Looking for a new disc mower... brands?

[dixiedrifter]

Went to the Kubota dealer$hip today to pick up some oil and hydraulic filter$.

They also happen to handle New Holland and Kuhn equipment as well so I priced the Kuhn GMD 600 and 700 heavy duty models along with the GMD 66.

Prices the dealer wants for the Kuhn GMD 600 is $6900 and the 700 is $7600... ouch. The normal duty 6 pod disc mower is $6100... not to bad but still more than I want to spend on one. The new holland shaft drive models are like $8000 for a 6 pod cutterbar... OUCH!

I did not know it, but the older New Holland DM cutterbars were actually made by Kuhn... Kuhn also made and still makes the cutterbars for JD.

Also, I stopped by another dealer who handles Krone. I think the guy was wanting something like $7900 for a 7 pod model... even bigger OUCH. Interestingly enough, they had 2 of them nearly brand new tore up on the lot. One of them was out in the field for 3 weeks, a bolt come out of the idler gears causing a chain reaction in the cutterbar.. the end is the cutterbar was totally FUBAR'd and had to be replaced. The other had a gear in the gearbox that was somehow incorrectly installed resulting in it going all to heck... it could just be a total fluke, but this worries me as both were factory defects and demonstrates some serious quality control issues.

 

[Cobra-R]

I prefer the individual module setup like New Holland has in thier 615-617 series. If one module fails for whatever reason, the failure doesn't contaminate a 6' long gearbox with metal like the common oil sump machines.

These are the same cutterbar setups that NH uses on thier Disc Mower conditioners and they are hands down the marker leader in that industry. I know a farmer that cuts 3000 acres a year with his Disc mower, went 7 years without a cutterbar failure, when he traded for a new one.

I have a 615 on my TC40 DA and couldn't be happier. A guy who saw me mowing my weeds came over and hired me to cut his pasture. Took me two hours to do it, he said it was typically 8-10 hour job with his sickle mower.

btw: I have run different brands and don't believe for a second that the shaft drive units take more hp. Sounds like a sales pitch to me. I have found there is a very deffinate cutting quality difference between brands.

Brian

 

[mark.r]

I have a 615 on my TC40 DA and couldn't be happier. A guy who saw me mowing my weeds came over and hired me to cut his pasture. Took me two hours to do it, he said it was typically 8-10 hour job with his sickle mower.

Brian

As go back through some of the older disc mower threads I find this one interesting. Your are running a NH615 (heavy duty) rated for 45 pto hp off of your TC40DA HST which is 33.2 pto hp tractor. No problems?

 

[dixiedrifter]

Well due to finances I wasn't able to afford one till now.

Turns out all the dealers are out of Kuhns... crap.

Anyhoos, went and looked at a Fort brand one.

What are ya'll opinions on these?

Seems like a fairly beefy cutterbar...