Mowing

Today was my first serious mowing day of the season.

I spent a bit over 4 hours on the 45 HP MF with 6' Woods mower cutter cutting things in and then about 2 1/2 hours on the 60 HP MF with 7' Woods cutter to cover the ground. Most of my parcels do not allow use of a mower much larger than 7' and the few that do do not justify a larger mower.

Seems I always spend about twice as much time cutting things in as mowing because my parcels are irregular, some steep, some with many obstacles and I do make Cadillac first and second rounds with the smaller "cutting in" set-up to make the "mowing" easy.

Brought both set-ups back to the barn, cleaned them off with the air gun, greased the wearing parts on the mowers and sharpened the blades (Unlike most, I keep the blades on my rotary cutters sharp because I use them more like HD finish mowers.).

No break downs!

All in all a good day.

The MF 533 "cutting-in" tractor is on the list to be replaced with a hydrostat as I spend far too much time reversing direction on the first couple of rounds backing in beneath the surrounding trees and other obstacles.

The 533 is the 2007 version of the 135 and is simple and rugged but the 4X2 transmission in it is non synchronized and the dry drum brakes leave a lot to be desired anytime I declutch on steep ground.

I expect I can reduce my "cutting-in" time significantly if I replace the 533 with a 55+ HP FWA hydrostat CUT such as a Kubota L6060 or JD 4066R.

Still, it will be tough retiring the 533 as it has a low speed, long stroke 202 CI NA Perkins engine that, with 400 hours is not yet broken in enough to produce maximum power.

Decisions, decisions.

Dean

Picked up a side mount mower tractor cheap a few years back, Ford 5600 with a 5' hydraulic side mount cutter, the best thing I ever used for fence rows, trees, pond levies etc. It is surprising how cheap those rigs are with fairly low hours.

Today as I was mowing my lawn on my zero turn I remembered a rotary mowing job that I did a few years ago. It was a place that had been let go for a long time, and a fellow was paying me to do it for the elderly lady who owned the place. She wanted to be able to see some distance up back to the forest, but the area to be mowed was only about two acres. I picked out two areas that I could open up to enable her to see some distance from her house, and my first pass around took me about a half hour or better because of working around so many trees, both standing and some down, and doing a lot of backing. As I got to nearly my starting point the fellow who was paying came over to tell me that I needn't go so far back. Because he was worried about what he was spending. I had pretty much done a third of the job any way in that half hour, and the rest of it was much faster going and took me only about an hour more.

Sounds like you were having fun. I have a Woods 6 ft also. I like to keep my blades sharp . Since they are easy to remove I just take them off, most times. I pull mine with a MF 231. Works great. When possible I use my 7 ft flail mower, attached to my JD 401. Stan

I do not remove blades to sharpen them.

I just reach under the deck with a 4 1/2" angle grinder to sharpen them.

I spend less than 10 minutes sharpening blades including getting things out and putting them away.

Dean

You are making this all too complicated. Get a John Deere B w/3 pt 6 foot sickle bar with belt not a wooden pit-man and mow forever in all kinds of conditions and terrain. When did all the math and mechanical advancements take over from asking Grandfathers advice and common sense?