As Roy has stated the rough terrain or what you
state is rough terrain is a huge issue for you with
regard to your decision.
Any hill you have that is above fifteen degrees in slope
is something you only back up or drive down with any tractor.
The purchase of "the tilt meter" offered here by one of the
site sponsors and which is simply attached to the hood of
your tractor is a must to maintain the tractors abilty to hold
traction and avoid a roll over accident as your tractor has a
high center of gravity.
With protecting you and your tractor in mind you need to
seriously consider the followingand if if you are new to
tractors and machinery in general wherein;
with the purchase of six foot wide landscape rake and
in attaching the landscape rake to the tractors front mounts
to protect the front of the tractor and the belly of the tractor
from hidden objects that can be forced up into the engine
compartment by the simple act of driving over them before
you realise something is wrong and thereby causing much
damage to the tractors radiator, oil pans and transmission.
The other major issue is having said brush stuck under the
tractor and the resulting fire hazard related to this, and
said brush jamming the three point hitch linkage control
valves and binding them and limiting the stroke of the
three point hitch and its lifting and lowering ability.
The heat generated by a tractors engine and transmission
will easily create a spontaneous combustion problem with the
tractor and the rotary cutter as the rotary cutter blades
as they create huge sparks when impacting boulders,
large rubble stones, and or metals or discarded metal objects.
Any build up of brush and dust from mowing will be a combustion
source as well offering a readily available source of fuel.
As you live in a fire prone area:
The fire triangle is a huge issue which consist of:
( FUEL) (OXYGEN) (HEAT)
The issues of creating sparks and the result grass fires
by mowing is and ever present possibility with regard to
your purchase decision.
The Fuel is the brush scrub and debris left from mowing or
the brush that is not mowed.
The Oxygen source is the atmospere around the
area you are mowing or desire to mow.
The Heat source is either a lightning strike or the
spontaneous combustion of a fuel source from the
heat of decomposition of the brush or a wild fire that
is the result of arson, a campfire not properly extinguished,
or a lightning strike in a very dry area or a home or the possibility
of a downed electrical wire.
About mowing and the remaining cuttings/brush and
its becoming a potential fuel supply for a fire:
If your brush and scrub is tall and you desire to mow it is
a difficult proposition as your property is near a national
forest supervised by the USDA and the forest service.
The issues with a rotary cutter are that the brushs that is
cut will be long in length and will not decompose quickly
and as a result remain a fuel source.
The rotary cutter will not cut tall brush to smaller clippings
unless the area to be mowed is very short in length and
will not recut it very well as it simpl pick the brush up and
dump it again.
The issue of hidden objects wil also plague a rotary cutter as
it need to be left near the ground to counteract the rotary energy
created by the twin blade system as it is essentaily a flyball governor
of sorts due to the swinging blades which do the cutting.
A flail mower slices the brush into tiny pieces which will decompose
quickly as the flail mowers knives will cut the scrub continuosly as the
mower advances.
The flail mower is much better suited to brush mowing as it slices everything
to tiny pieces and leave little to decompose or act as a heat source.
The flailmower has the ability to allow its rows of knives to fold back if it contacts an
object as a rock or a discarded piece of metal and will not throw it as all the mowing action
is contained under the mowing hood as the material is slced and thrown ove rthe flail mowers
rotor.
The flail mowers knives are easy to change and replace in comparison to a rotary cutter with
much less work involved.
You need a mower as wide or wider than the wheel width of the tractor to aid stability.
The flailmower has a fullw width rear roller that is contact with the ground while mowing reducing
any possiblity of scalping to almost nothing as the mowers hieght is regulated by the rear rollers hieght
adjustment which prevents scalping as the roller is lower than the flail mower knives.
