Overtaxed
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2016
- Messages
- 371
- Location
- Gaffney, SC
- Tractor
- Kioti NX6010, JD 2720 w/46BH, Honda Pioneer 1000
Well.. I finally broke down and bought a batwing. Found a great deal on a used one (about 1/2 of new price) and pull the trigger last week. And now I'm spending this week kicking myself in the a** for not doing this sooner!
First off, let's talk about the application; I'm mowing about 25 acres of land that's got a ton of trees planted in rows on it. The rows are 14-20 feet apart from one another, so the BW fits nicely (but not with a lot of extra room). I was previously mowing it with a EA 72" brush hog which worked, but it took a long time and wasted the HP of my tractor (don't need 60HP to swing a 6' cutter in grass!). I'd always try to go faster and faster to utilize the HP, but the ground is rough and there's only so fast I can go before I'm beating myself and the equipment to death.
So, enter the BW12. So much faster. I expected it to be about 50% increase over the 6' cutter, it's way more than that. What used to take 6-8 hours is down to about 2. I'm just shocked at how much more I'm getting done, I finished the lawn the other day and was thinking to myself "did I really mow both fields" and went back to the other one just to make sure because it seemed like "there's no way, I started at 1, it's 3, I must have missed something!!". Nope, didn't miss anything, just that much faster!
And the cut quality is a lot better too, I can mow closer (more like a lawn) with the BW12 than I could the 6' rotary, I'm sure some of that is the design, the other thing is that each deck on the BW12 is only 4' across, so I'm getting a lot less scalping when I go lower than I did with the 6' fixed cutter. But the quality of the cut is a marked improvement, you certainly could look at one side mowed with the rotary and the other the BW12 and say "that side is better", no doubt about it.
Onto the machine itself; it's built well, but it's not a "tank". I would not want to use this thing to mow down 20 acres of 3" trees. I think it might take it, but it's obvious, looking at it, that's also not what it's made for. It's not like the batwings that farmers used to pull through fields when I grew up, those things were built like tanks, this is more the "APC" build.
I'm shocked at how much this thing weighs and how much power it sucks down. With the 72" cutter, if it wasn't raised, I hardly knew it was back there. The BW, there's no mistaking it. You feel it when the PTO is engaged, you feel heavy grass, and you know your towing something that's got some weight to it. Not at all "overloading" the tractor, but, I'm not sure I'd recommend this on a smaller tractor frame than mine. And it's rated down to ~30HP PTO, I'm sure it would work, but you're gonna be going slow in heavy grass if you try to do that. Clipping pastures, I'm sure it would be fine on a lower HP tractor, just need to make sure you have the weight to not get pushed around by it.
One thing I was not expecting, there's only 1 hydraulic hose. Not "one set", just one. I'm not actually sure how that works (where is the fluid going when I lower the wings/wheels??) but it does. However, it also means I don't have power down to push the wings, and that's a bit of problem. I have to get out and "kick" the wings down if I'm on a hill at all (the high side won't fall). I'm not sure it's possible, but I'm going to investigate adding another hydraulic line so I can "push" in both directions with the cylinders, that would be a lot nicer. But, man, that "one line" connection does make it easy to hook up. I thought I might need all 3 sets of remotes for this (one for each wing and one for the wheels) or 6 hoses, going down to 1 hose is very nice!
I still have to figure out how best to hook up to it. I've never used my drawbar before and while I'm pretty darn good at getting a 3PT connected, the drawbar not so much. And there's no "nudging it into position" with this mower, it's got to be "right on" or your not gonna get it hooked up! Time will tell if this is a problem or an improvement compared to a 3PT connection, it's just "different" for now until I spend more time with it.
Overall, with a few hours cutting on it, I'm very happy with it. It's a huge upgrade from my fixed cutter for this application. No, your not going to mow down trees with it, but, for that purpose, I have a different machine (Baumalight Brushcutt) which is WAY heavier built and designed to eat the really nasty stuff. So I'm happy with the combo of a super heavy duty smaller cutter and a lighter duty big cutter. I'm going to sell my EA at some point, it works great, it's just that I've got all the bases covered now between the BW12 and the CP560.
First off, let's talk about the application; I'm mowing about 25 acres of land that's got a ton of trees planted in rows on it. The rows are 14-20 feet apart from one another, so the BW fits nicely (but not with a lot of extra room). I was previously mowing it with a EA 72" brush hog which worked, but it took a long time and wasted the HP of my tractor (don't need 60HP to swing a 6' cutter in grass!). I'd always try to go faster and faster to utilize the HP, but the ground is rough and there's only so fast I can go before I'm beating myself and the equipment to death.
So, enter the BW12. So much faster. I expected it to be about 50% increase over the 6' cutter, it's way more than that. What used to take 6-8 hours is down to about 2. I'm just shocked at how much more I'm getting done, I finished the lawn the other day and was thinking to myself "did I really mow both fields" and went back to the other one just to make sure because it seemed like "there's no way, I started at 1, it's 3, I must have missed something!!". Nope, didn't miss anything, just that much faster!
And the cut quality is a lot better too, I can mow closer (more like a lawn) with the BW12 than I could the 6' rotary, I'm sure some of that is the design, the other thing is that each deck on the BW12 is only 4' across, so I'm getting a lot less scalping when I go lower than I did with the 6' fixed cutter. But the quality of the cut is a marked improvement, you certainly could look at one side mowed with the rotary and the other the BW12 and say "that side is better", no doubt about it.
Onto the machine itself; it's built well, but it's not a "tank". I would not want to use this thing to mow down 20 acres of 3" trees. I think it might take it, but it's obvious, looking at it, that's also not what it's made for. It's not like the batwings that farmers used to pull through fields when I grew up, those things were built like tanks, this is more the "APC" build.
I'm shocked at how much this thing weighs and how much power it sucks down. With the 72" cutter, if it wasn't raised, I hardly knew it was back there. The BW, there's no mistaking it. You feel it when the PTO is engaged, you feel heavy grass, and you know your towing something that's got some weight to it. Not at all "overloading" the tractor, but, I'm not sure I'd recommend this on a smaller tractor frame than mine. And it's rated down to ~30HP PTO, I'm sure it would work, but you're gonna be going slow in heavy grass if you try to do that. Clipping pastures, I'm sure it would be fine on a lower HP tractor, just need to make sure you have the weight to not get pushed around by it.
One thing I was not expecting, there's only 1 hydraulic hose. Not "one set", just one. I'm not actually sure how that works (where is the fluid going when I lower the wings/wheels??) but it does. However, it also means I don't have power down to push the wings, and that's a bit of problem. I have to get out and "kick" the wings down if I'm on a hill at all (the high side won't fall). I'm not sure it's possible, but I'm going to investigate adding another hydraulic line so I can "push" in both directions with the cylinders, that would be a lot nicer. But, man, that "one line" connection does make it easy to hook up. I thought I might need all 3 sets of remotes for this (one for each wing and one for the wheels) or 6 hoses, going down to 1 hose is very nice!
I still have to figure out how best to hook up to it. I've never used my drawbar before and while I'm pretty darn good at getting a 3PT connected, the drawbar not so much. And there's no "nudging it into position" with this mower, it's got to be "right on" or your not gonna get it hooked up! Time will tell if this is a problem or an improvement compared to a 3PT connection, it's just "different" for now until I spend more time with it.
Overall, with a few hours cutting on it, I'm very happy with it. It's a huge upgrade from my fixed cutter for this application. No, your not going to mow down trees with it, but, for that purpose, I have a different machine (Baumalight Brushcutt) which is WAY heavier built and designed to eat the really nasty stuff. So I'm happy with the combo of a super heavy duty smaller cutter and a lighter duty big cutter. I'm going to sell my EA at some point, it works great, it's just that I've got all the bases covered now between the BW12 and the CP560.
