mid mount mower or 3pt finishing mower

[Rod in Forfar]

Back about 2006 I bought a Woods 48" 3 pt hitch mower with a 1980 Bolens G174, a diesel 4WD tractor which was a big step up from the Simplicity hydro riding lawn mower which was having trouble with the hills on the property. The vendor wanted to get rid of it and wanted three hundred for the mower he was in the process of restoring. I looked at the cut on his lawn and decided it had potential. A week later I drove two hours to his home and bought the three suitcase weights for the front of the tractor, as well.

After the hydro Simplicity, mowing with the Bolens was quite a change. No more could I waltz around obstructions, turning tightly and backing up on a whim. Everything was gears-turning determination on the little diesel tractor, but it felt very solid, had power to burn, and used very little fuel. Its excellent rear differential left no tracks on the lawn during tight corners. The only problem with the cut had to do with mowing over undulations in the turf. The tractor carried the mower to a great extent and it tended to cut high if the front of the tractor was down in a dip. This might have been an adjustment error on my end, and I notice that more recent mowers of this type are largely towed with their own casters to determine cutting height.

Anyway, I had 15 acres of little trees and no way to mow between the rows, so that poor old Woods followed the Bolens through a lot of tree branches, as well as mowing three acres of lawn. The return for the suitcase weights happened the first time I raised the mower while climbing a steep hill. The Bolens did an exhilarating ground loop and I realized that I had survived it largely by luck. A few years later I rolled the tractor down another steep incline while towing a wide trailer (hooked a wheel on a stump), but that is another story already recounted on this site, I believe.

The old mower ate a lot of belts until I replaced the sheaves with new ones from Princess Auto. Then it worked very well, except that I couldn't let anyone else operate the tractor/mower combination because of its complete and utter lack of safety features. One time the pto shaft came off the mower and flailed around behind me until I shut the machine down, fortunately without damage. I decided I needed another diesel tractor with a roll bar and other safety features so that my wife could use it.

For half the price of a new Kubota B 2620 I found a five year-old B7510 hydro with an auxiliary port and a five foot belly mower. It had 210 hours on it. The vendor wanted a larger tractor with a loader, and was prepared to revert to a riding lawn mower. I loaded the B7510 onto my trailer and drove four hours home with it.

This has been an excellent tractor. The belly mower is miles ahead of the 3 pt hitch implement in quality of cut. Mind you, I spent a week on the garage floor adjusting the thing to maximum height to clear the rocks on our rather rough pasture-converted-to-lawn. The vendor, an ex-GM mechanic, explained how to drive over the mower to install and remove it. At maximum height this seemed unfeasible, so I drove it into the shop and hooked the front to the two rear arms of the car hoist with a chain. They meet in the middle. It became a four minute job to put the mower on or take it off, just lifting the front wheels enough (shift out of gear before shutting down) to clear the mower and shove it through from the front. This freed the Kubota for bush hogging, block splitting, and my winter favourite, running a 4" wood chipper.

A belly mower is a quality piece of equipment, and to my mind it is worth the $3K price tag. On a used tractor, on the other hand, it may get thrown in to compensate for a missing loader.

My one whine about the Kubota is its rear differential, and it is a minor one. I noticed it on the vendor's lawn: on sharp turns the thing drags a wheel, whether it is in 2WD or 4WD. I shift in and out of 4WD a lot when mowing tricky terrain, keeping in mind that I must not make a sweeping turn of greater than 90 degrees without backing and filling. With the hydro pedal, of course, that is not a big deal.

My advice to a newbie: buy a quality used 20-22 hp diesel tractor with a belly mower and auxiliary fittings, if it is available. Little dump trailers are enormous work savers on the property. Somebody may want to sell his expensive little tractor in order to buy a larger one, or one with a loader. The Kubota has cost me $26. for a tachometer cable and the price of a new battery. That has been it for repairs in eleven years and 1300 hours of operation. The Bolens has cost quite a bit more than that for repairs. I had to split it once to repair a gear. Another clutch job involved 12 hours of labour cleaning mud out of its bell housing and clutch, but no parts. A head gasket cost another $1400. and a long wait while it came from the U.S. during Covid. Front tires were $450. A 1980 classic is more expensive to maintain than a 2005 modern Kubota, though the standard transmission
uses a great deal less diesel than the Kubota, especially on the generator.

 

[Smokeydog]

A 3pt rear mount mower is necessary to reach and mow near our creek, pond, banks and under landscaping. Maybe a commercial front deck mower could reach and not get stuck.

 

[JoeMann]

Thanks for comments everyone

 

[dodge man]

I’m betting some of the newer drive over deck mid mount systems go off and on as quick as a rear finish mower. I know the 60” on my JD does.

 

[beenthere]

Hello All, long time lurker, here to ask my first question - we just bought a small property @ 9acres, with abt 2-3 acres of grass
I need to get a compact or subcompact tractor and think a 3pt finishing mower might be better than the drive over mid mounts that are available?
The grass is pretty rough and has some areas where a low mounted mower might risk high center on that size tractor.
I don't need a brush cutter though.

What are your experiences using a 3pt finishing mower vs a mid mount mower on a small tractor (sub 30hp) ?
Thanks in advance

Have had both, now just have the mid-mount. But your use may not be the same as mine. A decision you will have to make for your application and use of the different equipment and the jobs you have to get done. Both styles will cut grass. It's all the other jobs that need to get done at the same time. Maybe you don't have more than one task to accomplish, .. we don't know the answer for you.

 

[dj1701]

I have used both, and in my experience the MMM is an easier mow.

The things I don't like about the 3-point mower are, if you are mowing along a building, you can't just turn away from the structure. You have to make sure you clear the building. Not always possible if you have something in the way.

With the 3-point, you are mowing grass that has been run over with both front, and rear tires. The bigger the tractor the more compacted the grass will be. This will lead to uncut grass. I was using a JD 4320 and it was too much for my lawn, but it was all I had at the time. I never liked the job it did.

The 3-point was ok for keeping my field mowed, but that is where its usefulness ended. I also had a bunch more push mowing to do because it could not get into tighter spaces.

My remedy was to sell the mower, which freed up the JD for other tasks. Bought a Kubota BX2680 with 60" MMM. It will be different for everyone, but I favor the MMM for my situation.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

After a trauk mower pulled behind the old Cub, I went to a Bolens with a belly mower, to a 28 HP Cub Cadet with a belly mower; now in a Kubota B2301 with the 60 inch belly mower (OK, MMM is the proper term). The Kubota takes me less than 5 minutes. After the messing around with the previous to MMMs, and a few problems with the trail mower, I'm pretty happy with the MMM on the 2301. Certainly is better on turns than anything behind you!

 

[Vigo327]

It was never said what other implements or machines the OP was planning to get either right away or in the future. If you weren't planning on getting ANY other implements right away that's a big point towards the RFM because without ANY weight on the 3pt, an FEL on a SCUT will be borderline dangerous and next to useless. Take it from me.. I've used my B6100 FEL with no 3pt attachment mounted, and my small 3000lb skid steer loader with the factory rear counterweight removed... it's frustrating and dangerous.

I have not used larger machines but i have a 50" riding mower and a 48" RFM i use with Kubota B6100/7100. The riding mower is easier to use, but more limited because it can't be lifted very far to clear anything, and it's also built much lighter (more likely to be damaged by accidental blade strikes on rocks/etc).

I don't find it compelling to keep the RFM in my case (it's for sale) because i have the RFM, the riding mower, a 48" bush hog, and a 54" MMM i've yet to use. They're all in that 48-54" size range. The riding mower will do 'normal' stuff, the bush hog will do stuff the riding mower won't, and im planning to get that 54" MMM set up on a different small tractor and leave it on there 90+% of the time, at which point i might get rid of the riding mower.

But.. if i had to pick only ONE of them to keep, i'd keep the RFM! It'll do the riding mower's job and about half the bush hog's job. It will cut chunkier stuff than the riding mower, and you can lift it like a foot high while it's running so you can still cut down really tall grass safely by starting up high so you don't hit debris hidden by tall grass, and making following passes at a lower setting. So like i said, it kind of depends on what other things you plan on ending up with.

 

[JWR]

One issue I didn't see mentioned is that your ability to use wheel extensions with a MMM is affected. My Kubota B was very tippy, so I ended up putting 3" wheel extensions on the back. I think with the MMM you can only add 1 1/2 extensions. I suggest a little time in the seat to see if your tractor feels tippy, and then you might want to add extensions. I decided with mine that safety and stability outweighed limitation of no MMM - I will at some point get a Finish Mower.

Tim

I had exactly that issue with one of my Kubota B2150's. I needed better steep ground tipping prevention and stability and put 6" rear axle extensions on each side ("wheel spacers") for that -- which work GREAT. That costs ~ $500 to $600. However, the rear wheels (fat turf tires) conflict with the mower wheel support frame. I had a welding/fabrication shop make me a set of replacement frames for the original Kubota MMM such that the tires now clear the mower. Works just fine but cost some. That way I still have the original frames (bolts on and off with ease) in case I ever want to go back to the original configuration.
From what I hear, many if not most compact tractors that have a mid-PTO and thus handle MMMs also have rear tire clearance issues if you spread the rear wheels. IF STEEP GROUND IS AT ALL IN YOUR PICTURE go shop around and ask each brand dealers about clearance when the wheels are spread. You can buy wheel spacers anywhere from 1" to 6" so you have that selection. Some brands/models of compact tractors no doubt differ regarding MMM clearance.