeds to cut so it sounds like the flail mower is my best option. I would like to buy from a dealer that is at least kind of local. I've never heard of Caroni where do I find these ? In general will a 6 ft Bush Hog Flail mower be more expensive than 6ft Rotary Cutter ?

Thanks again,
Gary M