60" finish mower

[Daren Todd]

Any one out there thats got a finish mower. I'm looking for advice as far as what to look for in one. And interested in hearing your experiences, good or bad with the brand your using. I'm leaning towards the 60" agmate mower from agrimart. It seems to have really good reviews and a great price. But the wheels look cheap compared to some i've seen. Any input is welcome.


Thanks

 

[kc8fbl]

I've got a county line from TSC and I'm pretty happy with it. It's got the solid wheels on it so I don't have to worry about getting flats. It ran me $1500 and haven't had any problems with it so far. This is my 2nd season with it.

 

[tjd7869]

i have an older land-pride 25-60 bought it used for $500. only drawback for me has been the tires, they are not solid and constantly go flat and are a pain to re-inflate. i am actually considering replacing them with solid tires at $30 a piece. other than that i love it. connected to the back of my old 1972 L-210 it beats the wheelhorse i was using in everything but turning ability. it takes me less time to mow, less money to mow, and less hassle to hook up (and wheelhorse mowers are considered easy to put on)

 

[Bulldog]

I been using a 72" Bushhog brand finish mower for 15 seasons now. I cut between 10 - 14 acres depending on how much time I have. The only problem I ever had was the wheels had bushings instead of bearings. Bushhog offered a bearing kit upgrade which I installed and have had no problem since. I think I'm using the 3rd and 4th set of blades now. I try to keep one set sharp and ready to go on the mower when I need them.
I would not hesitate to buy another Bushhog brand mower.

One key feature to look for no matter what the brand is the blade tip speed. Mine for example is about 15,000 FPM. The faster the tip speed the higher the cut quality will be. Not all but most of the off brand mower have a very slow tip speed and their cut quality suffers because of it. Been there and done that myself. Not only that, generally the entire mower is just not built as well. Another thing to keep in mind is parts. If something breaks you don't want to have to wait for them to be shipped from across the pond somewhere. This is one example where you really do get what you pay for, in my opinion of course.

Unless it's going to break the bank my advise would be to go ahead and get a name brand high quality mower. You'll only need to buy one because with propper maintenance it will last you the rest of your life.

 

[chim]

Here are two that I've has 20 and 10 years of personal experience. Both of these are side discharge. Both do a good job mowing. My current deck is a rear discharge Landpride and I found I like the rear discharge better because I can mow close to things on both sides and don't blow clippings into mulched areas.

Caroni 59" RFM - Bought new in 1992 and use it on an old Ford 1210. Still have it. It has spent most of its life outside and looks it. After adding the first Kubota in 2002 it hasn't been used as much as it was the first 10 years. Beat the snot out of it and welded parts of it back together. It will still do a nice cut. Always did a little better job than the Landpride with wet grass.

Landpride AT 1560(?) RFM - Bought new with a B7500 in 2002. Built much heavier than the Caroni. Only problem was with the wheel bearings. Not a big deal because there's a hardware store that had all sorts of replacement bearings. Had this for 10 years before going to a 72" in 2012.

 

[Daren Todd]

So far i've looked at the county line from tsc ($1400) and a buer ($2500) from a local mom and pop dealer. Gonna swing by the bota dealer when they open tuesday and check out the land pride. Big thing i'm running into so far is no body has any product knowledge for what they are selling. I only have 2 acres, just looking to utilize my kubota and get rid of the cubcadet, and cut my mowing time and fuel costs down. It gets bloody hot here in the summer, and absolutely sucks mowing when it's 110 to 120 degrees out

Thanks for your input

 

[chim]

Let me add a thought here. I am not familiar with the L1501 and just looked it up. With 15 HP and the size of the tractor, my first choice would not be a Landpride. That is not due to quality concerns. They are really good with regard to quality and durability. My fear would be the weight. My Caroni is a featherweight compared with Landprides the same width. The Landpride is around 650# and the Caroni is only a bit over 400#.

The Caroni works very well with the Ford. I tried using the 5 foot Landpride on my Ford 1210, which I believe is roughly equivalent to your Kubota in weight and power. The heavy Landpride deck was too much for the Ford to control well. It pulled hard going uphill and lifting it without two suitcase weights on the front of the Ford resulted in wheelies.

 

[Daren Todd]

Let me add a thought here. I am not familiar with the L1501 and just looked it up. With 15 HP and the size of the tractor, my first choice would not be a Landpride. That is not due to quality concerns. They are really good with regard to quality and durability. My fear would be the weight. My Caroni is a featherweight compared with Landprides the same width. The Landpride is around 650# and the Caroni is only a bit over 400#.

The Caroni works very well with the Ford. I tried using the 5 foot Landpride on my Ford 1210, which I believe is roughly equivalent to your Kubota in weight and power. The heavy Landpride deck was too much for the Ford to control well. It pulled hard going uphill and lifting it without two suitcase weights on the front of the Ford resulted in wheelies.

I'm glad you brought up the weight. she handles the bush hog pretty well. Which weighs about 500 lbs. But that was after we added weight to the front end. She was pretty squirrly before that. And would make you pucker on a steep slope. I haven't had any issue with her lugging down. She loses traction before stalling. Actually the l1501 is a little tank when it comes to pulling. I've skidded 60ft tall oaks that were around 3ft at the base with it.
My lots an old cotton field, so i could run a 6 footer all day long with out issues. Wouldn't be able to lift it to get it on the trailer though. Guess the lp is out, and i'll have to look for a thinner gauge deck and just plan on having to bust out the welder once in a while.

 

[Bulldog]

Guess the lp is out, and i'll have to look for a thinner gauge deck and just plan on having to bust out the welder once in a while.

Before you rule out the LP mower keep in mind that a finish mower fit in tighter to the tractor than a rotary cutter does. Because of that it has less leverage so you may be able to handle a little heavier mower than what your cutter is.

If I had any question about it I would take the tractor to the dealer and hook one up to see if it would handle it or not. The dealer might even bring you one out to demo. Can't hurt to ask, all they can do is say no.

 

[gpreuss]

I had the FEL on my L185DT, and never had a problem with weight in the back end. I'd go for the Land Pride if my budget would handle it. Add weight to the front as necessary! The FEL with bucket was about 700-800 lbs, on my 1800 lb tractor. Dealers like Land Pride because they don't come back on them.

 

[Daren Todd]

Before you rule out the LP mower keep in mind that a finish mower fit in tighter to the tractor than a rotary cutter does. Because of that it has less leverage so you may be able to handle a little heavier mower than what your cutter is.

If I had any question about it I would take the tractor to the dealer and hook one up to see if it would handle it or not. The dealer might even bring you one out to demo. Can't hurt to ask, all they can do is say no.

Lmao i can just see what the bota dealers gonna say with me rolling up with my gray market might sell me the lp, but there goes my local supplier for parts i gotta reconcrete then end of my driveway first, so i'll know what my my actual budget will be in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Daren Todd]

Update: Ended up pulling the trigger on the agmate 60" finish mower. Would have loved to go with the lp, and was planning on saving up and getting it this coming spring. But as the saying goes, s!$t happens the little 46" cubby gave up the ghost this after noon, dropped the shaft on the hydro motor and made a mess of the back end for what i bought it for, it will cost more to fix. Will post picks when the new mower shows up

Thanks again for the advise

 

[Daren Todd]

Had a good surprise today. The company I bought the mower from said it would be seven to fourteen days for the mower to get here. Got the shipping confirmation on Tuesday and it arrived today. I still have to shorten the pto shaft about 4" so I couldn't try it. Might be able to get to it on Sunday.
Here's a couple picks of the new toy..... Err..... Mower

 

[Tooljunkie]

Looks like a well built machine. Nice. Too bad its not orange

 

[notnew2diy]

I think you'll like the rear discharge.
A lot less clumping, minimal windrows, even w/taller grass.

 

[Daren Todd]

I gotta remove the bottom links and drop them at the fab shop. They need to be 6" longer so the casters will clear the tires when it's raised. Everybody told me the rear discharge was the way to go, so i didn't look at the side discharge.

 

[tjd7869]

hope you didnt cut your PTO shaft yet. now that you have to get the links extended that 6 inches the 4 inches you were saying you needed to chop will no longer be a issue.

 

[Daren Todd]

Good call I had thought of the same thing earlier I was debating on leaving it the way it was last night, but then after thinking about it, I decided to go with a proper fix

 

[Daren Todd]

Started fabricating the arms today. Found a couple of cat 0/1 draw bars at a yard sale. They were the right length and width. Swung over to tsc and picked up the pins for the lift arms. Cut the ends off with a saws all. And then ground them down fit in the slots on the mower. Have to drill one more hole in the arms so I can get the right length. And enlarge one hole so the pins will fit. Here's the progress so far should have it all done tomarrow

 

[Daren Todd]

Finally got a chance to try out the mower tonight. Finished up the lift arms on Monday. But with work and moving one of the kids, I didn't get a chance till tonight. Used to take 3 hours with the 46" cub cadet. Took 2 hours with the finish mower. And the way the l1501 handled the 60" deck, about half way through I was wondering what it would do with a 6 footer with the rear discharge it handled the 8" tall water grass with ease and maybe lost about 100 rpm and not one missed blade here's the results

Thanks again for all who replied