Should I even consider a 7' cutter?

[LD1]

I find that most time the factor limiting my speed is terrain, obsticals, bumps, etc and not lack of power.

I run a 6' HD cutter and have mowed over 500acres over the last few years. I cannot think of a single job where I would not have preferred a 33% larger cutter if it meant I could enjoy the smoothness of of going 33% slower.

4570man: how is it more "undue wear"?

It's simple. Until I run out of power in low range and first gear, a bigger cutter can be ran.

10' cutter at 3mph vs 5' cutter at 6mph. I'll take the smoother ride.

 

[4570Man]

I have attempted to pull a 72" finish mower with a B7100. It is much harder on the tractor than using the 60" belly mower. The finish mower almost constantly lugs the engine, and then the mower weighs almost 3/4 as much as the rest of the tractor. Just dragging it around is quite a chore.

 

[LD1]

I am actually planning on going to a twin spindle on my L3400. I dont think a ~1250# 8' twin is going to be harder on the tractor physically than my 1100# 6' single.

My most common 3 gears for mowing are Low 4, High 1st, and High 2nd. (4th, 5th and 6th gears). . Which IIRC is something like 3.5mph, 4.1mph, and 5.3mph. My next gear jumps to something like 8mph. There are many times I mow in 6th gear and it is hardly a load. (like the jobs that get cut 4 times a year). The 8MPH gear over-runs the blades and leaves uncut grass. And in the thickest of thick that I have been in, never needed to drop below 3rd gear.

It seems 9 times out of 10 I am slowing down due to bumpy ride, obsticals, unknown ground, etc. And not very often for lack of power.

So given that there are many times where I am going as fast as I can and have plenty of power left, yet never had to touch my slowest two gears, I dont think an 8' twin being 2' shorter and only a tad heavier would give me any trouble at all, nor do I think it will give the OP any trouble with his added HP.

 

[TripleR]

Thanks guys, I have pretty well eliminated the 7'er from consideration. The cheap price I was offered was the main reason I was interested but you all have confirmed what I thought to begin with. In the meantime my dealer has located some heavy duty 6'ers and he has an 8' dual spindle that I still may go with. The 6'HD model is available with one or two tailwheels, not sure why I'd need two on a 6'er but are there any advantages with 2? Only thing I can think of is 2 would give a little less clearance when turning??
Oh and BTW I saw a single spindle 8'er, I didn't know such a beast existed! I don't know if even the old 4020 would handle that thing...

We run 4', 6' and 10', the only thing I can see a dual wheel on a 6' is to keep the sides from digging in when mowing really close or in uneven ground. On my 6'. I use the center mounted tail wheel to keep mine from bottoming out while mowing our road ditches, it rides right on the crest, dual wheels would make this job much harder and as mentioned, turning in close quarters is a bit harder.

 

[Soundguy]

29 hp for a 8 foot cutter is ridiculous. It might work in very thin grass at 2 mph, but it is still putting lots of undue wear on a tractor .

you might be surprised. Our county used to run 12' batwings on ford 3600's

those 3 cyls were? 38 hp engine? and less at the pto.

I probably wouldn't do it myself either with less than my 4600 ford.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

LD1, I'm not saying you don't do it, but it's not a good recommendation for someone who is asking for mower advice. I have an l3400 hst and you couldn't give me an 8 footer to put behind it. I mowed with a woods 60" finish mower and I was disappointed that I had to slow down when I was turning up hill. If you have all the time in the world to mow and enjoy things more power to ya. I prefer to get-r-done so the saying goes.

 

[LD1]

LD1, I'm not saying you don't do it, but it's not a good recommendation for someone who is asking for mower advice. I have an l3400 hst and you couldn't give me an 8 footer to put behind it. I mowed with a woods 60" finish mower and I was disappointed that I had to slow down when I was turning up hill. If you have all the time in the world to mow and enjoy things more power to ya. I prefer to get-r-done so the saying goes.

Thats my point. Just because you can go faster, does not mean you will get done quicker.

IE: 4' cutter at 6mph or a 8' cutter at 3mph is gonna get done in the same amount of time. While others may think that mowing @ 3mph in is slow, I would much prefer that than 6mph because it is gonna be a smoother ride and easier on the tractor while still getting done in the same amount of time.

How fast you can mow in terms of acres per hour has to do with the HP, not the size of the mower. Until you are mowing in your slowest gear, you are NOT out of power. Sure, more power can let you gear up and go faster, but with a given tractor, I want the biggest cutter I can comfortably lift and pull. Again, I slow down alot because of things OTHER than not having enough power. And given an 8' cutter is gonna "feel" lighter than my heavy 6' hanging 2' further back, I am still surprised those that say its a bad idea.

Seems to be this big mis-conception that if you cannot haul @$$ then you dont have enough power. I'll stand by my recommendation to get the biggest cutter you tractor can comfortably handle from a physical/weight standpoint. If it makes you have to mow at 1 or 2 MPH, thats great. Going to a smaller cutter and driving faster aint gonna get you done any sooner.

The OP's tractor is 55HP and 48 at the PTO. And if trailering wasnt a concern I'd be looking at a 10'er.

 

[hunt4570]

So, to the original poster...

Have you considered a flail mower?? I went through the same process you are going now earlier in the spring. I went with a 6 foot flail, mainly due to all the woods I mow in, a 6' rotary is almost 10 feet out behind, my flail only sticks out 3... WAY better maneuverability... better cut too!

 

[Citydude]

I had the same tractor as LD1 and contract mowed with it using a 6' cutter. I recently purchased an L2501 with 18 hp at the pto, I ran the 6' cutter in 2.5' of weeds. Did I have to slow down? Yep, one gear lower. but I still wouldn't run out and buy a 5' cutter just to speed up for that one gear.

 

[dntfxr]

I appreciate the discussion and points brought up. Good food for thought on the tailwheels and all around. A couple points about ground speed and coverage have me thinking. My ground is fairly rough in spots and I honestly think that may be a limiting factor in what gear I choose with either mower. One plus for the 8' dual mower that hasn't been brought up yet is the extra width will reach under tree branches and get closer to some obstacles in a regular pass verses the 6'er, same reason I went with a bigger deck on my zero turn. Conversely though the 6'er will reach farther under limbs by backing it in. And I may be wrong but I would think a heavy 6'er would carry more rotational inertia for cutting larger brush vs the 2 smaller 4s on the dual?? Maybe not. But if I do choose the 8' I will still have my old medium duty 6'er if I needed the option of a smaller deck. And if I did get in stuff that began to bog the 8 any, a slightly narrower swath is no biggie, I had to do it all the time with the b7100 lol. If you can't tell I like the idea of the 8'er just need to figure out if I want to spend the extra for it, or if I'd rather the 3" brush capacity of the hd6'er.
I haven't really looked into the fails lately maybe I should. I remember reading a little on them a while back. Seems like they were very expensive though?