Rotary Cutter Rotary Cutter questions

[HickoryNut]

Woods offers two or three blade designs for most models of their cutters. All I've seen came standard with the flat blade which is best for rough brush and will always leave the windrow of grass down the left side. I think a big reason these come with the cutters because they are less likely to throw projectiles with as much force. Then there is the uplift blade which provides a suction for a smoother cut in grass and tosses the cuttings around under the deck to be recut. Finally, for some models they have an uplift/offset blade which drops the cutting edge down about 1.5" for those that want a short cut w/o dragging the skids.

I currently have Woods cutters in 5', 6', and 8' models and the reasons I've never had anything but Woods are:
1. Superior engineering, right gauge of steel in the right places, gussets strategically located, I rarely have to weld on them
2. Quality of cut due to good deck design and fast blade speed
3. Ease of maintenance, blade attachment design is heads above anything I've seen on other products, serviceable bushings in the tailwheel assembly

A friend bought a new 6' Deere and it comes as close to the quality of a Woods cut as I've seen, good looking cutter except the tailwheel pivot looked awfully short/weak.

As Mlauk said, fore and aft height adjustment is crucial.. and like Skunkwerx mentioned, I don't ever mow my front lawn less than 3" and I just went to my mid-summer adjustment of 3.5" on my pushmower and 4" on my rider.

Tallyho, quality of cut is controlled by deck design, blade design, and blade speed, in that order in my experience.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Woods offers two or three blade designs for most models of their cutters. All I've seen came standard with the flat blade which is best for rough brush and will always leave the windrow of grass down the left side. I think a big reason these come with the cutters because they are less likely to throw projectiles with as much force. Then there is the uplift blade which provides a suction for a smoother cut in grass and tosses the cuttings around under the deck to be recut. Finally, for some models they have an uplift/offset blade which drops the cutting edge down about 1.5" for those that want a short cut w/o dragging the skids.

I currently have Woods cutters in 5', 6', and 8' models and the reasons I've never had anything but Woods are:
1. Superior engineering, right gauge of steel in the right places, gussets strategically located, I rarely have to weld on them
2. Quality of cut due to good deck design and fast blade speed
3. Ease of maintenance, blade attachment design is heads above anything I've seen on other products, serviceable bushings in the tailwheel assembly

I've TRIED the suction blades from Woods on a BB840. They made a bad situation far worse. (scalping) They didn't provide any better quality of cut, and they did tend to pick up rocks and beat the daylights out of the deck, which is no heavier than most competitive brands.

STANDARD blades that come OEM on Bush Hog medium and heavy duty mowers do a MUCH better job, and don't have the list of negatives as extra baggage.

I own a mowing business. Over the course of a year, we use a mower the equivilent of many years of "average use" for the average user. (pair or 6'ers and a 7'er with over 800 hours (each) logged this summer alone. 15' batwing with 500+ hrs since April) I've had "good luck" with Woods, but far better luck with Bush Hog mowers. The LAST of my Woods mowers go away after this season to be replaced by Bush Hog products. The Woods mowers have a history of gearbox issues. (seals repeatedly failing, excessive gear wear, lower bearing failures, ect) Comparable Bush Hog models have substancially less mechanical issues in same conditions.

The Woods blade attachment design is nice. With 4 mowers running full time, I've had the need to remove blades exactly ONE TIME, on ONE MOWER. Not a real "make or break" factor one way or the other.

Woods offers a good "consumer grade" mower for home-owners and light use, but for hard commercial use, their best is marginal compared to what Bush Hog and Alamo Group (Alamo/Rhino/Shulte) have to offer. VERY seldom, if ever, will you see commercial mowing contractors using anything but Bush Hog or Alamo products. Nothing else holds up like they do. And with Bush Hog, I haven't had the need to re-fit with optional blades to do satisfactory work. They come ready to work without any changes.