Rotary Cutter Which 5' cutter to get

[RSKY]

Rudeness has crept in to all aspects of American society. I have played Spades on the Microsoft Zone website for more than ten years. When I started everybody was polite and friendly. Now even if you are winning your partner will cuss you out and ridicule you. So TBN is not the only place it happens. It is so prevelant that even when someone just means to offer friendly advice it is taken as an insult.

Welcome to a Socialist society.

 

[TripleR]

Rudeness has crept in to all aspects of American society. I have played Spades on the Microsoft Zone website for more than ten years. When I started everybody was polite and friendly. Now even if you are winning your partner will cuss you out and ridicule you. So TBN is not the only place it happens. It is so prevelant that even when someone just means to offer friendly advice it is taken as an insult.

Welcome to a Socialist society.

Agreed, I use to participate in a Yamaha Rhino and Yamaha Grizzly forum as well as one in a local newspaper and quit some time ago due to people flaming each other, name calling, getting banned and coming back under another pseudonym.

It is not like that on TBN though it seems to be heading that way to a much lesser extent. I expect there will come a time maybe not in the too distant future when I stop posting here too.

 

[canoetrpr]

To be honest I have found this, and continue to find this to be the most polite forum on anything that I participate in.

TripleR, I value your input here and hope that you will continue posting.

People are often passionate about their point of view and I see no problem with it and strong disagreements as long as they are polite. Frankly I find that unless it comes to politics things stay to be passionate discussion here.

I have found the discussion on rotary cutter's vs. flail mowers in this topic very useful.

A couple of years ago I got started learning a bit about welding and joined the Millermatic forums. I found many of the people there to be incredibly rude. I haven't done much welding since and might have been more encouraged with better support. I'm happy to see a welding forum here as a result and when I get some time, I might take something on again.

 

[iwalsh]

This Reply is for everyone. I thank you for the information that you have all submitted. I will say this, at the point when it got to a drawn out thing between flail and rotary mowers we lost perspective of the question(s) proposed. I do appreciate being told about them, and what they do. Information was noted. Flail is not what I am looking for or want. As far as the going back and forth about dangers and so on... I have had rotary cutters before a long time ago. I have also scene my riding lawn mower, and push mower throw scuff, break stuff and hit people, it happens. I think it is personally obvious that if you are using a mower and it has a large open area you should have something covering it to lower the chance of something being thrown far, (ie. chain, rubber). Also Regular maintains of making sure things are moving properly and tightened correctly is also a given. I/we have made a living in the safety industry so to use that is pretty second nature. I/we are trying to get feedback on cutters. I have come to the conclusion that a regular/light duty of a decent brand will do good. Maybe even go up to a 6' if I take my time and pay attention to what I'm doing, at least if I stick with a 30hp tractor. 10' is just not gonna happen, thanks anyway.

 

[BlacknTan]

I agree with the gentlemen here that bemoan the loss of civility. I never posted on these type of forums much, and this is the reason.
Facts are very elusive, and I've yet to meet the person that has them pinned down! What we are ALL posting here is OPINION, which can be colored by our personal experiences, wants and needs. To further complicate the interaction on a computer is the lack of face to face contact. Some folks feel that their OPINIONS somehow have more validity than the next guy's. Some people just need to feel adored by seeming to be the expert.

Internet forums would be much friendlier places if we could all learn to express our opinion, and leave the next guy's alone!

I've yet to meet the person that has a lock on knowledge... in any field!

We can all learn something..

 

[BlacknTan]

To:
Greg G
&
Farmwithjunk

I will ask you the two of you to please stop using my posted question for what ever it is between the two of you. If you have an answer to MY post then please just answer it, no need to try and say things about each other. I would appreciate it.

The internet is a dichotomy..

It can be both a great place to glean information, and the worst place to obtain it... It's up to the user.
The individual needs the ability to be able to seperate the wheat from the chaff. Unfortunately, there is often precious little wheat amongst the mounds of chaff... We each need to be able to discern the difference.

And, after the original post, threads often develop a life of their own. They can twist and turn in a myriad of directions... It's all part of the game, and seperating the wheat from the chaff...

 

[Dargo]

as FWJ said. highher initial cost, higher maint cost.. more parts to fix / replace.. and let me tell you.. if you think hitting a discarded tire is a teeth rattling affair on a rotary cutter.. hit it with a flail.. at least on the rotary cutter you might just pop a shear pin or slip the clutch, scare the bajeebers out of you and/or leave a blunt ont he blade to file out. In the flail.. you might be left make a strip where it ain't cutting..

soundguy

I have never used a flail mower, so I cannot make any comment about them; good or bad. However, as I've mentioned before, I took exactly 1 contract mowing a highway median that began .5 miles from my house and went for 5 miles. To be polite, I lost my hind end on that job! I hit everything possible hidden in 3' tall grass it seems, including rotted deer carcasses, rocks, plenty of disgarded trash, a dang section of barb wire about 50' long and, the worst, several "gatorbacks" (as I learned they are called), the retread part off of semi tires. Besides the potential damage to my equipment, it took 6 full hours with 2 people working to get a 'gatorback' out from under a rotary mower being pulled by a 120 hp PTO tractor!

I'm not sure we ever got a single mowing completed without issues. Litterbugs really tick me off. If you don't clean up the litter before/after you cut, it looks terrible and sometimes I wouldn't get paid until I cleaned up the mess. My contract was to mow; period. Nowhere in the contract did it say that I was the caretaker of 5 miles of median and that I would fill two dumptrucks with trash each time I mowed. God bless the guys who make a living doing such jobs! It is NOT an easy way to make a living. I won't bore anyone with the numerous stories I can tell from just one season, but it sure wasn't easy work. Unless flail mowers are extremely tough, I don't see how they would work well for cutting tall grass; especially if you don't know what you may find in that grass. Again, I've never used a flail mower, so that's just my opinion.

 

[BlacknTan]

I've never used a flail, but after hitting numerous rocks (that seem to appear every year) with my rotary, I thought a flail might take the abuse a bit better.
I called BEFCO and spoke with a tech. He informed me in no uncertain terms, that the opposite was true. His opinion was that the flail would not stand up to the abuse a rotary cutter has to take, and that the biggest issue was the rotating drum going out of alignment. It seemed to make sense.
So, that was the end of the story for me... When I don't know, I seek the advice of folks that do and give their knowledge some weight..

 

[TripleR]

iwalsh, I apologize for getting off topic.

 

[Don87]

I have never used a flail mower, so I cannot make any comment about them; good or bad. However, as I've mentioned before, I took exactly 1 contract mowing a highway median that began .5 miles from my house and went for 5 miles. To be polite, I lost my hind end on that job! I hit everything possible hidden in 3' tall grass it seems, including rotted deer carcasses, rocks, plenty of disgarded trash, a dang section of barb wire about 50' long and, the worst, several "gatorbacks" (as I learned they are called), the retread part off of semi tires. Besides the potential damage to my equipment, it took 6 full hours with 2 people working to get a 'gatorback' out from under a rotary mower being pulled by a 120 hp PTO tractor!

I'm not sure we ever got a single mowing completed without issues. Litterbugs really tick me off. If you don't clean up the litter before/after you cut, it looks terrible and sometimes I wouldn't get paid until I cleaned up the mess. My contract was to mow; period. Nowhere in the contract did it say that I was the caretaker of 5 miles of median and that I would fill two dumptrucks with trash each time I mowed. God bless the guys who make a living doing such jobs! It is NOT an easy way to make a living. I won't bore anyone with the numerous stories I can tell from just one season, but it sure wasn't easy work. Unless flail mowers are extremely tough, I don't see how they would work well for cutting tall grass; especially if you don't know what you may find in that grass. Again, I've never used a flail mower, so that's just my opinion.

Actually, in trucker lingo.......it's just "gators".

We call them that for a reason.

Just like an alligator, they lie in wait for an unsuspecting person...........then they jump up and bite you hard, sometimes causing severe accidents......and even deaths.

Nothing like hitting one with a tractor-trailer at 70 MPH and having it rip the airlines off your trailer..........instant brake lockup at 70MPH, Oh Joy.

Or hit it with your truck, and it goes thru the windshield of the car that's been tailgating you for the last 10 miles.