Hi All! Quick question about buying a rotary cutter. I own an L3902 and a Kubota zero-turn mower. On our 15 acres of land, I need to mow about 6 acres that are flat lawn. The other 9 acres are farm land which is being cleared. A lot of invasive trees being cut down, leaving behind a lot of stumps. Also tall grass and some thorny bushes. After clearing the stumps with my tractor, would I need a rotary cutter to brush hog the tall grass and bushes? It seems my zero turn should reserved for the manicured grassy areas and not run on brush -- but correct me I am underestimating my zero-turn. Thanks for any advice you can offer!
Do I really need a rotary cutter for my L3902?
- Thread starter BerryMeitli
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I'm more concerned with your cavalier attitude about getting rid of stumps with your 3902 
. How big, how many, and how are you planning on doing this? I've done this quite a bit and tried different methods without finding a real good one, but I'm open to learn.
Once you get it smooth, there are folks on here who declare zero-turn is the way to go. I have never run one, but I see lawn guys flying around on them. You might need a cutter until you get it smoothed out.
. How big, how many, and how are you planning on doing this? I've done this quite a bit and tried different methods without finding a real good one, but I'm open to learn.Once you get it smooth, there are folks on here who declare zero-turn is the way to go. I have never run one, but I see lawn guys flying around on them. You might need a cutter until you get it smoothed out.
Hi there PoTreeBoy, and thanks! Stumps are not from large trees. Largest stumps are a few inches in diameter, and there are lots of them. Planning to dislodge with a root grapple. So the order of ops would be root grapples, brush cutter, and then zero turn it seems.
Russell King
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I would not use a zero turn lawn mower on rough fields. They go too fast for rough terrain in my opinion.
A rotary cutter would be better on the rough fields. Or you could look at a flail mower for your situation or possibly a rear finish mower.
A rotary cutter would be better on the rough fields. Or you could look at a flail mower for your situation or possibly a rear finish mower.
A rotary cutter for the first cut. You can usually borrow or rent.
Once the first cut is done though, the question is what you'd use ongoing. That (to me) comes down to how often you want to mow, and what you want it to look like.
If you are mowing once a year and it's heavy terrain that will grow shrubby trees in that time, probably a rotary cutter. They tend to cut narrower than the other options I list, but they are heavier duty and will take a lot of abuse. Rotary cutters in this size are usually single spindle, so they're roughly square. That means they'll stick out 5 foot or 6 foot behind your 3ph. Remember lift capacity is usually rated 500mm behind the pins, you've got a lot of weight sticking way out the back. It pushes your tractor around (makes it pitch over bumps), and you may need to ballast the front or mow with your loader on - which then creates even more of a pitching motion.
If you are mowing say 4 times a year to keep it down/tidy, and maybe running some animals as well, then I'd recommend a flail. This is a halfway point between a rotary cutter and a finish mower. It'll mulch any small bushes you mow, and mulch thick grass. They are more rectangular, they don't stick out as far. This usually means your tractor will lift a size larger - if you were looking at a 72 inch (6 foot) rotary cutter, you can probably run a 7 foot flail. I've got a 2m (roughly 7ft) flail behind my MX5200. They don't make your tractor pitch quite as much, and you can mow with the loader off without needing ballast. They also tend to give a tidier finish. Having said that, they usually have a roller on the rear, and that tends to bang and crash over the ground a bit - so if your ground is really rough, perhaps not ideal.
If you're mowing once a month or more, you're starting to get towards lawn, and you probably are starting to worry about how long this is actually taking. A rear finish mower, and particularly a batwing, will give you a lot of width, and let you mow more in a given time and/or again let you run the ground speed a bit slower. If you have long straight runs (so a big flat open area you're mowing without trees etc), then a big batwing will be faster than most anything else.
Last option, if you're really serious. I've always wanted one of these:
35hp needed for a 5 metre mowing width - that's about 15 feet? And the finish will be like a golf course or a playing field. In theory if you put the time into levelling and cutting well a couple times with a borrowed/rented rotary cutter, you could move to one of these, do the whole 15 acres in 2 hours. Then you could cut twice a month easily, maybe even more.
(OK, I probably shouldn't project my dreams onto other people)
The other thing to consider is how many implements you want. A RFM would let you do a bunch of the 6 acres with the tractor, plus the 9 acres (if you get it tidied up first). Then do around trees and landscaping with the zero turn.
My fine cut mowing has all moved to a robot mower. I do fields and roadsides with either my B2601 with MMM (in the North Island), or my MX with flail (South Island). I actually like mowing with the B2601 and MMM more, but the property in the South Island is 15 acres, and I think the B would be too slow / not enough cutting width. Although the difference between 6 foot and 7 foot isn't as much as you think.....
Once the first cut is done though, the question is what you'd use ongoing. That (to me) comes down to how often you want to mow, and what you want it to look like.
If you are mowing once a year and it's heavy terrain that will grow shrubby trees in that time, probably a rotary cutter. They tend to cut narrower than the other options I list, but they are heavier duty and will take a lot of abuse. Rotary cutters in this size are usually single spindle, so they're roughly square. That means they'll stick out 5 foot or 6 foot behind your 3ph. Remember lift capacity is usually rated 500mm behind the pins, you've got a lot of weight sticking way out the back. It pushes your tractor around (makes it pitch over bumps), and you may need to ballast the front or mow with your loader on - which then creates even more of a pitching motion.
If you are mowing say 4 times a year to keep it down/tidy, and maybe running some animals as well, then I'd recommend a flail. This is a halfway point between a rotary cutter and a finish mower. It'll mulch any small bushes you mow, and mulch thick grass. They are more rectangular, they don't stick out as far. This usually means your tractor will lift a size larger - if you were looking at a 72 inch (6 foot) rotary cutter, you can probably run a 7 foot flail. I've got a 2m (roughly 7ft) flail behind my MX5200. They don't make your tractor pitch quite as much, and you can mow with the loader off without needing ballast. They also tend to give a tidier finish. Having said that, they usually have a roller on the rear, and that tends to bang and crash over the ground a bit - so if your ground is really rough, perhaps not ideal.
If you're mowing once a month or more, you're starting to get towards lawn, and you probably are starting to worry about how long this is actually taking. A rear finish mower, and particularly a batwing, will give you a lot of width, and let you mow more in a given time and/or again let you run the ground speed a bit slower. If you have long straight runs (so a big flat open area you're mowing without trees etc), then a big batwing will be faster than most anything else.
Last option, if you're really serious. I've always wanted one of these:
NZ Mowers makes of gang mowers for over 40 years
NZ Mowers, based in Kawakawa in Northland's Bay of Islands, has been specialising in the manufacture of reel lawn mowers for over 40 years.
www.nzmowers.co.nz
35hp needed for a 5 metre mowing width - that's about 15 feet? And the finish will be like a golf course or a playing field. In theory if you put the time into levelling and cutting well a couple times with a borrowed/rented rotary cutter, you could move to one of these, do the whole 15 acres in 2 hours. Then you could cut twice a month easily, maybe even more.
(OK, I probably shouldn't project my dreams onto other people)
The other thing to consider is how many implements you want. A RFM would let you do a bunch of the 6 acres with the tractor, plus the 9 acres (if you get it tidied up first). Then do around trees and landscaping with the zero turn.
My fine cut mowing has all moved to a robot mower. I do fields and roadsides with either my B2601 with MMM (in the North Island), or my MX with flail (South Island). I actually like mowing with the B2601 and MMM more, but the property in the South Island is 15 acres, and I think the B would be too slow / not enough cutting width. Although the difference between 6 foot and 7 foot isn't as much as you think.....
If the trees were standing, I'd recommend you try a tree puller. Pulling the root disturbs less soil, easing the levelling, and while you have a grip on the trunk you can move and stack easily.
I assume you already have a bucket, so you might try popping them out with it. After some practice, you may be able to coordinate your bucket down, roll back and forward motion. I was able to remove tulip poplar saplings, the downside is you end up with bucket width divots to level up. A stump bucket would be handy here since it's narrow. You may be able to do the same with a grapple on stumps, the grapple's lid gets in the way if trying whole trees.
EDIT to add: I think your results will depend a lot on soil type, moisture and tree species. Loblolly pines have mainly a tap root, often double, and the small ones come up pretty easily. My nemesis, sweetgum, is a different animal. They have large relatively shallow roots that take off in several directions and can be tough to pull. Plus, I'm dealing with regrowth so I can hook on to a 2 or 3" sapling that's growing from a 12" stump. Then it's backhoe time.
I had the grapple on this evening, smoothing up some ground I had mostly destumped. Found a couple of small stumps and roots that the grapple handled. So, depending on your conditions, your plan may work. If you haven't already bought one, get a strong one. This kind of work will test it.
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Good luck removing stumps of multiple inches in diameter with a 3902 and root grapple.
