Drum Mower - Mowing Height?

Bill VA

Well-known Member
Drum mowers - can you set a cutting height from the ground or is it always fixed from the factory? My sickle mower can mow from probably 1 inch to about maybe 3 inches. Wondering if the drum mowers had any height of cut adjustments and typically what they are. If not, what is the typical ftixed cutting height?

Thanks!
Bill
 
With drum mowers the saucers ride on the ground and carry the weight. Most brands offer a shim kit for the saucers to in effect raise the cutting blades higher but there is a limit to how much you can shim those cutting blades up since they spinning at incredibly high speeds and optimum balance is desired and adding shim kits worsens balance.

Some brand of drum mowers scalp like crazy from what I have read without the shim kit. I have seen videos on youtube where the cloud of dirt dust is terrible being kicked up by the suacers. I could see where a real picky horse owner would not want the hay cut with that type of machine in really dry conditions.

That said, I would like to try a drum mower out on my piddle patch operation, but I have not stumbled across one dirt cheap yet.
 

My knowledge of drum mowers is limited but I would think cutting height could be adjusted by lengthening or shortening center link similar to a 3 pt disc cutter.
 
I have a Reese Drum mower. The height is adjusted much like a sickle mower. The inner shoe which rides on the ground has several height adjustment holes, and the outer wheel, carries the outer weight and it has adjustment holes to match the inner shoe.

The skids do not ride on the ground, at least they are not supposed to on my machine....unlike a disc mower that slides along the ground.

I think the mower will mow hay from 1 to 5 inches high. The drums will not scalp if the top link is adjusted properly. Because the drums are large the mower is very sensitive to top link adjustments that tilt the front of the big drum downwards.

These are heavy machines, that take a lot of power, and a good sensitive draft control is helpful for good mowing.

It takes a while to get the hang of it but I really like mine.
 
whom....I have never seen one with an outside wheel. Can you post some pics? Kinda like that design idea.

The cheaper drum mowers (CCM, haymagg, SFI, etc) the spinning suacers under the blades are desgined to run directly on the ground and carry the weight. All the top link adjustments are to level the suacers to the desired point so that they glide across the soil better. Not really intended for cutting height adjustment. To my knowledge the shim kit for the suacers is the only way to adjust the cutting height.

Just one more of the many reasons that small disc mowers are preferred to drum mowers at least in North America.

Hopefully Hogleg, Texasmark, or Ray will see this thread and post. I believe they all own the cheaper type of drum mowers.
 
This thread is a good read. Ray tells about the minimally adjustable cutting height due to the saucer and mentions the shim kit for the suacer. Another poster also mentions about how dirty the hay can be....

Guys seem to like em though...

http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/viewtopic.php?t=1064635&highlight=drum+mower+heighth+height

Just watched a few more youtube vids and the dust coming out the back of some of them is well quite yuckey
 
Just google Reese 2400 drum mower photo.

You will get several photos that clearly show the white skid shoe on the inside and the adjustable outer wheel.

Sorry, Cutting and pasting photos is not in my skill set.
 
I've used one now for about 6 years. It did come with shims but I've not used them. If all of them were installed it would gain about 5/8" in height which didn't seem worth it to me. There is some dirt that is kicked up. Usually it is dirt from mole holes which would virtually stop my cycle bar so I'm glad to have the drum--would never go back to a cycle. Besides, rakes not only put hay in a windrow but is throws the dirt off too! Well maybe not but the horse folks have never complained about that. Lots of other stuff, just not dirt.
 
I used a Deutz drum mower for awhile but it would cut the crown off Orchard Grass and the way it cut hay off the hay was slow to regrow.Went back to my
456 New Holland trailer type mower.I have some rough terrain and some stationary rock in the fields I cut so the sickle bar works best for me plus it doesn't destroy the structure of the hay.
 
IDK about orchard grass, but on alfalfa, if the first cutting is delayed, the crowns are already sending out new shoots which will be the second cutting. If you cut then, you"re cutting them off and the field turns brown for awhile, while the crowns send out new shoots. If you cut earlier the field greens up right away.
 
The fellow posters have pretty well covered it. Drums have a free wheeling disk on the underside that slides along the ground. This keeps the cutter blades a fixed height. Top link of 3pt can be adjusted to provide angle of attack. Manual says that disks can be adjusted a little high in front to protect blades from stones. I usually run mine a little high in front (tipped back a little.) There are shims available to raise cutter disk a little above bottom disks. I have not seen need for them. Sure has revolutionized my haying. Especially since I have lots of mole hills. Would destroy several sickle blades and guards in every field. Drum goes right through them.
 
I just bought a Galfre Drum Mower and I bought it with the spacers so I will cut at 3-1/2 to 4 inch height. The height is adjustable with spacers that go on the bottom of the drums.
 
If they're scalping, someone does not have them adjusted like they should be. On my Galfre, the dealer I bought it from said to keep it level front to rear and side to side. When I do that It cuts great with no scalping. But if the front is low or the side to side is out if adjustment it scalps like crazy. Just my thoughts, Keith
 
(quoted from post at 00:22:08 02/21/15) Just google Reese 2400 drum mower photo.

You will get several photos that clearly show the white skid shoe on the inside and the adjustable outer wheel.

Sorry, Cutting and pasting photos is not in my skill set.

Looked at the Reese 2400 photos. I like the layout of that Reese system inner skid and outer wheel height adjustment system much better than the saucer system that all the cheaper lines seem to use.

In fairness though the Reese framework looks substantially beefier compared to the other cheaper mowers which it would have to be to in essence carry the weight on a span of 2 contact points. This is likely good in some ways and probably bad in some ways too. The weight is going to be heavier as will the price - one might be getting close to the cost of a small disc mower on one of these burlier Reese drums. Also being heavier might require a slightly larger heavier tractor to handle the extra weight where a smaller lighter tractor might be able to handle same size cutter in one of the other lighter weight/cheaper brands. Always compromises somewhere I guess.
 
My drum is one of those made in Turkey and the standard setup is that the blades are 2" above the bottom of the bottom disc that rides on the ground.

There is a 1" spacer which the dealer installed for me when I bought mine that raises the blades to 3". He said that's as far as you can go.

However, In heavy crops, where the pipe running around the mower is allowed to strike the stalk before the bottom of it is cut allows for stubble heights of around 4 1/2 inches which is plenty for rapid regrowth of my Sorghum-Sudan hay crop.

Mark
 
Thanks everyone for your replies!

I don't really see a disc mower in our future and other than windrowing the cuttings, I really haven't read much, if anything, in the way of negative comments on the drum mowers. Given their low cost, I'm kind of surprised that my neck of the woods isn't polluted with them. Low cost, drop dead simple, reliable and can cut in anything in any conditions. Sounds like a winning combo to me.

Thanks again,
Bill
 
There are always downsides: The biggest is you pretty much absolutely have to tedder twice no matter what if you cut with the cheapo drum mowers unless you live in a dry arid climate.(not the expensive ones with the built in pseudo tedder).

The first mandatory tedder trip is basically a wasted trip (in time and fuel) over the field too since it pretty much disperses the swath back to like it would have been naturally had you cut with any other kind of mower (e.g. from a plain sickle or a plain disc mower). Note: The fuel bill is almost always one of the biggest expenses to a real farmer, but applies less to a hobbyist who is going to subsidize his hobby with funds from elsewhere.

Also some crops do not recover as fast when they are cut using a drum mower or disc mower either compared to a sickle.

Sickles have downsides to though: they can be contankerous and tempermental and harder to maintain but they also have their upsides as well. They are the most gentle to any crop, provide faster regrowth, no dirt and dust kicked onto the crop, very low hp requirements etc.
 
Well that's what I thought after I had mine for awhile.

As posted earlier, I was totally fed up with a sicklebar either working alone or in a mower conditioner. In looking for an alternative price and functionality were my main drivers. Price was out of line for my budget so I went to the used dealers and as said, every one had cracks in the housing that had been brazed to keep the oil from leaking out.

Don't remember how I stumbled upon a drum but I did and stumbled across a dealer: Small Farm Innovations in central TX. Saw a video of a drum working and was duly impressed.

Also as stated earlier, mine is made in Turkey and I see a lot of pictures of the same unit under different badges. So they are obviously popular in their own right, including a lucrative price.

So, one of my main objectives in my posting on farm forums is to help in spreading the word in that "there is" an alternative to the sickle and disc. Other than that I have no involvement in their marketing.

Mark
 
Just a couple of responses as to why I feel as I do.

On initial windrow and having to make a pass, you did limit your
comment to cutters alone and omitted MOCO's which my JD
1209s did windrow. Besides, on using the sickle with the
moldboard adjacent to the uncut material, the purpose of which
is to direct the cuttings away from the uncut material making for
a clean cut the next round, you have made a clump row that will
not cure as quickly as the remainder of the cuttings and as such
you would still need the first round tedding operation .

My objection to the sickle (never ran a disc but assume it has the
advantages of the drum in this instance): In making corners,
especially irregular corners exceeding 90 degrees, especially in
the spring on cool season, densely planted grasses, there are
always the wads of cut grass that, if left unattended, will not
cure adequately when the rest of the field is ready and will
present a potential fire ball after baling and storing. So to that
extent you have to come back anyway.

On the second pass, "viewer discretion". If you need a quicker
cure you tedder regardless of the cutting method.

On clean cutting, on my grasses, the regrowth is no different
than the results obtained when cutting with a rotary lawn mower
you use on your lawn. On sorghum-sudan crosses, with large
stems, the regrowth comes from the ground surface, from the
roots, and the stubble dies off, so it makes no difference if the
stubble has a ragged edge or not.

Mark
 
Yes I purposely omitted discbines and haybines from the comparison to the drum mower as with the built in conditioner you gaining something automatically so unfair to compare apples to oranges.

Regardless, I can cut with my sickle based haybine and never miss a blade of grass. I do not even run it with a hydraulic cylinder and instead use a manual ratchet so the mode of operation is really crude - lower the thing once when I enter the field and raise it once when I exit the field. If I can cut with this crude of a set up and never miss a blade of grass then anyone can. Every haybine that I have been around can windrow or alternatively lay the swath as wide as the cutter.

Widrowing from the start may be great in hot arid Texas, but not so much in a humid climate of the midwest.

Teddering is great to aide drying. That said, if you cut with a drum mower the mandatory teddering #1 trip over the field simply gets you to the same point that you would have been had you cut with a plain disc mower or even a plain ole sickle mower.

Every cutter out there has trade-offs.
 
Bill,
Our climate and conditions here in Piedmont NC are similar to those where you live, I think. There are quite a few drum mowers around here and most folks run the tedder over it right after mowing. They generally will not tedder it again unless it gets a shower on it. Some people do the same with disc mowers, but they might let it lay longer after mowing before using a tedder.

We have a NH 404 crusher/crimper that we use after the disc mower. It is another trip around the field but cuts at least a day off curing. The 404 leaves the hay real choppy looking, laying up on top of the stubble, for maximum exposure to the sun. Works good for us. About 50 acres/year
Garry
 
Small world: After I bought my drum I realized that to get a
high volume crop I would need to plant a sorghym-sudan
haygrazer crop which was stemmy. Didn't have a crimper and
knew that is what it would take....no longer had my moco's when
I retired and down sized and frankly was fed up fighting the
sickle bar in the ones I had and stand alone bars.

So I start nosing around the area and passed a farm with a lot of
old equipment just parked. Obviously a seasoned farm as they
had 4 or 5 worn out balers, some chain, sitting around with other
worn out stuff.

Checked with the owner and we went to the "graveyard". He
scratched his head and picked his nose and kept walking around.
Sure nuf, he stumbled upon a well worn 404. He asked $400
and I paid it as I needed a crimper and knew not their worth.

I got a new sprocket for the rubber covered roller and a new
chain from TSC and she is ready to go. Since I'm retired, the
extra trip around the field is no big deal.

Mark
 
Hey friends! I live in Atlanta and looking for a Honda lawn mowers Atlanta store for the repairing of my lawn mower. Actually it is making lots of noise while working. I think it is not that serious issue and can be solved easily. Isn’t it?
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top