Addicted to grass, which mower type ?

[piperboy84]

Looking at a new mower, the self propelled Hayter cylinder type mower I have now does a beautiful job but costs and arm and a leg to sharpen, according to the salesman unless youre cutting the greens at St Andrews a cylinder type is overkill for an airstrip. He's suggesting a rotary type with a spinning blade or loose blades on the end of a blade bar or even a flail topper that will go on the three point linkage on the back of the 60hp Ford tractor. I like the grass cut with a nice finish and am concerned that the rotary or flail with leave an "agricultural" type finish. Another concern with the mower mounted on the back of the tractor is the tractor tires will push the grass down before it gets to the mower.

What's everybody else using, any thoughts ?

[irish seaplane]

I bought the John Deere 1565 front deck rotary mower that used to cut the runway in EINC Newcastle. It does a great job, as it has a lastec flexible deck. It cuts the grass before it drives over it. A flail type mower will leave a white kind of finish on the top of the grass.

The rotary mowers for the back of small tractors, like the 5400 John Deere we have at home are good. You would want one mounted on wheels rather than on front and back rollers which tend to wipe the ground.

We had the cylinder mower you speak of, and it was a royal PITA. The grass needed to be both short and dry. The maintenance was close to witchcraft to keep it right.

[Proteus9]

how smooth is the ground? we've had a few of the kubota diesel rotary deck mowers and they're great for long or wetter grass. The cylinder gives the best finish but does not like long / rough grass. For a strip I'd be tempted to go for a tow along gang mower behind a tractor. but you are in for a bit of adjustment to keep them cutting nicely

[piperboy84]

how smooth is the ground? we've had a few of the kubota diesel rotary deck mowers and they're great for long or wetter grass. The cylinder gives the best finish but does not like long / rough grass. For a strip I'd be tempted to go for a tow along gang mower behind a tractor. but you are in for a bit of adjustment to keep them cutting nicely

I used to use a Ramsones tow along 7 gang cylinder mower but the price to sharpen was outrageous, I guess the machine they use to sharpen cylinders is quite a expensive piece of kit. The sales guy says a lot of folks are dumping there cylinder for rotratry unless they have a specific need, primarily due to maintenance costs.

[flyingorthopod]

I have a Robomow for the lawn. It mows my garden three times a week while I'm at work and the grass is fantastic.
One of adequate spec for a strip will be pricey but e.g. https://www.belrobotics.com/en-gb/mowers/bigmow some are designed for large areas and a mower that does the work for you every night or so might be worthwhile.

[piperboy84]

I have a Robomow for the lawn. It mows my garden three times a week while I'm at work and the grass is fantastic.
One of adequate spec for a strip will be pricey but e.g. https://www.belrobotics.com/en-gb/mowers/bigmow some are designed for large areas and a mower that does the work for you every night or so might be worthwhile.

I seen one doing the common areas at the Enniskillen fly in last year, pretty novel little machine but I need to do about 13 acres so I can land in any direction in a cross wind. Plus I'm reasonably confident if I had one and left it for the day some bugger would either nick it or land on it. I quite fancy the Teague wheeled rotary for the back of the tractor. See link

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/teaglem/Product+Brochures/Dynamo_245_brochure.pdf

I guess the decision to be made is do I want one with a solid bar with loose blades on the end or one with rigid blades

[The Ancient Geek]

Loose blades are better when there are stones etc to collide with.
A rigid blade hitting something solid puts nasty shock loads on the motor.

[India Four Two]

My gliding club has about 20 acres of grass that needs to be cut.

We have a tractor with a reel gang-mower, but it is slow and has all the issues associated with keeping the blades sharp.

Last year we acquired two Hustler Fastrak mowers. I was sceptical at first but am now a convert. They are much faster than the tractor, so even though the swath is narrower, the job is completed in less time. Also great fun to drive.

They also make short work of the "fiddly bits" around the hangars and the campground, because of their extreme maneuverability.

Blade maintenance is simple - just replace a worn blade with a sharp one, and then sharpen the worn one at your leisure.

2A7qecllCIA

[SandL]

I use a ransomes 213D on my 2 acre garden second hand about £1,000 when the blades blunt simply but another and use the first as a spare parts dept.
84 inch cutting width with hydraulic drums , gives a great cut.
runs a reliable Kubota deisel (red deisel agracultutal keeps running costs low)
with hydraulic powered drums if you get a jam you sumply move a lever to put the drums in reverse.
these are what councils used to cut school playing fields , many cricket clubs use them.
not good on boggy ground as they are quite heavy (but with wide tyres) and no good on long grass, great for a golf club fairway and because of the width quick for a runway, but dont let the grass grow long between cuts

[scifi]

You say you would like to do 13 acres. That is way beyond what is possible with a ride-on mower, even a 48 inch cut.


Looks like a second hand agricultural mower is required, with at least 7ft cut. These are nearly always equipped with multiple rotating drums, with swing-tips. You can buy the tips by the dozen quite reasonably ( £1 each.)... They do a good job of levelling small bumps and mole-hills.

These mowers mount on the 3 point linkage, and are swung out to the right for cutting, but swung back and trailed for transport. Their cutting angle is adjustable, from 3inch high, right down to the white roots.


I think you need to build up your grounds-keeping equipment. If you have a 60hp tractor, that means you can tow heavy rollers and Verti-Corers if you are keen.
.

[fhegner]

Get some sheeps, goats or other grasseaters. No noise, and fertiliser included. 😀

[Proteus9]

Get some sheeps, goats or other grasseaters. No noise, and fertiliser included. 😀

Cleaning the excrement off is definitely less enjoyable than mowing a strip

[Deltasierra010]

For 13 acres there is only one type you should consider that is a rear mounted rotary on a small tractor
A well reconditioned MF 35 or 135 should cost £3000 or so and a good 2.4m rotary topper from £1500 up S/H or £3500 new if you keep them in good repair you will sell it for more when the time comes.

Don't worry about running over the grass, mow weekly and it will be a lovely finish, the beauty of a rotary is that you can mow wet grass, even in the rain if you need to, just keep the blades sharp.

Don't consider a cylinder type the only work on dry grass and a flail is slower and uses more power.
You might decide a more modern tractor was more desirable, it may not cost much more to buy - but, may cost a lot more to repair, a small JD is particularly complex and expensive.

[India Four Two]

Cleaning the excrement off is definitely less enjoyable than mowing a strip

Particularly if it's from a cow - ask me how I know!

[RatherBeFlying]

My favorite is a Woods Batwing. Just keep at least one spare belt on hand.

[piperboy84]

The gods of laziness must be looking down on me on this mower issue, got chatting to a guy that flies his RC at the strip and who just happens to be the senior mechanic at a grounds care agency that specializes in thae Hayter mower that I have and is keen as mustard to cut the grass and look after the mower, he even volunteered to fix the old 7 gang Ransomes that's been in the back of the shed for 2 years after my attempts to "fix" it went horribly wrong.

Got quoted £4K for this model new from the dealer which I didn't think was bad.
https://www.teagle.co.uk/en-gb/products/grassland/pasture-topper-9.php

To go on the back of this tractor
[QUOTE]https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0I532ODWEosO

[Deltasierra010]

Sorry Paul a topper does not cut grass for baling it cuts all the ungrazed stems after the cows have finished, you could use a finishing mower but don't miss a cut it will not handle long grass.
A topper is a good compromise for any light aircraft strip it will give an acceptable finish and a good finish if you mow weekly.
I cannot particularly recommend Teagle there are stronger machines

[piperboy84]

Sorry Paul a topper does not cut grass for baling it cuts all the ungrazed stems after the cows have finished, you could use a finishing mower but don't miss a cut it will not handle long grass.
A topper is a good compromise for any light aircraft strip it will give an acceptable finish and a good finish if you mow weekly.
I cannot particularly recommend Teagle there are stronger machines

This one came in a bit cheaper and it is supposed to be a bit more robust.And if I'm reading the specs right it's twice the weight of the Teagle and has wheels for height adjustment.

Rotary mowers (http://www.mcconnel.com/rotary-and-flail-mowers/rotary-mowers/_product/26/topper-9/)

[First_Principal]

I can only comment specifically on machines produced in the antipodes but from my perspective a topper or 'slasher' would be an appropriate machine. They're much like a large rotor-cut mower (ie. the disc rotates around the vertical axis) but dragged behind, and driven by PTO from, a tractor. Sorry if that sounds a bit obvious, not trying to teach anyone about sucking eggs, just want to be clear.

Typically (where I come from) these things are rated in hp - or at least the gearbox is - and there are two predominant types of blades. Probably the best for you would be the type that has smaller blades (say 4" - 6" mm long) and the blades are attached to a disc (which in fact may be a square flat plate, just to confuse!).

Others units can attach bigger blades to single (or occasionally multiple) bars - these machines often rotate more slowly, probably something that wouldn't work so well in your environment but ok when you're trying to work through some heavy country (think lots of gorse).

The disc-type are generally adjustable in cutting height and usually run on skids. In my view a single-rotor machine is probably more reliable and less expensive to run, with the downside being that you may not get as great a cutting width and so need a few more passes than a multi-rotor. Multi-rotors may split the driving power via belts or driveshafts and/or gearboxes which requires more power, and obviously have more moving parts to break or wear out.

I have several such machines and the cut would be fine (and has been used :) for an airstrip. I have a smaller '50hp' unit that I use with a Ford 4000, and a much larger 180hp machine that's used on the bigger place with a 100hp tractor. The former produces the best cut from an airstrip perspective but it's probably around a 4 or 5ft cut whereas the larger machine is around 6ft or more I think - they're not handy to where I am to measure, sorry. The multi-rotor unit(s) died and have not been repaired but did an ok job when operating - to be clear these are not hay mowers, something else again (although most are multi-rotor disc cutters).

A link, if Pprune will allow, to some machines along these lines is here (http://fieldmaster.co.nz/product-category/rotary-slashers/), here (http://www.lifestyletractors.co.nz/implements/topper-mower/), or here (http://trimaxmowers.co.nz/topper/). I realise they're way too far away to think of, but it may assist in giving an idea of the sort of thing we consider to be generally robust and something that I think would do a good job for a long time.

FP.

[piperboy84]

Thanks for all the view points the new McConnell Rhino 9 got delivered this morning and I put it to work inspite of it pissing of rain last night it can handle the tough stuff. I looked at the Teagle also with the 9 foot cut but it was 400Kg lighter so I assume this one is more of a heavy duty machine

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0IGWZuqDJ8MTkd

[First_Principal]

Thanks for all the view points the new McConnell Rhino 9 got delivered this morning and I put it to work inspite of it pissing of rain last night it can handle the tough stuff. I looked at the Teagle also with the 9 foot cut but it was 400Kg lighter so I assume this one is more of a heavy duty machine

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0IGWZuqDJ8MTkd

Cool, aerial photo showing the nice parallel stripes? :ok:

[piperboy84]

As soon as the wings are back on I'll get an aerial shot but I suspect the cut will be be as straight as a dogs piss in the snow.

2358

[cats_five]

As soon as the wings are back on I'll get an aerial shot but I suspect the cut will be be as straight as a dogs piss in the snow.



It is really hard to keep completely straight, and it's also easy to accidentally leave 'mohicans' where adjacent cuts didn't overlap. We mow our field in different directions - up & down, and on the slant - to avoid this.

It will have a baptism of fire, after the warmth and now the rain the grass is growing about as fast as it can.

I imagine your strip will now be very visible from the air, wonder if you will ever have a glider pay you a visit? :)

[piperboy84]

I imagine your strip will now be very visible from the air, wonder if you will ever have a glider pay you a visit?

Everybody's welcome, including gliders as long as you can pull 'er up in 500 meters, we get all sorts in here including war-birds, Gyros, weightshifters, the Scottish air ambulance chopper and even some daft bastard in a para thingy where you hang under a canopy and run like buggery with a fan on your back to take off. I'd like to think the visits are a result of my strip maintenance but I suspect it's entirely down to the fine ladies in the coffee shops excellent baking, lunch specials and monster breakfasts with all the fixings.

This link shows a fine example of their efforts:

Tea Room | Murton Trust (http://www.murtontrust.org.uk/index.php/tea-room/)

[cats_five]

Everybody's welcome, including gliders as long as you can pull 'er up in 500 meters...

There would be something seriously wrong to need that much. At the SGC gliders often land diagonally across the north field so as to land into wind. That strip is 200m wide, not all the width is used. :)