How much HP needed for a 72" belly mower?

[4570Man]

I have pulled a 72" finish mower with the little B7100, but anything higher than yard grass bogs it down. The B7100 is only 17 gross engine hp. My L3240 pulls the 72" finish mower with ease. It has enough power to smoke the belts off.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Another thing, in a 3 point finish mower, I MUCH prefer a "rear discharge" over a side discharge mower! Along with some other advantages, the rear discharge needs a bit LESS hp to run it, because rear discharge mowers get rid of the grass faster...

SR

 

[sixdogs]

Another thing, in a 3 point finish mower, I MUCH prefer a "rear discharge" over a side discharge mower! Along with some other advantages, the rear discharge needs a bit LESS hp to run it, because rear discharge mowers get rid of the grass faster...

SR

Second that on the rear discharge mower. It's the only way to fly. The grass is evenly distributed with no clumping and it's much easier to mow since you can go over the same place twice and not have to worry about rows of grass.

 

[crazyal]

Is the HP the same at the mid PTO and the rear PTO?

When ever power goes through gears some will be lost. Things like friction and force trying to push the gears apart rob power. The rear PTO suffer less power loss being in-line with the engine. The center PTO will normally have less because the power will to drop down. If you go to Kubota's website and look at a tractor that has a mid PTO you will notice that Kubota will not list attachments like front snow blowers for lower HP tractors equal in width to a rear option. For example my 4240 was the smallest that Kubota would list the 6' front blower for but the lower HP 3240 did have a rear 6' blower as an attachment.

 

[4570Man]

But on a mower you have to gear the rear pto up to similar speeds as the mid pto.

 

[Rob 80]

Another thing, in a 3 point finish mower, I MUCH prefer a "rear discharge" over a side discharge mower! Along with some other advantages, the rear discharge needs a bit LESS hp to run it, because rear discharge mowers get rid of the grass faster...

SR

I've heard that with a rear discharge you no longer have to sweep up the grass?

 

[4570Man]

I don't sweep up grass anyway. In regular yard grass there is not a big difference in side VS rear discharge, but in high grass it makes a huge difference.

 

[Will_C]

I use a ZTR or the bulk of my mowing, but use a rear discharge RFM on a 3-4 acre part of my property that is too wet and/or rough too use the Z on. I mow that every 10-15 days. The 60" mower behind my B2620 will handle 6-8" tall grass with no problem, and it looks good when I am done.

Will

 

[sixdogs]

I've heard that with a rear discharge you no longer have to sweep up the grass?

I used to mow at a 3" height with my B7800 and 6 ft side discharge mower and there was always clumping and annoying piles of grass. This year I switched back to my Woods 7 ft RD8400 three blade rear discharge mower and went to 3 1/2" high. There is zero grass to rake and mower is faster and a whole lot more pleasant. No more side discharge for me.

 

[Rob 80]

I used to mow at a 3" height with my B7800 and 6 ft side discharge mower and there was always clumping and annoying piles of grass. This year I switched back to my Woods 7 ft RD8400 three blade rear discharge mower and went to 3 1/2" high. There is zero grass to rake and mower is faster and a whole lot more pleasant. No more side discharge for me.


View attachment 439837

View attachment 439838

View attachment 439839

I mow mine at a 2 inch height and always end up with a mess of grass to rake up. I hate sweeping up grass! Have you ever tried it that low? My land used to be pasture for cows. I don't like mowing much in the heat of summer and it takes half my weekend up. That might change if i ever get a decent tractor one thing i don't like about a rear finish mower is it will take up a lot of extra space in the garage that a belly mower wouldn't.

Looks like you have a nice setup thanks for the pics!

 

[mecan]

Belly mower only takes up less space when its hooked up, mine usually sits in the garage except when I'm mowing, less to worry about when working with the loader or grapple.

 

[sixdogs]

I mow mine at a 2 inch height and always end up with a mess of grass to rake up. I hate sweeping up grass! Have you ever tried it that low? My land used to be pasture for cows. I don't like mowing much in the heat of summer and it takes half my weekend up. That might change if i ever get a decent tractor one thing i don't like about a rear finish mower is it will take up a lot of extra space in the garage that a belly mower wouldn't.

Looks like you have a nice setup thanks for the pics!

I have never mowed at 2". Well, I did once but it was too much work sweeping up.

When I mow at 3 1/2" with the 7 ft mower, everyone thinks I'm mowing at 2" or so. It must be the wider width makes it look shorter. Not sure why but I'm sure some TBN'er knows.

Seven ft is soooo easy and despite rain 28 days out of 30 here this year--and lots of it--I never raked or swept one blade of grass and had zero clumping or anything. Plus the lawn looks way better, greener and thicker. I'm never going back to a short lawn.


EDIT--On the storage space, add on or build another barn. You eventually will anyway so why not now?

 

[4570Man]

Here are some pictures of what I mowed with my 72" rear discharge mower. I pulled it with my B7100 which is only 17 hp. I unhooked the finish mower and finished with the belly mower because it couldn't turn the finish mower. It does ok in regular grass with the finish mower, but this grass was two weeks high. I don't have enough cell phone signal to upload the pictures, I will post them when I get home.

 

[mecan]

Big pole building would be great but was either get the tractor and wait on the barn or get the barn and wait on the tractor. Was looking at a lot of projects I didn't want to do with a shovel and wheel barrow. Soo someday swmbo will get to park in the garage, just not for a couple more years

 

[4570Man]

Here are some pictures of what I mowed with my 72" rear discharge mower. I pulled it with my B7100 which is only 17 hp. I unhooked the finish mower and finished with the belly mower because it couldn't turn the finish mower. It does ok in regular grass with the finish mower, but this grass was two weeks high. I don't have enough cell phone signal to upload the pictures, I will post them when I get home.

That finish mower has a blade tip speed of 26,000 FPM. Yes you read that right and it is blistering fast. The tractor would do ok with a slower mower.