Reese drum mowers

rnh1 · Apr 16, 2016

By body out there use one?

bjr · Apr 18, 2016

I own a SFI 2555 drum mower if it's a help. bjr

Rustyiron · Apr 18, 2016

A buddy of mine has a drum mower. Simple & fast, with no "turtles" to repair. Cheap knives and belts only, but then there's no conditioning either.

flusher · Apr 18, 2016

rnh1 said:
By body out there use one?

No drive shafts or gear boxes on the smaller Reeses. Just V-belts. Looks like this is an advantage as far as maintenance cost goes compared to other drum mowers that use shafts and gear boxes. Can't get much simpler than those Reese drum mowers.

Drum mowers tend to windrow the crop unless you add the tedder option to spread out the cuttings for faster drying.

Nice thing about drum mowers is that they don't clog like sicklebars and you can really crank up the ground speed with the drum mower compared to disc mowers and sicklebars.

Just make sure that you match the Reese to your pto horsepower and tractor weight.

Good luck

LukeD · Apr 18, 2016

I've never used that brand, specifically. Mine was a Piet Zweegers. But it never gave me a single problem. I just had to upgrade due to acreage increase

Jerry/MT · Apr 20, 2016

rnh1 said:
By body out there use one?

I have a Galfre drum mower and it has a simple conditioning system on it. It is shaft driven rather than a belt drive. I used it last year for the first. With the conditioning system, it does not windrow the hay but rather spreads it out for quick drying.

Rustyiron · Apr 21, 2016

That (your avatar) looks like somewhere in the Bitterroot Valley Jerry ???

Jd5203 · Apr 23, 2016

We have a drum mower right now, not a reese however. It is very simple to use and maintain. Hit a concrete spring box in a new field last summer going 8 mph, welded a bolt on and a few repair welds, 3 hours later was back in the field, less blades to change as well as the quick change system. We were going to upgrade to a new reese as ours is only 5.5 feet cut so its a little small to do 30 acres with. Was very impressed with the reese and we were going to upgrade but cattle prices dropped and couldn't bite the bullet. What we were going to get was the 8' 3point hitch with hydraulic fold as well as the spreader attachment to mow and tedder all in one trip and save some money and time. The problem we were told about it was the belt, it had to have just the right amount of tension on it or it would brake. The belt was a v belt and was only theirs that was like it and it was quite expensive but it came with a 2nd belt. Parts availability isn't a big deal as most of the parts can be made in a local shop. All in all we were going to buy one just prices didn't work out and that's the only reason we didn't. Hope this helps.