Which Brand Finish Mower?

[Kelvin]

After putting it off for almost two years, I have decided to go ahead and buy a 72" rear discharge 3-pt finish mower. It will be used on my Kubota B2150. I'll finish mow about 4 acres, mostly gently sloping with a small area slightly steeper. I am currently using my older B7100 with mid-mower to mow the area, and will continue to use the B7100 for the steep parts if need be.

Brief Summary of Reasons for mower selection: (1) I like mid-mowers a lot but don't like the design of the mid-mower for the B2150 and am not ready to trade tractors, (2) 3 point mowers are cheaper, and (3) The 72" rear discharge should still fit on my 6.5' wide trailer whereas 60" would be the maximum width side discharge that would fit.

My Options at local dealers for rear discharge mowers are(prices before any bargining):

Bush Hog RDTH-72 (72"; 588lbs) - $1525
Woods (72"; >600lbs) - $1525 (same price & dealer as Bush Hog)
Farm King (72"; 618 lbs) - $1200
Land Pride (72"; 594 lbs) - >$1600 (lost my notes)

The first three mowers are in stock items; the Land Pride dealer does not like rear discharge mowers and doesn't keep them in stock (said he had too many complaints...it that a Land Pride problem?).

Bird...I know that you have a Bush Hog brand 5' rear discharge mower on your B2710 and like it a lot. Did you also use that same mower on your previous B7100?

I think that any of the first three will do just fine (I am currently leaning towards the Bush Hog brand). At this point I am mainly looking for problem areas that people have had (or heard about) with these mowers. And comments on prices wouldn't hurt either (how much bargining should I do?).

Thanks in advance...
Kelvin

 

[Muhammad]

Kelvin,

I've heard great things about the Woods and also the Bush Hog is going to be top notch all the way. I personally like the red paint on the Bush Hog /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif and the quality is going to be there on either. I think the Woods has a slightly faster blade speed and is going to be heavier (would assume a thicker deck) ... a top-3 brand mower will hold its own, in terms of quality, durability, etc. Very similar overall.

Can't say a lot on the prices - except that traveling any distance to purchase at >$100 less on any of them probably wouldn't make a ton of sense. ($100 is probably the range you'd see if you looked far and wide, if that even)

Good luck…

 

[Bird]

Kelvin, I find it curious that your dealer doesn't like the rear discharge mowers. My dealer told me the price was the same on either the rear discharge or the side discharge (and he had both in stock - Bush Hog brand), but said he and his customers preferred the rear discharge. I'd never used a rear discharge mower before, but I think he was right.

From my experience with the 60" mower, I have no doubt that the B2710 would handle the 72" one just fine, but I do wonder whether that size is adviseable for the B2150 (and I really have no idea - it may be great).

Bird

 

[Kelvin]

Bird,
Apparently my local Land Pride (Kubota) dealer has had various customers return and/or trade out of the rear discharge mowers. I don't know how recent that problem was, or whether the mower's problems were related to the manufacturer (I'm assuming either Land Pride or Kubota brand).

Prices: I vaguely remember the rear-discharge Land Prides(which are flat-deck design) being about the same price as the equivalent width "Air-Tunnel" side discharge model. The "Flat Deck" side discharge models were cheaper.

Also, what width is your trailer? Being able to trailer my tractor & mower is very important to me as well. My trailer is 6.5' wide x 16' long and I think that the 72" will fit just fine...but that's one of the tests that I'll perform this week before I turn loose of the money.

Anyone have comments on the Canadian built Farm King brand (www.buhler.com)? I'm afraid that saving $325 on the initial purchase may cost me in the long run. Apparently the company builds a lot of stuff (loaders, mowers; they even have a European tractor in their line up).

 

[Bird]

Kelvin, you say your trailer is 6.5' wide; that's 78". Mine is 76" wide inside the rails, and 16' long. Now a 72" finish mower might have fit; I don't know for sure, but it would have been tight. I don't know the overall width of the 72" mower, but my 60" mower actually has an overall width of 62 5/8", so if the 72" mower only had another 2 or 3" overall width, it would have fit if I were always lined up exactly straight. The dealer didn't have one in stock and I figured this 60" one was plenty anyway for what I wanted, so I just didn't check any further.

Bird

 

[Vernon]

I recently mowed a man's lawn(while he and his family went away for three weeks)and he had the Farm King 60" side discharge mower. All I can say is that it worked great. I had no problems at all. It was even very simple to clean afterwards. I've never seen or tried a rear discharge mower before so I can't help you with that part. Last year i did the same thing and he had a 5 year old 60" Land Pride side discharge mower. It worked well and was relatively easy to clean but the Farm King is built heavier than his Land Pride
model.

 

[Bird]

That's another thing I like about the 3-point mower I have. The Cub Cadet was a fine mower, but grass, mud, etc. had a bad tendency to build up under the deck, and this 3-point mower doesn't have as much build up, and what little there is, is easier to clean out with either the air hose or the water hose.

Bird

 

[Alan W.]

Kelvin I have a 60" Beefco rear discharge on a B-2150. It pulls it just fine even in the heavier stuff and being a rear discharge it doesn't plug up. I think I paid about $999.00 of course that was about 4 years ago. Now for the bad part the mower is used commercially and hasn't held up very well. Its to light for commercial use. Spend the money and get a heavier unit like Land Pride or Bush Hog you'll never regret it. In normal yard mowing the B-2150 should pull a 72" mower just fine. Another thing about the rear discharge I like is that I can put a piece of belting across the rear and not worry about throwing rocks and it doesn't windrow the grass.

 

[Bird]

Now I put some belting on my brush hog (rotary cutter), but the Bush Hog RDTH 60 came with a chain guard on the rear. And from what the manual shows, I'm sure it's standard equipment now; not an option.

Bird

 

[MikeF]

Kelvin,

I have a 16' X 6'6"(w) trailer w Know side's. And last week I demoed a used Landpride 2572 side discharge mower with my new 4310 it fit on the trailer with a little room to spare! I too am going to buy a new mower but I need a rotary cutter first and have a squealer 720 on order, but when I get a rear finish mower it will be a Landpride 25-84" ( and it will fit on the trailer because yesterday I had to lengthin the trailer by 2' to fit the new bush hog! anyway hope this helps.

Mike

 

[ddl]

Kelvin

I have a 60" Woods rear discharge mower, works really good. On e thing that really surprised me was the fuel used in mowing. I have a B2400 and when I mow, which takes about 2 to 3 hours, I use 3/4 of a tank of fuel. I can run my tiller all day and not use that much. So I concluded that the mow "pulls harder" then the tiller. Interesting.

Dan

 

[Kelvin]

Okay, now for the next question regarding rear discharge mowers and chain guards.

The Bush Hog and Woods mowers have chain guards across the back.

The mowers on the two ends of the price spectrum that I am looking at ($1695 Land Pride and $1200 Farm King) do not have chain guards; instead they have the back of the mower "baffled" downward such that any projectiles seeking to hurt someone will supposedly be deflected toward the ground. [In other words, the underside of the deck (just behind the blades) turns about a 45 degree angle toward the ground so that the grass clippings would be deflected toward the ground rather than come out the rear horizontally.] Also, I was told that the chain guard may cause some "grass clumping" whereas the baffle design would be less likely to cause clumping and therefore distribute the grass clippings better.

Does anyone have any experience with mowers using this "deck angle" or "baffle" approach to safe mowing? How is the grass distribution?

 

[W5FL]

I would not have a mower that did not have chain guards or at least rubberized guards. Although the finish mowers are not as dangerous as the big single blade rotary mowers, the tip speed is close to the same. I have seen blades come through the sides of the light weight mowers. Many of these mowers will throw a rock over 100 feet with enough force to kill someone or go through a car windshield.

It is an OSHA requirement that all mowers used commercially be guarded, and chain guards are the only guards that I have seen that are OSHA approved. The reason it is required is because of the danger to other people and property. My family and property are worth as much to me as some other family is to them. Chain guards are expensive, though, and run about $300 for a set. They are NOT required, but recommended for agricultural use - the thinking being that they are used in less dense surroundings.

 

[Muhammad]

I, too, would vote for the chain guards and would not be concerned with clumping as a result of them.

 

[_RaT_]

My Woods mower has chain guards across the back, but most importantly, across the front. If I had to pick, I'd want mine on the front first. My Woods is an 80" model. I can chew up to 2" limbs with it and do. I would not even attempt running over a stick without the chains. The scariest thing would be rocks, which fortunately have all but disappeared from the mowing area. The model I have is so smooth that I can not tell if the pto is engaged, it has four huge belts driving both spindles each with 2 blades. When I hit something hard like a stump, the belts cushion the shock trememdously. Prior to this model, I had a 60" single spindle gear driven, it was fine, but nowheres near as rugged as the Woods I have. Rat...

 

[Kelvin]

I have not read the OSHA mowing requirements; does the chain requirement apply to finish mowing or rotary mowing? Or both? What about side discharge mowers?

Counter Point: From what I've been told (I have not validated this statement), LandPride is the most expensive and supposedly the most capable mower for "commercial" mowing. I don't know about the past, but according to their web site, their mowers [paraphrased] "don't have chains to clot up the grass". I gather that chains are not available, even as an option.

Conceptually, I believe that the deflection design would be as safe as chains, and probably safer. As I understand the design, every projectile comes out of the rear of the rear-discharge finish mower with a horizontal vector and hits the deflector shield and then gets deflected to the ground, thus (1) reducing its energy level substantially and (2) changing the vector downward. If the projectile were to still have enough energy to be a danger after its second impact (the ground), it would have a vector nearly upwards.

The chains, on the other hand, offer only a single impact to reduce the projectile's energy. After impacting the chains, the follow on vector would be unpredictable.

Certainly chains add safety, particularly to mower designs where the rear discharge comes out horizontally without any deflection. I'm not sure that safety is enhanced by any sizeable amount by adding chains to the rear discharge "deflection" designed mowers.

Disclaimer: The "this design is safer than that design" statement is the type of statement that would require a detailed engineering analysis and/or several trial tests to validate. Obviously, I have done neither. While I do have an engineering background, I have not practiced engineering for quite a few years. While I do believe that the deflection design is "conceptually" safer, the finished product may not be as safe as the design.

Hope this wasn't too confusing.

 

[Kelvin]

Re: Which Brand Finish Mower? UPDATE...

I had decided to buy the rear discharge mower today (Friday). Thanks for all of the inputs.

However, after all of the discussions, I picked up a paper today and found a used LandPride 60" Air Tunnel side discharge at a price that I couldn't pass up. I wanted a 72" and got a 60". I wanted a rear discharge and got side discharge. But it fits easily on my trailer and I saved $1000 over the price of a new one. I ran it for 3 hours this afternoon and so far no problems noted.

I think God has a sense of humor. As soon as you spend lots of time figuring out what you think you need (or want), God will humble you by placing an item in front of you which is usually a bit different from your specifications, but usually more appropriate and fills the "need" even better.

 

[gordon]

Re: Which Brand Finish Mower? UPDATE...

You are so right on that one, keeps you thinking doesn't it.
Gordon

 

[W5FL]

I have owned mowers with fabric and chain guards and the deflectors quickly tear and offer no protection until replaced when mowers are used over rough ground. Fabric guards beat the heck out of no guards.

The chain guards last on well designed mowers. Some models allow the blade to hit the chains when the chain mounting brackets have been damaged by backing into un-movable objects (trees).

Land Pride quoted me chains and they were on every Land Pride mower that I looked at. Bush Hog makes a better mower than Land Pride in my opinion. They cost about the same - both are expensive. Cost is why mowers are sold without chain guards.

The medium duty mowers are much safer than the lighter duty mowers. Very seldom do you see chain guards on light duty mowers.

I want the chains on the front worse than the back, but would not have one without chains on both front and rear. My tractor is in front of the rocks that come out the front and I am on the tractor. I am an engineer too, and want to continue to be one.

My mower splits rocks - one goes in and several come out. It also slings pieces of pipe that have been cut completely through 1/4 inch steel walls.

Mowers are dangerous and chain guards are a big help - that is why they are required for commercial use and recommended for all other uses, too.

 

[Kelvin]

Wen, are you talking about rotary or finish mowers? I can understand front and rear chain guards on rotary mowers, but have never seen front chains on finish mowers.

All of my comments have addressed finish mowers only. While I may hit a small rock every now and then, I have never ran over any pipe while finish mowing.