How much (HP) is enough?

[Bird]

Zimmerer's chart says 2.5 acres/hour with a 5' mower and 5 mph. But since my tractor is supposed to have a top speed of 5.3 mph in mid-range and that wasn't near fast enough to suit me yesterday, so I went to high range and had to have been running most of the time at 7 mph (3.5 acres/hour) or more and didn't stop for any breaks, it just don't compute. Looking at Zimmerer's chart again, it looks like you used the 2.4 acres/hour at 6 mph with a 4' cutter????

Bird

 

[W5FL]

Bird,

The options are:

Zimmerer's charts are way off./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Your mower is really only has a 4 ft blade./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Your speedometer(?)is fast. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

You have more land than you thought. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

You are mowing your neighbors yard, too. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

It is a long way from the barn to the mowed area. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

You are taking long breaks when your wife thinks you are working. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Seriously, I have just used their data to get in the ballpark. They have a lot of errors in the data, but you can usually figure it out.

If you figure you get a 4 ft cut with a 5 ft mower then 55 trips per acre and 220 ft per cut is 12,100 feet or 2.29 miles traveled per acre or 2 acres/hour at 4.6 mph. I suspect he doesn't allow as much overlap as we do.

Got a lot of rain this weekend. About 3 inches of it came down in a deluge and washed away about $200 of roadbase on the driveway. Also have a little coastal growning through the perimeter fence. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Glad to see 4.5 inches of rain. That should hold things for about 3 weeks! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Wen, I go for the first option./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And yep, 3.85" out to last awhile anyway.

Bird

 

[W5FL]

Yeah, I am afraid my wife will see the charts, because I have never made them either! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif If she complains that will be sufficient justification to get a bigger mower! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif