Rear Finish Mowers

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Sounds like you guys really love the rear discharge. Makes me wonder if I should have tried that Frontier instead of the Deere side discharge mower. )</font>
While I don't use a finish mower to cut my lawn, I would prefer a side discharge because I like to cut throwing the discharge into the higher grass to be recut. A rear discharge would leave it in original cut length instead of chopping it up. John

 

[green4710]

I have a 84 inch rfm that I use on my 4710. It does a great job. Its a rear discharge type with chains, and Im happy with it. I never see an RPM drop on my tractor. The only complaint I have is the blades need sharpened quite often. I think you'd be happy with it. It only weighs 800 lbs, so its not terribly heavy either.

 

[dass]

My blades hold an edge ok but I've got to get a case of grease cartridges. Mfg. says every ten hours. Takes nearly a tube each time. The spindles are huge on this thing and they hold a LOT of grease. I might go air and get the stuff in bulk.

 

[DiskDoctr]

Dass,

Have you tried some of the better grade greases? We just reloaded our air grease gun with this, as it is not supposed to break down as quickly.

I bought some of the red stuff, the best that TSC had for about $1.69/ea, I think.

Anybody know if this grease is what it's cracked up to be?

-JC

 

[dass]

I've been using Shell Retinex LC2, which is a heavy load grease. Not designed for bearings, so I should look for something else. Your stuff sounds better.

 

[gbirky]

Chim,
Thanks for the photo. That's got to be the strangest looking thing I've ever seen. My deck would only be 3 blades, so I don't think that really helps too much. For the others of you who replied - I'm looking to put this on the front or under a very small tractor. It will have to be belt driven due to limitations of the tractor. It would be much more complicated to get a pto shaft up to the front of the tractor.

The reason for my request for photos is that I once saw a rear discharge finish mower at an Ag expo that had some interesting baffling which I assumed was to redirect clippings to better distribute them. I was hoping to have a model to duplicate.

 

[EastTexFrank]

That's the technique I use when I cut the yard at the farm with riding mower. I don't do it too often as my S-I-L does it most of the time. The only problem I have found is that when you cut in a circle, and get towards the end of cutting, you end up with all the cut grass in a big pile with the uncut grass in the middle and the mower starts to bog down due to the sheer volume of clippings it has to handle.

My answer to the problem when I got my tractor was to install a mulching kit on my 60" rear discharge finishing mower. It works well although you have to slow down on your mowing speed a little but on my yard that has never been an inconvenience. It can be pretty rough and bouncy in places.

 

[JimMorrissey]

dass,

Looks like a nice deck. I'm in a holding pattern right now. We'll see what happens.

 

[JimMorrissey]

green,

"only 800 lbs" I was laughing when I read that. Tractor people have a funny sense of what's heavy after dealing with the power of hydraulics for awhile.....myself included.

Jim