Mower operation

[swreeder]

Greetings everyone

Long time tractor owner with a question that has bugged me for a long time on and I‘ve never found a good answer or a resolution.

I have two mowers for my tractor. I have a 6’ rotary cutter and a 6’ articulating flail mower with hammers.

When I setup either one of these mowers, I do so on a level concrete pad, set the height, put a stop on the 3 point lever control and set up the top pin on the hitch. What I find very frustrating mowing with either one of these setups in this rugged hilly country is that I am constantly working the 3pt height to keep the implement from digging in or riding too high and keeping a fairly consistent cut height. Always feels like I need a third hand to operate this and it forces me to mow at a snails pace. On flat ground, its not a problem, but I have hardly anything flat.

What am I missing or is just the nature of mowing with a 3pt hitch attachment?

 

[DK35vince]

A picture would help.
Do you mowers have a pivot link where the top link mounts ??

 

[scootr]

When the 3 pt is dropped it can float up if the terrain requires it do so.
It sounds like you need a chain toplink to allow the mower to follow the terrain?

 

[swreeder]

When the 3 pt is dropped it can float up if the terrain requires it do so.
It sounds like you need a chain toplink to allow the mower to follow the terrain?

true, but it to me It only “floats” up when the the front of the implement starts to hit dirt, by then its too late in my experience.

 

[oldnslo]

What am I missing or is just the nature of mowing with a 3pt hitch attachment?

I believe that how 3 point system works. They do not have height control for attachments being carried.

 

[swreeder]

Pictures of the top link attachments, and just as a test I tried both without the top link attached to see what happens and the only difference I noticed is I could not pick up the implement.

 

[ericm979]

The green rotary cutter has a toggle in the bars from the top of the hitch to the back of the mower. That is supposed to pivot to allow the mower to pivot on the lower pins and tilt up in the back. This is good when you back into a hill or drive forwards into a dip. Sometimes the bolts are too tight and that will prevent the link from moving and letting the mower deck pivot. The toggle, if it is working, has the same effect as a chain top link.

My rotary has the same type of pivot and I wind up running it so the 3pt lower arms keep the front of the mower up and the rear wheel follows the countour of the ground. The back of the mower should be closer to the ground than the front when on a level surface. If the front of the mower is digging into the ground you're running the 3pt too low.

I don't have a flail but my understanding is that the rear roller should let the mower follow the contour of the ground and keep the blades out of the dirt.

 

[LouNY]

All the flail mowers I'm familiar with have shoes on the sides, mine are set so the shoes make contact with the ground and the rear roller is in contact and then the lift arms will float with the mower.

 

[swreeder]

The green rotary cutter has a toggle in the bars from the top of the hitch to the back of the mower. That is supposed to pivot to allow the mower to pivot on the lower pins and tilt up in the back. This is good when you back into a hill or drive forwards into a dip. Sometimes the bolts are too tight and that will prevent the link from moving and letting the mower deck pivot. The toggle, if it is working, has the same effect as a chain top link.

My rotary has the same type of pivot and I wind up running it so the 3pt lower arms keep the front of the mower up and the rear wheel follows the countour of the ground. The back of the mower should be closer to the ground than the front when on a level surface. If the front of the mower is digging into the ground you're running the 3pt too low.

I don't have a flail but my understanding is that the rear roller should let the mower follow the contour of the ground and keep the blades out of the dirt.

This is the opposite of what the manual states for the rotary cutter and I’ve been setting the front height to 4.5” which I don’t think is too low. The toggle assembly is loose, so it should work. I’ll have to experiment this week and see if I can get anything to change.

I’ll also try to get some pics of it in action.

 

[TerryR]

I also have a hilly property and found with my rotary I was constantly adjusting the height of the 3-point to keep the front of the mower from digging in when the rear tractor tires went into a dip. I think that's just the nature of the beast.

I then got a ditch and bank flail, and mostly run it fully offset so it's not cutting what the tractor tires just ran over. It seems to follow the rises and dips quite well in that position at least. I never have to adjust the 3-point with it.

 

[John0829]

What I find very frustrating mowing with either one of these setups in this rugged hilly country is that I am constantly working the 3pt height to keep the implement from digging in or riding too high and keeping a fairly consistent cut height.

I know of what you speak, the only way I have managed to avoid the problem is to use pull type cutter, it will follow the ground contours where a 3 point will not.

 

[swreeder]

I also have a hilly property and found with my rotary I was constantly adjusting the height of the 3-point to keep the front of the mower from digging in when the rear tractor tires went into a dip. I think that's just the nature of the beast.

I then got a ditch and bank flail, and mostly run it fully offset so it's not cutting what the tractor tires just ran over. It seems to follow the rises and dips quite well in that position at least. I never have to adjust the 3-point with it.

Good info, this is one of the reasons I got my flail. It can by adjusted with the rear remotes in and out as well as the pitch.

Curious of the brand of flail you have and how you set it up.

 

[swreeder]

I know of what you speak, the only way I have managed to avoid the problem is to use pull type cutter, it will follow the ground contours where a 3 point will not.

Is this like a finish mower?

 

[scootr]

Is this like a finish mower?

Fail mowers can be either finish cut or rough cut depending upon the blades like Y knives for finish or hammers for rough. I use a HD cutter with 3" hammers to rough cut and mulch downed branches, cut sucker growth, and such.

 

[swreeder]

Fail mowers can be either finish cut or rough cut depending upon the blades like Y knives for finish or hammers for rough. I use a HD cutter with 3" hammers to rough cut and mulch downed branches, cut sucker growth, and such.

Understood and I have both types of cutters for mine but only use the hammers due to the rocky nature of this country. If you read John0829 response he is referring to a pull type cutter, which I’m not sure what he has.

 

[TerryR]

Curious of the brand of flail you have and how you set it up.

It is a Peruzzo 1600 ditch and bank mower.

I only mow twice a year, so I'm normally cutting stuff two to three feet tall. It doesn't like the stiff weeds, just pushes them over and leaves them uncut. Setting it close to the ground as some here recommended doesn't help. They just lay down until the mower passes. So I keep it up a couple inches to keep it out of the stones, and replaced the belt front guard with a chain one I made. See my post on this at Chain Guards for Flail Mower?

That helps quite a bit because the weeds aren't pushes so low to the ground and most get cut.

Even then it doesn't do well with stuff the tractor tires have smashed down, so I run it mostly at full offset so it cuts what hasn't been run over.

 

[John0829]

This is what I was referring to, I no longer have one but my neighbor does. Good if what you are cutting is thick, if you are looking to have it down like a lawn then a finish mower will follow the ground contours if it has casters on all four corners like the Landpride 2572 I sold to another neighbor before I realized the Mott SHD72 was NOT going to give the cut I thought it would.

 

[swreeder]

An update here on the flail mower. After doing a lot of searching on the web, I found someone else that had the exact same issues.

The Fix Is as follows:
1. After leveling the flail, set the top link to tilt the frame assembly back 15 degrees. This is the manufacturers recommendation.
2. On this flail, the back roller was fixed and after leveling and setting the tilt, the hammers were at a cutting height of 1.5”. The fix was to remove one of the two bolts on each end of the roller mount, pivot it down to a better height and drill a new mounting hole.

After doing these two things the flail sets up anywhere between 3 to 4.5” depending on where I set the stop point on the 3pt hitch.

I did a test run this evening setting up the 3pt stop for approximately 4”. I mowed along the edge of my driveway and a fairly rough woods area and it worked great.

 

[chim]

I've had one rotary cutter that chewed into the ground if I didn't babysit the 3PH lever. Never had a flail. I have lots of hours with rear finish mowers. All have been equipped with 4 wheels. With the 3PH set to allow the deck to float, scalping is rare. I do have a place where a small knob sticks up and the 7-1/2' deck is wide enough that the distance between the gauge wheels is sufficient to allow the blades to scrape the top of the knob. If I think of it the deck can be picked up a bit for that 3 feet of mowing.

 

[zzvyb6]

Put gauge wheels on them and let the attachment float independently of the tractor pitch angle.