PaulB Rotary

[PaulB]

Yeah Bird, you did leave out that one piece of information - which cost me, oh, about an hour of fiddling around! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Thanks for all the help, I am sure I will gain more experience and familiarity with use, but for now it is set up pretty well.

 

[Bird]

Sorry about that, PaulB./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif When I get mine adjusted for mowing, I can still pick it up just enough to get the back wheel off the ground, but if I'm going any distance at all with it, it would be bouncing up and down on the ground (or road) and I sure don't want that.

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have been reading everyone's posts about the 4' rotary cutter. I purchased one that was built by Southern Equipment Mfg., Cleveland, TN 423-479-9939. It's a heavy duty unit - 6" C-channel for the side frames. The pins are 12.5" from the bottom of the deck. The "A" frame pivots on the lower pins so it flexes if you back into an incline or over a branch. When hooked to my big compact tractor(Ford 420 Industrial Loader - 7,000lbs & 50 hp)it will eat any tree you can push over. I also use it on my Kubota B8200 and the engine will stall before it could damage the cutter. Old fence is a lot of fun when your cutter finds it.

Indiana Joe

 

[Von]

Paul,
I cut a lot of hills with my cutter that I back the cutter up. So I use a piece of chain for the top link. This allows the cutter to not sit to low and the top not to bind when cutting on the hills. This may help you out.
Von

 

[Alan L.]

I just measured the lower pins on my Rhino SE5 5' cutter. It is in the garage on concrete with the cutter fully lowered. It measured 17" to the center of the pins from the floor. There are two holes in the cutter (on each side) for the pins to be installed in. Mine are in the upper ones.

I set my tailwheel height about the middle, and the upper link is adjusted to where 13 threads show below the locknut. This is the position I mow in, and I have no trouble lifting the cutter off the ground. The rear comes at least 18" or so off the ground for transporting.

When I am mowing low I set the lift on about 4.75. This weekend in the stuff I has having trouble with I raised it to about 5.25. Those decimals are just an estimate - the lift on my B2710 goes from 1 to about 8 I think.

The only problem I sometimes have with the adjustment is when I mow up and over a hump there is a point where the back of the cutter comes off the ground and of course it doesn't cut anything when its in the air. Its seldom a problem however.

 

[PaulB]

Well I spent the weekend mowing my 5 acres of pasture, and as per JimB's request here is my report. Fist of all, I ended up buying a King Kutter brand, 4 foot rotary mower, It weighs 440 pounds according to the manual, and cost me $519.99 (why don't they just say $520, do they think I am stupid?) at the local Farm and Country. I wanted to buy the Wallace brand at TSC, but they were out of the 4 footers. I even called the factory, and they had none, and were not scheduled to produce any for at least a month. Both mowers I think fall into the same catagory of low end machines. Compared to a Bushhog for example, the paint, weld smoothness, and overall fit and finish just can not compare. It reminds me of when I was comparison shopping between the name brand Japanese tractors (orange, blue and green), and the chinese models like Hardy. The forgings and castings MAY be just as strong on the chinese models, but they were certainly not finished as beautifully. Same with the low priced mowers. I guess and hope it will prove to be as strong and durable as the more expensive brands, but I do not know for sure. What I do know is that if you are looking for a machine you want to polish and show off to the neighbors and oogle over, this is not the one to buy. It is more of a meat and potatos machine, with dull paint, rough welds, very plain finish and loose tolerances. Setting up the mower was a bit of a hastle because the manual that comes with it is not very good - took about 3 hours. I have already commented on the difficulty I had setting up the 3 point - I still can not get it to lift off the ground without having to shorten up the top link. As far as mowing, I did all of my pastures, which had grass from 18 to 36 inches tall. It cut through the grass in high range with no difficulty at all. If I had known how easily it would cut, I might have gone for the 5 footer, but the extra hundred pounds might have made handling a problem. As far as horsepower, 17 certainly handles the 4 footer, at least in grass. The worst part of the whole thing was I was smiling so wide I thought the corners of my mouth might meet behind my head, and the top of my head might fall off!

 

[W5FL]

That is the way Rotary Cutters are suppossed to do. If it goes under the tractor, the cutter chews it up and spits it out in little pieces. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[W5FL]

PaulB,

Unfortunately those who build mowers and those who build tractors don't always make them compatable. I had a six foot Rhino SE-6 and a MF245 tractor. The first time my son raised the 3 point the PTO shaft hit the mower and bent the PTO shaft. It hit for years, and you just had to be very careful in raising it.

Now I have a Bush Hog 260 (6 ft medium duty) mower and a Kubota M6800. It works together just perfectly. All the way up and the PTO shaft is horizontal! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Sounds like the problem you have is that the 3 point pins are too high for your tractor. See if the pins can be lowered on the mower by 2 or 3 inches. It will make a world of difference and MAY require no more work than drilling or burning a couple of holes. I am sure the 3 point linkage will go this low and much lower. I would not be concerned about any Warranty as if the warranty on a rotary cutter is worth anything anyway.

I would set the rear tire so that the rear of the mower clears the ground by approximately 1 inch. Set the 3 point where the front of the mower clears the ground by 1 inch. Tighten up the top link to allow a little play in the mower top attachment and see how much you can lift the rear wheel off of the ground. If you can raise it 2 inches you will be able to use the mower ok.

 

[W5FL]

PaulB,

Interested to see what you think about the quality of the cut. The tip speed primarily affects the quality of the cut, but having the deck level to slightly higher in front allow it to mulch and make a nice cut. Do these mowers have front and rear guards or are you going to have to add them later?

 

[RickM]

PaulB,
Glad you enjoyed your first outing with the shredder. As far as the market goes for light duty 4' cutters I think the King Kutter is fine. I have a KK 5' finish mower I pull behind my B6100 (rated 14HP engine) and it does a fine job for me. The rule of thumb is you can go a foot wider with a finish mower than the max. width rotary mower your tractor can manage. I can get parts overnight for the KK from my dealer. Not sure I can say the same for my M&W 4' rotary. (Never heard of M&W till I bought the kubota). I have not needed any parts for either yet so I'm not loosing any sleep over it. I also agree with wen. If you find you need to lower the mount points on the mower frame then by all means do so. One of the first things my KK dealer helped my with was shortening the stock pto driveline. I needed 4" taken out before I could even first hook on.