Disc Mower-How Much HP?

The Kuhn's generally call for 55 hp or so on that size. It does depend somewhat on how fast you want to drag it around and how thick the crop is...
Tractor weight is probably a larger factor than power though, particularly if you're working on steep hills. I tend to run mine on 70+ hp tractors for that reason which are well more than adequate for power...

Rod
 
I have 60 hp, and is about perfect. It wet thick grass I can feel it work. Most of the time its just motoring along.

Front end gets light enough, and side to side I want a heavy tractor.

You are talking at least a mid size disc mower there, not a little one, I would not care for 40 hp running it, tho it might have enough hp in moderate conditions.....

Paul
 
I have a 11' 6" mower I use with a 122 horse tractor, the tractor weighs 18,000 pounds and on hills raising and lowering, I get a little puckered up, the mower weighs just shy of 2000 pounds. One with a conditioner will weigh 2500 easy. Lot of weight all on one side.
 

That's a 7-8 disc mower. You can likely turn it on as little as 40 but you won't be happy, likely cut hay at 2-3 MPH maybe. 60 would be more appropriate.

You'll find size and weight of tractor is very important along with HP.

I ran a 5 disk for years on 42 PTO HP, did the job, but it was pushed. Have larger tractor now, handles same mower much, much easier.
 
Thanks for all replies. Just now realizing how a
simple question isn't really so simple. Conditions
include: 1) engine hp is 74, pto hp is 64; 2) not
much for hills; 3) weight about 6500 lb (plus
loader+/- 1500 lb???).
Anyway thanks to all for opinions. Gonna post
another question about cutting height. Kelly
 
Tx Jim, you mentioned a disc mower "caddy". I've
never heard of that. Sounds like some kind of
carrier??? Got a picture? Thanks, Kelly
 

There are 2 different styles of caddy's. One style has offset wheels as pictured below and newer style has wheels side by side. Side by side wheels will turn a 90° corner without the need for tires to slide around corner similar to offset tires.

38320.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 05:39:37 07/24/16) Thanks for all replies. Just now realizing how a
simple question isn't really so simple. Conditions
include: 1) engine hp is 74, pto hp is 64; 2) not
much for hills; 3) weight about 6500 lb (plus
loader+/- 1500 lb???).
Anyway thanks to all for opinions. Gonna post
another question about cutting height. Kelly

You should be ok. You'll likely handle a 6 disc mower best in terms of power reserve, but a 7 disc should work as well.
 
I used to run an 8 foot fully mounted Vicon disc mower with a MF 168 ( 66 engine hp, 59 PTO hp) in first gear high range, high multi power which was about 6 M.P.H. and it didn't even know it was back there even in the thickest most tangled crops.
 
How fast do you want to drive is the other big question. I've got an H6750 NH and was mowing at 10mph in smooth alfalfa. It took most of the 140hp that the jd4430 had and all the weight it had
 
I run our vicon 7'10" with a JD 2520 with 75 hp and weighing around 8,000 lbs and it plays with it other than the front end is light. When I bight the mower I ran it with a JD 2155 (48.5 hp on pto) with loader and it never really worked the tractor that hard in the heaviest hay.
 
I pull my 7"10" NH with a Ford 5000 (65HP, but I know the motor is tired) Think I could go to a 9' without any problems.

BUT...my mower is also attached to an offset caddy like the one TX Jim has in his picture. No weight on the back of the tractor. When I used to mount it to the three point, you knew it was back there due to the weight.

And besides, now I smile every time I hook it up to the tractor...

Fred
 

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