My new-to-me mower

[farmerboybill]

Hey all,

Here's a few pics of my new-to-me mower. I bought it for $125, $50 to ship, $180 in bought parts, and $120 in fabricated parts. A local welding shop fabricated the front hood/guard outta heavier metal than factory.

I took it out and mowed a little bit in the woods behind my house tonight. It'll mow 2 inch saplings without hiccuping. I thought it would have a gawd-awful whine based on seeing videos of them running, but it didn't whine much at all. The previous owner hated it because it would hang up on anything and everything. I plan on putting taller tires on it to prevent the engine hanging up.

I think I'm gonna like it. I've wanted a Palladino flail mower for awhile, but this'll do until I can swing the cost. The biggest thing I hope I can do with it is mow and chop up the sweet corn stalks in the garden. It'll save me a LOT of time vs chopping them and the running them through the chipper.

Bill in WI

 

[wstr75]

Bill,
You have a nice looking mower! Good looking work. Regarding the new sheet metal you fabricated, was the mower damaged or rusted at the front or did you want to have heavier metal than the original mower?

Bill in NC

 

[oldmech]

Hi! You have a good brush mower! I use for many years Gravely 30 in. rotary mower for clean my garden. Trick For corn I move one wheel in center row other wheel between row so I am not jacking. because Gravely are low below . Impressive I mow 6-7 feet high corn . Brush hog are one the best implement for two wheels. With two blades we can make good job in grass mowing. For saplings we can take only one foot wide or less for better Job. Good luck Oldmech

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Bill,

The front guard was totally destroyed. All that was left were the sides. I think it had lots of use because the bottoms of the skids were worh through as well.

Hey Oldmech,

I'll keep your good idea in mind when it comes to mowing the corn. I just bought a set of 5-12 tires from a guy in Idaho and hope they will help keep it from bottoming out.

 

[Scooby074]

Bill : Nice machine. Amazing deal as you know.

The pictures are of the 14HP 850 correct? How much better is it than the 730 you have for brush cutting?

Good to hear it handles 2". Would a current 732 handle that?

The previous owner said it was hanging up. Was this the motor or the deck that was hanging?

Do you happen to have a pic of the rear of the deck?

Sorry for all the questions.

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Jason,

Yeah, it's a 14 HP 850. I bought it last fall for $1400 and it came with a 30 inch tiller and 18 inch tiller. It was obviously a dedicated tiller in a rental fleet as the handlebars were siezed tight in tiller mode. It took a complete disassembly of the controls and a LOT of beating in a vise to get it loose again. The tiller box needed tines. A tine extension was badly welded and the nylon luck nut was reused in reassembly, causing the nut to come loose and destroy the 4 splines and hub. Luckily, I had a spare shaft sitting around (woulda cost $150). Moral of the story - DO NOT reuse nylon lock nuts - they are SINGLE use.

Both the engine and the mower have to make contact to get it to hang up. Taller tires will help to prevent this.

A 732 will handle this mower fine, but its speeds are limited and really rough terrain will demand taller tires. The good news is that taller tires will also give you a faster ground speed. I haven't run it at all on the 730 yet. I don't foresee ever running it on the 730, but maybe someday.

The rear of the deck is open right now. I plan on replacing the heavy rubber guard that should be there, but was apparently torn off at some point. I may actually run chain guards instead. Tractor drawn mowers all have chain guards. A piece of ready rod and a length or chain should do the trick, but I haven't decided yet on how best to proceed.

Bill in WI

 

[Scooby074]

Bill: Thanks for the info. Too bad theres no deals like that up around here even considering the repairs. ( heck i even checked E-scam) $2800 for a 6 yr old 722 till + snowblower was the best i found so far. But ill keep lookin. That price wouldnt be too bad for a larger machine

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey All,

Well, I took it out into my F-I-L's chicken yard this weekend. The yard is about 200 by 200 feet and is steeply (greater than 15 degrees) sloped off the side of the building. It's very, very rough. The mower setup didn't work at all in these rough conditions. It was constantly getting hung up in holes and washouts. This setup will NEED taller tires.

Bill in WI

 

[oldmech]

Hi! I DONT KNOW. If you can adjust the blade more height on spindle. and then put deck more low with skidder adjustement. Good luck ! Oldmech

 

[oldmech]

Hi! You know Rotary mower Bush-hog can be very dangerous. Blade turn over 2000 rpm. If hit a stone or rock some parts can be throw and injurie feets or legs . sometime blow tire. So we need solid steel fender at rear. Mine the blade is about 3/4 in. inside rear gard. Front is more open but I plan add chains for security. I add pics :Take care we have only two feets. Good luck