Drum mower questions

Rodeo man

Member
I've just about got to come up with something else to cut hay with by next spring. Disc mowers have just gotten out of sight since I last bought one. Anybody ever actually owned one? I am looking at a zetor. I'd like to buy it before the end of the year, if I decide on a drum mower.
 
I Have an old Galfre 6' cut it is heavy but it does a great job very easy to change blades takes about five minutes to change all eight. The main thing I like about drum over disc is the drum is driven from the top and can handle alot more trash like big rocks and tree limbs with out any damage because of the top head drive.I Have a 1600 Oliver that I use on it some times I also have a 961 Ford that has the HP but cannot lift the thing once you get the thing turning it does not need alot of HP to keep it running
Hope this helps
John
 
Yes, that does help. I have never seen one ran, so any, and all advice is useful. I know the cut is a little narrower, than a disc mower. That doesn't bother me though. I'm interested in their durability.
 
The Good: I have owned several of different makes and currently have a JF with a conditioner. All have been very good mowers and simple machines, not a whole lot to go wrong with them, belts, bearings, ring gears and shafts, all parts for any make I have owned can be sourced after market, or built by a machine shop. They cut as fast and clean as disc mowers without clogging, blades are easy to change and most can be turned over for double life.

The not so good: Most of the three point hitch models turn to the rear for transport meaning you need front weights or a loader on the tractor unless it is a very big tractor, it is best to haul the tractor and mower if going very far because roading at high speeds causes the mower to flex and bounce in the transport position and weakens the hitch and gearbox. When setting the mower up and adjusting the three point hitch third arm care should be taken that the mower is not digging in the ground because the blades dull quickly and it puts undue stress on the drums. It is the same when running the mower across rough fields, if going fast across dips and swales the drums can gouge into the ground and break completely off of the gear box, for the same reason it is best to make sure the field does not have stumps or junk iron laying around because a solid hit at normal speed can tear off a drum. Gear boxes leak, with drum mowers they usually leak down the internal shaft where it will not be noticed during operation, both frequent checking of the gear box and using 00 grease helps to minimize the chances of running out of oil/grease. If I was looking at a used gear box style mower I would inspect and ask to remove the gear box top plug and if it was froze up or painted over the price would go down.


They are good mowers that are cheaper to buy, maintain and operate than disc mowers if properly used and looked after.
 

I have a Reese 2400 that I bought used 4 years ago. I use it on a 1650 Oliver and it handles it just fine. They are a heavy machine, you will need a tractor with some weight to it. I have also used it on my 2440 JD, but it's a bit much for that tractor to handle.

As for my opinion of them, I couldn't be happier with it. No gear boxes to wear out, only a few bearings that so far haven't given me any issues. It cuts every bit as good as a disk mower, and my dad and I have worn out 2 of those in the last 20 years. I don't see anything on this machine that would wear to the point of scrapping it.

Others may have different experience.
 
(reply to post at 17:30:01 09/28/14) [/quo

We had one for a couple years. I believe it was a ZTR 165, it was the smaller model. we ran it with a zetor 4341 4wd tractor (55hp). In the field it did a great job we would cut 40-50 acres with it twice a year. you could run 15mph in hay taller than your waist and it would cut every piece( not recomended to mow that fast though, I just wanted to see if it would do it)
very nice mower just make sure you keep the belts tight( check them every time you go to start mowing)

Now going down the road with this mower can be a little fun is your tractor is light in the front. we took the loader off for most of our hay work and it did ok going down the just remember it is heavy.

1 of our field has some pretty steep section and has a few rock outcropings and it held up well. the nly reason we got rid of it was we needed a bigger mower.

we traded it for a Krone AM 243 3pt. disc mower (no conditioner) i think its the 7 foot model. running it with the same tractor it does a great job too. I have run both of these mower on our 2030 JD and ran both of them fine it just got a little light in the front while transporting the ZTR in transport mode but as long as you pay attension you should be fine.

My neighbor has a JD 2040 running an older model Krone 3PT disc mower and it does a good job with it. he does have a loader on it that he doesn't take off so the weight is there to help him out but it runs it fine.

Now that my book is done i hope this helps. :D

What tractor are you going to be using?
 
What tractor are going to be using?[/quote]

451 Massey Fergueson with a FEL.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I won't be disappointed. I wonder why they never got more popular than they are?
 
(quoted from post at 04:30:41 09/29/14) What tractor are going to be using?

[[i:9d777d8756]quote]451 Massey Fergueson with a FEL.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I won't be disappointed. I wonder why they never got more popular than they are?[/quote]/i:9d777d8756]


You wont be.
4wd? you have the power and with the loader you have the front weight to run either with no problems.

I dont know for sure why they didnt get more popular.
 

Around here they never gained popularity simply because of the weight issue,but we have a lot of steep hillsides here. I have a neighbor that had one and he was telling me about he was going up a steep hill and hit a hump in the hill and the weight of the mower caused the tractor to raise up and turn 90 degrees with him. But they were using a Ford 4610 that had no loader or weights so that was part of the problem.
 

I had a big three drum mower. It was very hard to mount, and was a big load for my 70 HP tractor. my haying partner of the time had a two drum Fahr. it was a load for the DB 43 HP that I had at the time. My partner liked to do everything fast, and once when he had the mower in the air while making a sharp turn in the center of the field he broke the right lift arm on the DB. I needed to crimp the hay so I went with a MoCo.
 

I really like our Krone disc mower. it cuts great. we almost always tedd our hay and i havent really seen must differance in dry time between running a conditioner and not running one. maybe since we tedd it before we rake it.
 
Don't want to hijack the thread here - but I've
been thinking about drum mowers too.

I could just buy hay for an awful long time
with what I'd have to spend on a new moco.

Drum mowers seem to be priced much more
reasonably.

My big fear is no conditioning. I live in the
northeast (MA) so I ted. I'm not sure what a
difference it'd make by not crimping the hay.

Would love to hear from anybody in this neck of
the woods that uses one.
 
I may have responded to this on another related site or
somewhere herein but will add a couple of comments regardless.

Probably the reason for lack of popularity is that you only have 2
drums and like the riding lawn mowers, 2 blades are usually
maxed out at a 46" cut. So to get on out to 52" and wider you
have to have 3.

The drum on the 6' is right at 3' and that's getting pretty wide.
The disc, on the other hand run many shorter discs so you can
go on out to like 9' and the larger operators need this for
economy of scale reasons.

The drum is bullet proof with few moving parts and solid. There
are 2 discs, the bottom one independent of the upper, rides on
the ground, and supports the weight when mowing. The
gearbox is belt driven (4ea. 3/4" HD) from the PTO box, and is at
the top of the mowing section with each drum connected to a
common drive shaft, oil bath emersed, via a pinion for each. The
drums run on sealed ball bearings at the top and bottom of the
drum support shaft. That's about all there is to it.

Cost per foot is about half of what discs cost probably due to the
few parts required to perform the operation.

I do not need a conditioner with grass but for sorghum-sudan, I
found an old NH 404 conditioner that I use on sudan to crush
the stems. This requires a second trip and that too is one reason
for the lack of popularity (opinion). The MOCO solves this and
the disc is more adaptable to that (opinion).

However when comparing a disc to a comparable functional
managing tool, the sicklebar, there is no comparison. (fact!)

To mow, as with the other cutters of the type, it is out to the side
of the tractor. With the 3pt raised, there is considerable lateral
weight on the tractor and it has to be large enough to be able to
tolerate that. Once you drop the 3PT, all the weight except for
the 3PT framing and PTO gearbox (centered behind the tractor) is
riding on the ground.

My 57 PTO tractor loafs with my 6' cutter. I got it from Phil at SFI
in Central TX. It's made in Turkey and I have since found that
the company manufactures the cutter under numerous labels.

Obviously I like mine and as such go to the trouble to inform
others as to why.

HTH,

Mark
 
I've a 52" Model 2555 bought from SFI in Texas. I only mow a couple acres of alfalfa. The positives are the ease of changing out the blades and low cost of blades, it don't plug and the durability and the purchase price and I can pretty much just hook up and go mow without too much fiddling around. The negatives are it can be a pain mount to the 3point. The good advise given here is Keep belts tight and keep the drum level with the ground otherwise you eat up the blades. I like my mower and feel it was very good investment. bjr
 
Bought a Reese back in '99. Have cut about 20 acres 3 or 4 times a summer. Have had zero problems till last yr. Had a bearing go out on one of the spindles. Found the correct replacement at a bearing supply, swapped sides with the drums, and plan on running it for 15 more yrs. I am located in SE Ala and the fire ant hills can be tough. The reese sails thru them no problem. Only disappointment is lack of nearby dealer, but the WWW solves that problem nicely.
It is heavy, I cut with a 4000 3 cyl ford, with no issues. Disc mowers are probably better, but for the difference in $$$ the drum mowers are hard to beat.
D Sellers
 
I have a MINOSagri, 190. 7footer for metric challenged. Run it on a MF 180 - 60hp class tractor. Do have a full rack of weights, but don'thimk it's really needed. Tractor has enough mass to handle it, and plenty of power. They don't need a lot of power. Mine too was made in Turkey. Well built and heavy construction. Once I figured that if you put it in travel mode when you park it, it's not hard to hook up. I do block up hitch with some blocks to hold it up off the ground about a foot. Have cut on some pretty hilly fields and never felt uncomfortable about instability - even on side hills. Cuts fast and fairly clean. Sort of windrows the hay. I usually combine two windrows with my 5 bar 3pt rake. Drying times seem a out the same as sickle cut hay. Drum mower does beat up on the hay just a bit which helps. Blades cost $10 a set from TSC. Unfortunately,I have a bunch of small rocks and ground mole hills - blades take a beating. But takes less than 15 minutes to replace blades and they're reversable. Far less maintenance than a sickle bar. Far faster too.
All said, I'm very happy with mine. Revolutionized my hay cutting. Not going back. I can keep up with larger disk units, and haybinds. Since it is 3pt, is highly manuverable.
 
(quoted from post at 19:48:58 09/29/14) 1.9 meters = 6.23 feet. What is the widest cut drum mower that anyone has seen? How many drums?

As I stated in my earlier post I had a three drum. It probably cut 8 feet. I swapped a Tedder for it, and got it primarily to be able to cut second cut grass hay cleaner and faster. It did that but it was a big load for my 70 HP tractor, and was a bear to mount. When I upgraded to a disc MoCo, I sold the drum. here in the Northeast, crimping is vital to drying hay.
 


Well I guess ours were built by the same company as mine is a model 190 also but also carries a SFI model (DM3575).

mvphoto11577.jpg


Don't know what's wrong here. I have uploaded this picture elsewhere on the www and it came out clear.

Mark
 
Just a suspicion, because I haven't actually stood by one to investigate. I think many drum mowers are the same, with a different brand name. I'll be traveling to see my first one early next week.
 
You may get along with a drum mower for a while... but just about all of them around here came and went, in a heap.
Personally, I'd take my chances on a used disc mower first. Your mileage may vary.
The guys I know that had drum mowers found them fast compared to a sickle bar that they replaced and slow compared to the disc mower that eventually arrived. The ones that staggered on with the drum mowers got fond of replacing bearings and shafts....
The way I see it, you get what you pay for. Those thing are cheap and made cheap. Zetor is also not something that ever inspired much confidence...


Rod
 
should be able to drive 6 or 7 disc mower with 40
some hp...heck when i was a kid, we had a 10ft
taarup disc mower conditioner that we drove with
an IH 574 (just over 50 pto hp)...
 
My money don't come easy. I sure don't want waste it, if a drum mower is not going to be reliable. Also, it might be hard to sell. Now you've got me wandering.
 
A mounted disc mower will probably take a bit more power but only slightly. If you stay in the same size category you can still easily run one with 40 hp. We ran a 7' PZ disc mower/conditioner on a Ford 4000 for several years. 52 HP... it worked it hard... but that's 7' cut with conditioner. If you go with a pull type MoCo... then yes, you'll need a bunch more power and weight to drag it around.

Rod
 
I would suggest talking to someone who has had one for a long time and done 30-40 ac a year with it... see what their response is.

Rod
 
(quoted from post at 11:05:07 10/01/14) A mounted disc mower will probably take a bit more power but only slightly. If you stay in the same size category you can still easily run one with 40 hp. We ran a 7' PZ disc mower/conditioner on a Ford 4000 for several years. 52 HP... it worked it hard... but that's 7' cut with conditioner. If you go with a pull type MoCo... then yes, you'll need a bunch more power and weight to drag it around.

Rod
I have never seen anything called a disc mower that wasn't a disc mo/co. pull type or front mounted. Do they make just a disc mower w/o conditioning rolls?
 
yeah, you can get from 5ft up to about 12 and a
bit ft wide,three point hitch mount and working
off to the side just like a drum mower,
here...
 
(quoted from post at 15:24:05 10/01/14)
(quoted from post at 11:05:07 10/01/14) A mounted disc mower will probably take a bit more power but only slightly. If you stay in the same size category you can still easily run one with 40 hp. We ran a 7' PZ disc mower/conditioner on a Ford 4000 for several years. 52 HP... it worked it hard... but that's 7' cut with conditioner. If you go with a pull type MoCo... then yes, you'll need a bunch more power and weight to drag it around.

Rod
I have never seen anything called a disc mower that wasn't a disc mo/co. pull type or front mounted. Do they make just a disc mower w/o conditioning rolls?

I believe that all the manufacturers make 3 pt. disc mowers. I have even seen trailer type disc mower with no conditioner.
 
Yes, most mounted disc mowers have no conditioner. Kuhn even has a PT with no conditioner. I'm not sure what the idea is on that one... but they have it.
The mounted disc mowers with rolls are not a real big thing in north America from what I see... much more common in Europe I think. Pottinger would probably be about the main supplier of that type of thing for this area though Kuhn is probably the most common straight mounted disc mower. I have an older NH 465 which is actually a Kuhn GMD77. It will work with about 55 hp for a 9' cut. The PZ (Zweegers) Falzet 230 I mentioned is about the last thing I'd ever want to own again. We burned up a pair of them before we went with the Kuhn. That was over 20 years ago and it's never been opened... yet.

Rod
 
No doubt they do. I've never looked. I still don't really see what the point of it is... but I guess people have choices if they want them.
From my own perspective I don't mind the mounted disc mower for some things. Great for cutting ditches and rough fields because it's light and can float a lot better than a PT...
I prefer a PT mower but if I'm going to deal with that weight behind me I want a conditioner too.

Rod
 
Having trouble getting a replacement drum for my CCM 190. Hit a harrow in a field 2 years ago. Banged it out with a hammer and torch to make it usable for the rest of that year. Tried to get a replacement new drum from 2 dealers this spring and they were unable to get me one.

Nuff said...

John
 
(quoted from post at 13:46:44 10/03/14) Having trouble getting a replacement drum for my CCM 190. Hit a harrow in a field 2 years ago. Banged it out with a hammer and torch to make it usable for the rest of that year. Tried to get a replacement new drum from 2 dealers this spring and they were unable to get me one.

Nuff said...

John

That's not reassuring. The guy said he had all parts available on the phone last week. I may be rethinking getting one.
 
Responding to my post from Oct 2014 above...

I got a new drum in December. I bent up the old drum around 12 months earlier (spring of 2013, hit a harrow in tall grass at 3-4 mph). I had to take a torch to it to bang it out and make it usable (twice to get it to not vibrate), then cut with it for about a year. Will now get to replace the drum this spring.

The cutter works pretty good. I worry about needing odd parts down the line. When you get stuff from European eastern countries (and south) you wonder if they will be with you for the long haul. I think not being able to get a part for a year is unacceptable. Yes, the mower survived a pretty catastrophic event that would have tore the chit out of a disc mower, I will give them that. But really, a year for a new drum...not good. I bought the mower from haytools but carter and carter was able to get the drum for me. No slight to haytools. They referred me to carter and carter when they did not have one. Problem is they do not seem to have a large pipeline of replacement parts readily available, at least in this case.

Looking back, I should have bought the used vermeer 7 footer that a buddy had rather than buying a new drum mower. The used one was $1400 more than I paid for new, but would have been the smarter move.

Probably will upgrade sometime, and keep this as a spare. Doubt I could sell it around here...

John
 
Learning alot from this thread. Like some of you I have to buy something to mow hay with this summer. We had a 5' Fella disc mower we liked but it developed a leak in the bar. Mowed with a used 7'10" Krone AM 242 for a couple years but it was just to much for a Ford 4600 and some of my little steep hay fields.

There are no drum mowers being used in my neck of the woods but there is a CCM/HayMax and a Kuhn dealer about 1 1/2 hours away - and like most of you have mentioned the drum mowers are about 1/2 the cost of a new disc mower. The Kuhn is about $1,000 more......, but how do these mowers do on steeper hill sides compared to a 5-6' disc mower. Is there much difference? What about the difference between the Kuhn and HayMaxx?
 
My Haymaxx CCM 190 does pretty well on hills. If you let the mower be on top of the hill as you pass along sideways, it is really stable. That is because the heavy mower stabilizes the tractor. Going straight up and down also fine. Makeing a turn on a hill to the up side always gives me the willies. But to be honest, I hate cutting hay on hills.

I have 2 gripes with the mower. One is the parts pipeline which we discussed earlier.

The other is the single windrow. In really heavy grass, was having trouble getting it to dry on moist ground. My rake is a 6 wheel V-Rake. I would let it dry and then rake it. Inevitably I would end up with green balls of hay that would hang on the rake and roll up. (Part of this is the rake's fault). If I rake again, it just got worse. Hit one of those balls with the round baler and they tend to wrap on the feed roller and clog the bale. Can be frustrating. This last year, I bought a 2 basket hay tedder. Now we are cookin! I made the best hay ever this year. I cut on day 1 in afternoon, ted following afternoon, then rake and bale the third day. Works quite well.

I cut and bale with a 65hp diesel tractor. I can cut a 12 ac field in 3-4 hours depending on how many turns usually in 5th or 6th gear. I ted and rake with a Ford 2000 3 cyl with power steering and an 8 speed. I can ted 6 acres an hour with this little 2 basket tedder. I run in 5th or 6th gear and really spread the hay. Rake in 4th gear. So I am spending a bit more time on the fields but finally making good hay and not plugging the round baler all the time.

I used this system on alfalfa once. Was not happy with the results. Around here you just have to crimp the alfalfa to get it right. My buddy uses a deere discbine with flails instead of rollers. He makes perfect alfalfa hay with that mower. If I upgrade, I will probably go that way.

John
 
I hate cutting hay on hillsides too John - but that's most of what I've got here in ETN.

The heavy windrowing sounds troublesome - we usually always have to kick (ted) our hay to get it ready though. I know what you mean about balls of green hay - I've spent some time unclogging our Hesston roller!

Two neighbors have discbines - the rest of us use either disc mowers and there are a few Superior sickle bar mowers around (though there aren't many left). Thanks for the input!
 
ive cut about 45 acres with it so far. Got a late start due to the weather. About that many more to go, and then hopefully a second cutting on the entire 90. It cuts really good close and clean. I can't speak to the reliability, because I have t used it but part of one season. It came with 6 replacement blades. I had heard/read they go through blades fast. I went ahead and ordered 36 more. They were at the dealers in slightly less than 24 hours. Come to find out, it doesn't go through blades as quickly as I had heard. Due to the cut width, they probably aren't for everybody, but they definatly are for me. 10 year old son has ran it far more than me. Ive just squared up fields with it, and cut a spot or two that might get confusing for him.
 

I know this post is a little stale, but I just ran across this picture of my 6' drum in action. Thought you might enjoy it in that it gives you a first hand idea what the little suckers can do.

Since the picture was taken, I replaced the right hand rod with a hydraulic cylinder as I mentioned earlier so that i can stow it in a vertical position for transport, rather than having to undo it and move it to the rear.




mvphoto23009.jpg


mvphoto23010.jpg
 
Did you buy the SFI kit for that or build it yourself? Post a pic. I have the CCM 190 which looks like a twin to yours.

John
 

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