Used 5 Or 6 Foot Rotary Cutter. What brand To Look For.

[mo1]

Thank you for the insight.

I had recently bought an RC2060 for a great price I was going to spiff up a bit for use on my 3032E. I had been looking for quite some time for the right deal on a 3038E, wasn't in a hurry.
When I found this deal it came with a basically new RC2060.
My plan now is to get the older, used RC2060 going good and maybe use it. I have a 5 foot Big Bee Agri 5 I use that just won't quit! Great cutter. I have upgraded it to a heavy duty stump jumper and blades and it has surprised me at every turn.
One of these 5 footers will likely get sold when the time is right and I find a deal on a 6 footer. If the deal is good on a 6 footer I can always turn it over when the market is good.
I will be interested to see how a 6 does compared to the 5.
I have a couple 10 acre fields near by that are nice straight up grasses that should be good for testing speeds. The 6 footer would be mostly for that type of mowing to hopefully cut the per acre time down some. As you indicate it may not be the case at this HP level.

We'll see how we do!

If you are regularly cutting a typical field 2-3 times per year to keep the weeds and such knocked down, how fast you can go then largely depends on what kinds of grasses and weeds are growing. You will keep the saplings and brambles cut down well enough mowing that often that they won't be much of a hassle and after a few years you will kill much of that with the repeated mowing. If you get something like johnsongrass that quickly grows to form a thick stalky clump as tall as the rollbar between mows, it is going to require a smaller mower and going a lot slower than mowing a thin stand of short warm season grasses that may only be as tall as your front tire. If your speed is only limited by the cutter getting plugged up, you can probably go about 1.5-2 MPH in the thick stuff, 3-4 MPH if you are mowing a field that looks like a typical hay field, and 4-5 MPH in thin weeds. If your tractor power is the limiting factor, your speeds will be slower. I betcha this will be the case with a 6' cutter in anything but light weeds. I used to have a Massey-Ferguson 1030L which was about the same size as your 3032E and had 23 PTO HP to your 3032E's 25 PO HP. I ran a 5' cutter on it and I can tell you that I would not have wanted to run more than a 5' cutter unless I was cutting only thin weeds. I still had to go slower with that tractor and a 5' cutter than I do with my current Deere 5075E and a 6' cutter in pretty much all cases.

You are going to be taking around 6 hours with either a 5' or 6' cutter to mow an average 10 acre field. At most you may save 30-45 minutes with the larger cutter in thin grasses where you can likely go the same speed with either mower.

 

[wirlybird]

If you are regularly cutting a typical field 2-3 times per year to keep the weeds and such knocked down, how fast you can go then largely depends on what kinds of grasses and weeds are growing. You will keep the saplings and brambles cut down well enough mowing that often that they won't be much of a hassle and after a few years you will kill much of that with the repeated mowing. If you get something like johnsongrass that quickly grows to form a thick stalky clump as tall as the rollbar between mows, it is going to require a smaller mower and going a lot slower than mowing a thin stand of short warm season grasses that may only be as tall as your front tire. If your speed is only limited by the cutter getting plugged up, you can probably go about 1.5-2 MPH in the thick stuff, 3-4 MPH if you are mowing a field that looks like a typical hay field, and 4-5 MPH in thin weeds. If your tractor power is the limiting factor, your speeds will be slower. I betcha this will be the case with a 6' cutter in anything but light weeds. I used to have a Massey-Ferguson 1030L which was about the same size as your 3032E and had 23 PTO HP to your 3032E's 25 PO HP. I ran a 5' cutter on it and I can tell you that I would not have wanted to run more than a 5' cutter unless I was cutting only thin weeds. I still had to go slower with that tractor and a 5' cutter than I do with my current Deere 5075E and a 6' cutter in pretty much all cases.

You are going to be taking around 6 hours with either a 5' or 6' cutter to mow an average 10 acre field. At most you may save 30-45 minutes with the larger cutter in thin grasses where you can likely go the same speed with either mower.

Thanks for the info.
It will be the new to me 3038E that I am considering the 6 foot cutter for. No rush on the cutter so I will search out a great deal!
I find a lot of the time that the limiting factor for speed is how smooth the terrain is. There are plenty of times with the 5 foot cutter I feel I can move faster but it is too rough/bumpy to do so!

 

[RancherGuy]

... I bought a low end 60" Landpride and now I'm replacing the metal deck on it because it works so well (but it rusted out). ...

I have found that rust only occurs if vegetation is left on the top of the deck when cutting is finished. Rain and self-heating if it is thick will greatly accelerate rust. Or when mud + matter is left caked to the underside. Brushing stuff off will save a lot of headaches. Also, once the paint is gone and/or rust starts to appear, I have found that Rustoleum Heavy Rust Primer does an excellent job of stopping rust even after it has started.