Hozzie
Silver Member
So I have read and re-read many posts on here and other places about different rotary cutters and still can't decide what to do. Always good to get some educated opinions from the forum on this. I am looking at a fairly broad spectrum of cutters and any of them will probably serve me well, but since I can't find any place that will let me demo units, it's still a bit of a crap shoot.
Main details: Approx 25 acres that I want to mow 3-4 times a year. This is comprised mainly of pasture type land with few obstacles, but I do have some surface rock to deal with in places. It is relatively flat, with some undulation here and there. Not looking or needing to truly brush hog anything over an inch or so in reality, but do run over smaller parts of fallen trees that maybe I cleaned up, but missed a branch, etc. I will be running this on a Kubota MX5800, so 50 PTO HP. I have been running a 6' land pride, but it just takes too long to get anything done. As it is almost all pasture cutting, cut quality without windrowing is most important. I don't expect it to be a lawn, but I want as few stragglers as possible and I don't like clumps being left behind, so I am putting (at least in my mind) a premium on blade speed although I am not sure it matters as much in pasture. I don't expect to let it get more than a couple of feet high at most, probably in the 12-18" range most times and will cut about 6" tall. Cost is of course an important consideration, but not the sole deciding factor.
So, taking into consideration tractor size, acreage, etc, I basically have two upgrade options, 8' and 12'. I have been shopping and looking around and have come down to these options.
1) Bush Hog 2308 (current front runner) - Looking at doing a semi-mount. Priced at $5350. 2" capacity, 16,100 tip speed. No real cons I can see other than it isn't a 12'. I like the idea of the semi-mount for backing up, etc.
2) Bush Hog 3308 - Would do pull behind due to weight. Priced at $7500. 3" capacity. Very heavily built so I don't worry about damaging it at all. Cons- Probably overkill for what I will be doing and not sure it is worth the extra $, but I like heavy duty for peace of mind.
3) Bush Hog 1812 - Priced at $11,000. Heaviest of the 12' bat wings I have seen. Blade speeds are down around 14000 with 1/2x3" blades. 12' would be nice, but not sure it is worth twice the cost of the 2308 realizing it does cut 1.5 times as wide. Time to cut is not a major concern as my retired dad will do it most of the time, but its still a consideration overall.
4) Rhino TS12 - Priced at $11,400. Lighter than the Bush Hog, but still a very nice machine. I don't see any real pro over the Bush Hog, but know many people have them so it is on the list.
5) Used Rhino TS12 - Priced at $7500. The dealer, whom is also the Bush Hog dealer, says it is a 2016 model. The whole cutter looks to be in good shape mechanically, but the paint looks terrible. There are really no major dents in the top of the cutter like you would usually see from a cutter that has mowed over a lot of brush or debris. I know for many the paint means nothing and I am trying to look past that, but I keep my things under cover so just not my norm, but at the end of the day it is still just a cutter. Anyway, we hooked it up and ran it briefly and I didn't hear any strange noises. One con for me was he said the warranty on the gear boxes was not transferable past the original owner even though it was within the 5 year range.
6) Land Pride RC2512 - Just added this. No idea on price, but saw it had the highest blade speed of any 12 batwing. Need to do more research on it.
Right now I am not justifying in my my mind twice the cost for the new 12', but don't want to regret not getting a bigger cutter later. The used TS12 is intriguing, but I hate not having the gearbox warranty. Below is a pic of the used cutter. You can see what I mean by rough on the paint. The 8's will certainly get the job done, just not as fast as the 12, but better than my 6. So, what to do...
Main details: Approx 25 acres that I want to mow 3-4 times a year. This is comprised mainly of pasture type land with few obstacles, but I do have some surface rock to deal with in places. It is relatively flat, with some undulation here and there. Not looking or needing to truly brush hog anything over an inch or so in reality, but do run over smaller parts of fallen trees that maybe I cleaned up, but missed a branch, etc. I will be running this on a Kubota MX5800, so 50 PTO HP. I have been running a 6' land pride, but it just takes too long to get anything done. As it is almost all pasture cutting, cut quality without windrowing is most important. I don't expect it to be a lawn, but I want as few stragglers as possible and I don't like clumps being left behind, so I am putting (at least in my mind) a premium on blade speed although I am not sure it matters as much in pasture. I don't expect to let it get more than a couple of feet high at most, probably in the 12-18" range most times and will cut about 6" tall. Cost is of course an important consideration, but not the sole deciding factor.
So, taking into consideration tractor size, acreage, etc, I basically have two upgrade options, 8' and 12'. I have been shopping and looking around and have come down to these options.
1) Bush Hog 2308 (current front runner) - Looking at doing a semi-mount. Priced at $5350. 2" capacity, 16,100 tip speed. No real cons I can see other than it isn't a 12'. I like the idea of the semi-mount for backing up, etc.
2) Bush Hog 3308 - Would do pull behind due to weight. Priced at $7500. 3" capacity. Very heavily built so I don't worry about damaging it at all. Cons- Probably overkill for what I will be doing and not sure it is worth the extra $, but I like heavy duty for peace of mind.
3) Bush Hog 1812 - Priced at $11,000. Heaviest of the 12' bat wings I have seen. Blade speeds are down around 14000 with 1/2x3" blades. 12' would be nice, but not sure it is worth twice the cost of the 2308 realizing it does cut 1.5 times as wide. Time to cut is not a major concern as my retired dad will do it most of the time, but its still a consideration overall.
4) Rhino TS12 - Priced at $11,400. Lighter than the Bush Hog, but still a very nice machine. I don't see any real pro over the Bush Hog, but know many people have them so it is on the list.
5) Used Rhino TS12 - Priced at $7500. The dealer, whom is also the Bush Hog dealer, says it is a 2016 model. The whole cutter looks to be in good shape mechanically, but the paint looks terrible. There are really no major dents in the top of the cutter like you would usually see from a cutter that has mowed over a lot of brush or debris. I know for many the paint means nothing and I am trying to look past that, but I keep my things under cover so just not my norm, but at the end of the day it is still just a cutter. Anyway, we hooked it up and ran it briefly and I didn't hear any strange noises. One con for me was he said the warranty on the gear boxes was not transferable past the original owner even though it was within the 5 year range.
6) Land Pride RC2512 - Just added this. No idea on price, but saw it had the highest blade speed of any 12 batwing. Need to do more research on it.
Right now I am not justifying in my my mind twice the cost for the new 12', but don't want to regret not getting a bigger cutter later. The used TS12 is intriguing, but I hate not having the gearbox warranty. Below is a pic of the used cutter. You can see what I mean by rough on the paint. The 8's will certainly get the job done, just not as fast as the 12, but better than my 6. So, what to do...
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. I have only had this place 6 months so it was a good place to start, but I quickly realized I don't want it to take as long as it does to mow the fields.
