Drum Mowers???

It is all in the application. If you need the capacity of 5-10 acres an hour no question the disc mower is the best choice. The CCM drum mowers are priced such the smaller operator can have the cutting technology of the disc mowers at less than half the price of a disc mower. A operator that is cutting 50 acres or less of hay can purchase a new drum mower for less than $2,500. It's a great fit for the 25-60 HP tractors. That drum mower will last them 20 years. Few disc mowers will last 20 years.

The shaft drive system used in the Agco/New Idea, Vermeer, Lely & Haymaxx disc mowers has 1/3 less moving parts and 10-20% less weight of the oil bath style cutterbars. Since there are 1/3 less moving parts the shaft drive cutterbars need 20% less power to operate them. When you see that most 3 point disc mowers are used on tractors from 40-60 PTO HP you can understand why operating with less HP and weighing less is a great advantage over the oil bath style mowers. Smaller tractors are more fuel efficient and do compact the soil as much as the larger tractors. These shaft drive mowers use sealed bearings and use EP-0 grease as their gear lubrication. Each individual cutting head has it's own self contained gearbox. Therefore consequential damages are limited to that one gearbox and not flowing up and down a cutterbar like the oil bath style cutterbars. The shaft design does have an advantage in hilly terrain because of lubrication issues with the oil bath cutterbars. We trade for every make of mower out there and 80% of the bearing failures are in the outside 2' of the oil bath cutterbars mainly because of less lubrication of the oil flowing up hill.

We can disassemble & reassemble a shaft drive cutterbar in 2 hours or less. This is not possible on an oil bath cutterbar. Which means less down time & less cost for repairs on a shaft drive style cutterbar.

We have 25+ years experience in selling new disc mowers and have sold & serviced thousands of disc mowers from many different MFG's. We have been selling the Lely/HayMaxx shaft design since the mid-1980's.

The down sides are: 1. Hard to hook up to by your self the first time.

2. When in transport position, there is a lot of weight hanging out back. I got weights on the front.

3. To cross the road you either drag your mower on the pavement or put it in transport position which is done manually.

All said mine is not going anywhere!
Other folks will have more details for you on this subject I'm sure.

Good luck Sir; South Ga. Plowboy

I think the Hay Dr has the correct size mower for your tractor. He'd be more knowledgable about new ones anyway. I don't want a new anything, let some one else depreciate it! Good luck in your quest, Sir; South Ga Plowboy

Drum mowers are very simple and don't cost too much to maintain. The common drum mower has two cutting drums, belt driven with rugged bearings and shafts. The three point hitch lowers the mower to cut with. For transport position, raise the 3ph and manually turn the cutter head straight to the rear. No hoses to hook up. As I see it, the disadvantage is that the two drums have a limited cutting width of about 7 feet. If this is wide enough for you, then I really can't see much disadvantage. I don't know about resale value, but I have been through the used disc mower experience and IMO they don't have much resale value either. Hope this helps.

KEH