Vicon conditioner/ tractor horsepower ?

This is my first time posting
Last year I mowed my 10 acres of grass using my John Deere 5303 tractor and John Deere 1365 mower conditioner. It was an extremely heavy late crop. The tractor seemed to handle it ok although I was using lower range gears. I knew I was underpowered so I was not surprised.
The 1365 was a little too wide and crumsy for my field so I purchase an old Vicon KM281 the swath was narrower than the 1365 so I thought it would take less power to run.
Once again I was cutting a extremely heavy late first cut, this time using the Vicon. Unfortunately for me the top row of the conditioner cogs were brittle and flew apart. So I loosened off the tension on the conditioner and also removed all the plastic cogs from the top shaft.
After doing this, I assumed this would require a lot less power, given the conditioner was not processing the grass, and the machine was now only cutting grass.
As I continued on I had the tractor down to its lowest gear and was powering out.
I do not understand how I could have enough power to run the larger 1365 last year, but this year not have enough power to run the smaller Vicon even without the conditioner.
Is there a big difference in horsepower requirements between these two machines? Or maybe this years crop was that much heavier??
My tractor is rated 60hp and 53pto (I know I'm pushing it)
Any comments would be appreciated thanks Rod

disc mowers take a pile more ponies to run.

(quoted from post at 16:16:13 09/12/15) disc mowers take a pile more ponies to run.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment

I understand that I am way under powered,
I would like to know why my tractor could operate the 1365 john Deere mower?? And not the smaller Vicon with no conditioner.

TO start with you have close to 50% less tractor than you should... so in good conditions you get away with it at best. I've found that if the ground is wet, the crop heavy or any other number of variables it will take a bunch more power to run a discbine over ideal conditions. Other factors could include bearings about to fail in the mower or shafts getting wrapped up... You may also have issues with the mower working less efficiently now that the conditioner is buggered up... Put some more power in front of it and see what blows up?

Rod

Crop conditions make a big difference in the power required to run disc mowers. If you had a
little more fine-stemmed grass or other tough-cutting material in the field this year compared to
last it would make the mower pull a lot harder. It could also be that by taking the conditioner
more-or-less out of play but not completely out of the way that the feeding over the cutterbar was
more restricted which could cause some re-cutting of the crop and increased power consumption.

Crop conditions....I am running at min HP on a disc mower and some fields I can drive as fast as I want, others I have to gear back since the power isn't there.

(quoted from post at 09:42:38 09/13/15) Crop conditions make a big difference in the power required to run disc mowers. If you had a
little more fine-stemmed grass or other tough-cutting material in the field this year compared to
last it would make the mower pull a lot harder. It could also be that by taking the conditioner
more-or-less out of play but not completely out of the way that the feeding over the cutterbar was
more restricted which could cause some re-cutting of the crop and increased power consumption.

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the comments
I think you are correct , this years crop could have been more wet than the previous, and now that you mention the "disabled" conditioner effecting the function of the machine, it makes sense. I recall it was plugging up. I knew from the start I was pushing it with such a small tractor. I guess I got lucky with my first crop, but the low horsepower caught up to me.
I only have 10 acres but was trying to speed up the the mowing process (I was using a 6ft drum mower) took 5 hours.
Maybe I will look for an older second tractor 100hp or so. Maybe something vintage?
I appreciate everyone's wisdom.

You can buy a decent 3pt disc mower for what you'd spend on a bigger tractor to run the discbine.

I'm surprised it handled the deere okay. I have a
deere 920 I run with a deere 4320 (115hp). I have
a thick heavy clover field that made that tractor
work in first cutting. I think a guy could get by
with a 80-90 horse tractor on mine, but the extra
horse is nice when trying to make any time or get
into some heavy stuff.

Seems like all makes and models handle different.
There's a guy on a cockshutt tractor Facebook
page that runs new idea ones with cockshutt 560
tractors. I think those are only around 60hp.Don't
know what he's mowing though.

i have ran a jd 915 with rolls with a 5403 just fine as for the 920 would think of anything less than 85 hp on it if you only have 10 acres i would look for a good used new holland haybine lot cheeeper and thay really do a good job good luck

(quoted from post at 06:31:53 09/14/15) I'm surprised it handled the deere okay. I have a
deere 920 I run with a deere 4320 (115hp). I have
a thick heavy clover field that made that tractor
work in first cutting. I think a guy could get by
with a 80-90 horse tractor on mine, but the extra
horse is nice when trying to make any time or get
into some heavy stuff.

Seems like all makes and models handle different.
There's a guy on a cockshutt tractor Facebook
page that runs new idea ones with cockshutt 560
tractors. I think those are only around 60hp.Don't
know what he's mowing though.

Click to expand...

I have come to realize that the thickness/moisture of the crop is huge and will demand way more power. I guess I could go back to my six foot 3 pt drum mower, it just takes forever.