suspended mmm vs ground contact

[eyedoc]

I have been comparing the JD 2520 with the Kubota b2x20 series and the b3030.
I really like the 3 speed hydro on the kubotas and have been leaning heavily toward the b2920 because of the compact size and the suspended mmm. I will probably do more mowing than anything else but will use the FEL and occasionally the box blade. I don't think that the lack of position control on the 2920 will bother me. Alot of the areas on my farm that I will be mowing are a little rough and hilly, including some areas in woodlots that I want to keep groomed. I think that the suspended mmm will be better for this type of mowing than the "parallel linkage" of the B3030 or 2630. The dealer says the parallel linkage is essentially just a ground contact mower. I also like the dial adjustment on the 2920 better than having to adjust the individual wheels on the 3030's deck.

Does anyone have any useful input on this subject? All opinions are welcome.

By the way. How are you supposed to use the split break pedals to turn when you have to use the same foot to maintain power on the hydro pedal during the turn???

 

[Volfandt]

Suspended mowers are considered to give a nicer finish cut, as evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of commercial mowers use suspended decks.
They are less likely to gouge the turf, especially in turns and are considered to give a more uniform appearance to the finish cut as they maintain the same cutting height over slight rises and depressions.
They also don't get beat to death on rough terrain.

Otoh, some say that the contour following ground contact mower gives as good a cut and if set up with full length rollers, they produce those signature "stripes" in well manicured lawns. In the case of larger rises they are less likely to scalp as they'll ride over it easier.
Some big names in lawn mowing used ground contact mowers such as Simplicity and Wheel Horse.

I've had both and I personally prefer the suspended mower as most of my lawn is former pasture that can be pretty rough on machinery. I feel I can mow at a faster speed and get a great finish cut w/the suspended mower.

 

[Lindy]

I have a 54" suspended deck on my JD 325 garden tractor, and a 72" ground contact belly mower on my Kubota B3030.

I finish mow about 5 acres, about 75% of which is reclaimed pasture/farmland. I prefer the ground contact mower between these two for my situation. With the suspended deck on the JD, it seems I'm forever fiddling with the deck leveling settings to get a uniform cut. Even once I get it close, I still get uneven strips, swirls and swoops when I turn corners at the end of a row. The Kubota ground contact mower is easier to use in this regard. I "set it, and forget it". It provides even, uniform cuts no matter how many times I circle, turn, reverse, or go over an area.

Yes, this is a comparison between a garden tractor and a compact tractor, so maybe it's not apples-to-apples. The JD is 7 years old, and the Kubota is brand new. But this has been my experience.

Re: the split brake pedals -- I've never had occasion to use them on my B3030. Can't think of anything that I do that might ever require it. If I ever do need to do that, the B3030 has a hand-controlled cruise control that can be set. This will free up your right foot to use the brakes. (But now that I think about it, the brake pedal, at least when they're connected together, releases the cruise control ).

 

[art]

I've had very few people that have perfered a ground engaging deck vs the suspended maybe 5 out of 1000. I like the suspended for lower mainentence costs and the versatility of easy adjust height.

The brake issue brought up by the last poster, why would anyone want to buy a tractor that has unique controls to the rest of the industry? When I have older farmers that retire and they see the brakes on the left, their most common reponse is "who is the idiot that designed that, I've been driving tractors for all my life and now they want me to change they way I drive again"! There next question is, "what else do you have?"

 

[Lindy]

I've had very few people that have perfered a ground engaging deck vs the suspended maybe 5 out of 1000. I like the suspended for lower mainentence costs and the versatility of easy adjust height.

Very interesting stats. Since my ground engaging deck is brand new, maintenance costs have not been an issue yet. I agree, it's easy to adjust the height of the suspended deck once it's set up correctly, but it seems as though I'm forever having to monkey around with the setup underneath the tractor to get it leveled properly. Then I bump something, and the alignment is off again. But yes, changing the mowing height is much quicker than on the ground engaging deck -- once the suspended deck is set up properly.

What I really like about the ground engaging deck is that once I get the height set where I want, I don't have to worry about it being aligned right. It IS aligned correctly simply by setting the wheels to the desired height. Sure that takes 3 minutes to do if I ever want to change the mowing height, but that beats all the time I've had to spend trying to get my suspended deck set up properly. Perhaps newer tractors have more reliable set up routines and adjustments than my 7-year old JD 325 .

Who knows, maybe I'll change my mind after I get more hours on the ground engaging deck. For now anyhow, I like it a lot.

 

[Charlesaf3]

I have a b3030 with the 72" mid mount mower.

I find split brakes useful for tight maneuvering in woods. Never used them on the lawn, I'm sure they'd trash it. But when they are useful, they are very useful.

I haven't done it much, but you can use the b3030 mid mount as a suspended mower - raise the wheels up to the max, and then use the 3 pt to adjust the height. voila, suspended mower.

 

[AMR]

I mowed with a BX23 for 3 seasons and this is my 2nd season with my B3030.

I had two issues with my BX23 suspended deck, one was that the bagger caused it to be out of alignment, pushing the chute side down, I could just about overcome that with the 3 ph arms but never all the way, the second issue is that it always scalped on the down hill side when mowing parallel to my hills, drove me nuts, but overall I loved the tractor as a grass cutter, it was a little out of whack but I couldn't tell when I was done mowing

My B3030 deck rides along the ground, when the lawn is mowed the cut looks the same except you can see where the middle wheels ran along the lawn for about a day, overall I love this tractor also as a grass cutter

Regarding bumpiness, I find that if my deck is bumping around so is the entire tractor so either way it is bumpy, I remember my BX23 deck finding this kind of resonant oscillation on a couple parts of my lawn.

Regarding the cut height, no doubt a suspended deck is much easier, you need to be pretty attentive to the charts and graphs to get the B3030 deck set, but I do this once or twice a season while the tractor is warming up.

Overall I bet that given a face-to-face match up the suspended deck would come out the winner but certainly not enough for me to choose another tractor over my B3030, everytime I climb in the seat, even to mow the lawn, I think "yea baby, this is the way to do it!", I love my B3030

Oh, regarding the brake pedal location. When I was in high school and college I worked on a tobaco farm. I used to do a lot of fertilizing and cultivating. I bet I spent 2 or 3 thousand hours on a C cultivating and on an H fertilizing rows of tobaco. Of that time I would say that 1/2 was spent with my foot on one brake, how else can you make a wicked tight turn into a row or stay on a hill it is the only way to keep from burying the down hill plants, the farmer I worked for yelled at me all day long about how to do it. SO brakes are very useful, but not on my B3030. I don't think that I would use them, that is if I could, but I can't because the location is just dumb and I would like meet the engineer that tells me that it is a good location to put them, cuz it ain't.

 

[Bob_Young]

Interesting discussion. My previous mower was a suspended deck JD214. It always did a good job on the lawn, especially considering how rough the lawn is. The mower on my B7610 is ground contact and, for the first two years of ownership, I thought the mowing job it did was inferior to that of the old JD. It didn't bother me much, this is no showplace; but I could see a difference....some streaks, and noticeable unevenness.

This year I tried something different. Instead of lowering my 3PH all the way down when I lower the mower, I lower it just enough to put the wheels in firm contact with a level surface. The 3PH arms are slightly above level when I set it this way (did it on the driveway the first time). This means that for a small dip or low spot, the deck supports on the tractor will assume some of the mower weight and keep it from following the lower contours.

Using this approach, I find the quality of the job much improved. I feel it's at least on a par with the old JD214 at this point. However, if your linkage isn't exactly right, you'll probably be back to the fiddling that goes with a suspended deck to make things perfect.

A big caveat here: I'm not very demanding of lawn appearance, mostly I just want the grass cut. So YMMV.
Bob

 

[orangebluegreen]

I have a B2410 with a suspended Turf Special 60" deck. This deck is basically a BX2200 deck with brackets that fit the B7510/7610/2410 etc. I have not kept up with the new machines and their compatibility, but one could buy the simple three point brackets for the older machine and in effect create their own suspended deck. You wouldn't have the "self leveling" that's built into them but I'm not convinced it does anything any ways. A parts manual for the rck60b-75b will show what parts are needed for the older machines.

After a couple years of use now I have made a few conclusions. I suspect one reason for the ground contact decks is lack of position control. The 2410 has position control and I can set my stop on the fender and return to the same height if I care to use it that way instead of the rear three point adjuster that comes with the suspended deck. I mow at two different heights depending on where I'm at on my property. That would be more difficult with ground contact and no position control. If you mow at one height all the time probably doesn't matter. I haven't done this yet but I have considered getting a second stop for the position control and placing it above the lever rather than below in order to stop the up movement. That way I could use the rear three point adjuster for low height cut and the position control up stop for high height cut.

It took a bit of fiddling trial and error and lots of measuring to get the deck heights level and at the heights I wanted. The length recommended for rods in the owners manual is pretty far off for my usage, I wanted lower cuts than it would provide with OEM spec adjustment. After getting it where I wanted I have not had to re-level in the 2.5 years of use, and I have done some pretty abusive loader work with it on and mowed in ditches that put a lot of side strain on the deck. I thought surely the adjusters would bend but they have not.


One of these days I'm going to get a new ID here since I bought Orange.