Recommended brush hog for L3010?

jbeech

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I've spent 20 years mowing 5 FL acres with a zero-turn type mower. Recently added a 30hp Kubota with a 72 inch belly mower to the mix. Love it, you'll pry it from my cold dead fingers!

So now I'm thinking a 5 foot brush hog would be useful for the occasions when life interferes and the grass gets too tall to mow versus attacking small saplings and clearing brush. So I'm basically mowing tall weeds and dogfennel.

Now, having framed the use case, is it worth spending $3000 for a Bush Hog vs $1500 for a County Line? Oh, and I'm old enough I don't know whether I outlive either! Note; both say Made in USA but I'm reasonably sure the gearbox of the County Line is an import. Dunno about the Bush Hog, but it's not 10-20% more expensive . . . it's 100% more. And sure, I love my countrymen - but - I'm not sure I appreciate them 'this' much more, depends.
 

ken erickson

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Most manufactures of brush cutters offer different duty rated models.

I would make sure you're comparing apples to apples on the Bush hog brand to the County Line model.

Besides the diameter of the material you are able to cut you will notice a huge difference in the weight between models for a given width.
 

SDT

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I've spent 20 years mowing 5 FL acres with a zero-turn type mower. Recently added a 30hp Kubota with a 72 inch belly mower to the mix. Love it, you'll pry it from my cold dead fingers!

So now I'm thinking a 5 foot brush hog would be useful for the occasions when life interferes and the grass gets too tall to mow versus attacking small saplings and clearing brush. So I'm basically mowing tall weeds and dogfennel.

Now, having framed the use case, is it worth spending $3000 for a Bush Hog vs $1500 for a County Line? Oh, and I'm old enough I don't know whether I outlive either! Note; both say Made in USA but I'm reasonably sure the gearbox of the County Line is an import. Dunno about the Bush Hog, but it's not 10-20% more expensive . . . it's 100% more. And sure, I love my countrymen - but - I'm not sure I appreciate them 'this' much more, depends.
For your purposes, spending the extra money for a higher quality and more durable cutter is highly questionable.
 
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jbeech

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Kubota L3010, Jacobsen 417D
May 23, 2025
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Shawn . . . confirmation regarding gearbox import status once you're back, would be nice even if because they all use import gearboxes it won't be a factor other than curiosity.

Ken . . . yes, I'm aware of differences in duty cycle. For example, within the Bush Hog line up, they offer what they call an entry level BH115, which cuts a 56in swath, uses 12GA for the deck and 10GA for the sideband, front chains are optional, and it's listed as 500lbs.

Stepping up to their BH215-2, the cutting width is now 60in, and it uses 11G for both deck and sideband. This one includes front chains, and is listed at 640lbs for about $700 more (I saw a dealer in GA listing them at $2300 and $3000, respectively) with free freight on purchases over $3k (and I can always add consumables like Super UDT2 and filters to the purchase to get the shipping).

Meanwhile, at Tractor Supply (local pickup), they offer both King Cutter and a County Line brand rotary cutters. These both list a 60in cutting width, 12GA decks (neither specify sideband thickness), and listed weights are 557 and 530lbs respectively). And neither mentions chains, front or rear.

One other thing; the L3010 I purchased has a bit less than 700hrs and is in nice shape. Does it make an honest 25hp at the PTO? Did it ever?

Reason I ask is due to differences in stated minimum horsepower. Seems 60in is near the limit for my compact tractor (although as I explained, my demand from it will be relatively light). That, and he mowed for years with the 60in deck, which I ended up junking.

I only mention this because King Cutter states 25hp minimum, County Line says 20hp (both with 3in x 1/2in thick blades, no mention if uplift type), while Bush Hog list 20hp minimum for the lower end deck (3in x 1/2in uplift type) and 25hp for the higher level unit, this one with 4in x 1/2in uplift type. Question is, can my tractor reasonably be expected to handle it given the work I want from one of these? Suspect yes.

Anyway, I'm a virgin with tractors, hence seeking advice before getting off my wallet.

SDT . . . yeah, I'm close to reaching this conclusion, but not quite there yet.
 
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SDT

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Shawn . . . confirmation regarding gearbox import status once you're back, would be nice even if because they all use import gearboxes it won't be a factor other than curiosity.

Ken . . . yes, I'm aware of differences in duty cycle. For example, within the Bush Hog line up, they offer what they call an entry level BH115, which cuts a 56in swath, uses 12GA for the deck and 10GA for the sideband, front chains are optional, and it's listed as 500lbs.

Stepping up to their BH215-2, the cutting width is now 60in, and it uses 11G for both deck and sideband. This one includes front chains, and is listed at 640lbs for about $700 more (I saw a dealer in GA listing them at $2300 and $3000, respectively) with free freight on purchases over $3k (and I can always add consumables like Super UDT2 and filters to the purchase to get the shipping).

Meanwhile, at Tractor Supply (local pickup), they offer both King Cutter and a County Line brand rotary cutters. These both list a 60in cutting width, 12GA decks (neither specify sideband thickness), and listed weights are 557 and 530lbs respectively). And neither mentions chains, front or rear.

One other thing; the L3010 I purchased has a bit less than 700hrs and is in nice shape. Does it make an honest 25hp at the PTO? Did it ever?

Reason I ask is due to differences in stated minimum horsepower. Seems 60in is near the limit for my compact tractor (although as I explained, my demand from it will be relatively light). That, and he mowed for years with the 60in deck, which I ended up junking.

I only mention this because King Cutter states 25hp minimum, County Line says 20hp (both with 3in x 1/2in thick blades, no mention if uplift type), while Bush Hog list 20hp minimum for the lower end deck (3in x 1/2in uplift type) and 25hp for the higher level unit, this one with 4in x 1/2in uplift type. Question is, can my tractor reasonably be expected to handle it given the work I want from one of these? Suspect yes.

Anyway, I'm a virgin with tractors, hence seeking advice before getting off my wallet.

SDT . . . yeah, I'm close to reaching this conclusion, but not quite there yet.
FWIW, though I once was, I'm no longer a fan of front chains because they allow more debris to be thrown onto the back of the tractor and add weight.
 

ken erickson

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Question is, can my tractor reasonably be expected to handle it given the work I want from one of these? Suspect yes.
I suspect yes also given your L3010 is a more substantial tractor with 5 or so more HP than the L2501.

This is controversial but I run a 6 foot light duty Landpride cutter behind my L2501 which is rated at 19HP PTO. The type of trail maintenance , material I am cutting, the topography of my land has not been an issue. It also lets me "cut back" the trails a bit due to the 6 or 8 inches wider per side than the tractor rear tires.
 

JasonW

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For the prices you have listed and the amount of use it would get I would recommend looking for a used 5’ bush hog with a shear pin. Way cheaper and less maintenance.

The gearbox should be rated way above the size tractor it would be sized for. My 6’ Kodiak Heavy duty model has an 90HP gearbox. I believe Tractor Mike had a video about gearbox ratings and the consumer always picked the “larger” gearbox model even if the “smaller” was rated for the same HP. Well the smaller one was made in the US while the larger was made overseas. Visual perception.

Even my landpride 8’ bush hog gear boxes are made in china.
 

Russell King

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I think you would be happier with the use of a flail mower over the rotary cutter!

You might be able to rent one of each and compare the operation in what you want to use them for. You can also see videos on how the cut quality is.
 

RCW

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I think you would be happier with the use of a flail mower over the rotary cutter!

You might be able to rent one of each and compare the operation in what you want to use them for. You can also see videos on how the cut quality is.
Never used a flail mower but a lot of folks here on OTT swear by them.

@Russell King brings up what could be an alternative to a rotary cutter. A flail also has a much shorter footprint - it's not as long a rotary cutter.
 

chim

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When life interferes, how tall does the grass get? Before retiring I frequently used finish mowers on grass that got ahead of me to the tune of cutting 6" off to get it down to the normal height.
 

Mitjam

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I've spent 20 years mowing 5 FL acres with a zero-turn type mower. Recently added a 30hp Kubota with a 72 inch belly mower to the mix. Love it, you'll pry it from my cold dead fingers!

So now I'm thinking a 5 foot brush hog would be useful for the occasions when life interferes and the grass gets too tall to mow versus attacking small saplings and clearing brush. So I'm basically mowing tall weeds and dogfennel.

Now, having framed the use case, is it worth spending $3000 for a Bush Hog vs $1500 for a County Line? Oh, and I'm old enough I don't know whether I outlive either! Note; both say Made in USA but I'm reasonably sure the gearbox of the County Line is an import. Dunno about the Bush Hog, but it's not 10-20% more expensive . . . it's 100% more. And sure, I love my countrymen - but - I'm not sure I appreciate them 'this' much more, depends.
There is definitely different quality stuff coming out of china thats for sure. For example I have a westward tiller 72 inch gear drive with slip clutch. $3000cnd comparable landpride was 5800. I asked my self what the difference was the westward tiller was 90lbs heavier and a lot cheaper. I phoned the distributor and asked what about parts. He said I can get the rotor, blades slip clutches gears anything I want within two weeks. It was a no brainer to me. My neighbour bought a cheap china rough cut mower and hit a piece of pipe sticking out of ground, brought his blade over and thought it would match my landpride 72inch cutter nope. So he has been down a month with a blade that no one can find or match it’s a weird shape. Even his splines on his blade carrier aren’t even the same to switch that out. Just do some home work that’s all and good luck.
 

chim

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.............I asked my self what the difference was the westward tiller was 90lbs heavier and a lot cheaper. .....................
Reminds me of a conversation I had with our Purchasing VP when looking for my first tractor in the late 80's. He's pretty knowledgeable about mechanical things. A Kubota fan himself, he said if I want a very good refined tractor I should go Kubota. It's what the majority of small landscaping contractors used. He said if I want cheap, go Chinese. They were so cheap that his bud in Wyoming had a tractor for each implement. He said that these tractors held up pretty well due to the parts being quite heavy (and clunky) because they spent a little more on material to save engineering costs. I was never quite sure how much of that advice was tongue in cheek:)
 

Mitjam

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Reminds me of a conversation I had with our Purchasing VP when looking for my first tractor in the late 80's. He's pretty knowledgeable about mechanical things. A Kubota fan himself, he said if I want a very good refined tractor I should go Kubota. It's what the majority of small landscaping contractors used. He said if I want cheap, go Chinese. They were so cheap that his bud in Wyoming had a tractor for each implement. He said that these tractors held up pretty well due to the parts being quite heavy (and clunky) because they spent a little more on material to save engineering costs. I was never quite sure how much of that advice was tongue in cheek:)
Now even cheap Chinese isn’t cheap. It makes you wonder I replaced the output shaft bearing on my mower bought a timken it’s a big bearing about 4 inches around. Anyway got my bill it was 147 dollars and says made in china 🤷‍♂️
 

D2Cat

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Never used a flail mower but a lot of folks here on OTT swear by them.

@Russell King brings up what could be an alternative to a rotary cutter. A flail also has a much shorter footprint - it's not as long a rotary cutter.
Russell made an excellent suggestion. I would add, if you mowed with a flail mower you would soon wish that belly mower was not on your tractor. That flail will mow as well, if not better, then the belly mower for the yard and the taller material. Because of your love of that mower.....don't get a flail!!! :)

This gives you an idea of what I cut with my flail, and when cutting short grass is looks like you cut it with a 21" push mower, just a whole bunch faster.

The unspoken added benefit is with a three point mower you can quickly drop it and use other attachments.
 

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jbeech

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Kubota L3010, Jacobsen 417D
May 23, 2025
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Sanford, FL
JasonW . . . cheaper/less maintenance - you're singing my song!

Russell . . . curiously, I'd just stumbled across some YouTube of folks touting flails.
Watch THIS Before You Buy A Flail Mower!
Why A Flail Mower Can't Replace A Bush Hog
BRUSH HOG vs. FLAIL MOWER (for compact tractors)

D2Cat . . . I wonder if/how quickly I'd regret purchasing due to the cost of blade replacement and/or sharpening in both time/money? Like are flail mowers using the Guillett business razor/razor-blade model where the maintenance or cost of sharpening is the gotcha? At least I know what to expect with either finish deck or brush hog - but - I have zero clue regarding blade maintenance/expense as regards the flail-type. And are they brand specific, so I'd be tied to the flail, or does Oregon and others offer the blades? Also, what opinion do you have regarding Y-shape cutting-type vs hammer-type?

chim . . . under normal circumstances, not as gnarly as the photos D2Cat posted. Maybe knee high at worst but it's Central Florida 'mutt-grass' meaning no one type. Any taller than this, and I have to lower the speed with my mower, especially if wet. Don't like mowing and thus, I try 'hard' to never let it get so far ahead of me I have to mow slower than as fast as it'll go in high gear.

1024x1365-Mowing-at-night.jpg



Anyway, when the mower was down for a month last year because the deck got impossible during the season such that the 'solution' was cut it into pieces for purposes of templating to create a new deck from 1/8" sheet, the grass got so ahead of me I'd have never been able to cut it.

So my neighbor loaned me his John Deere with 6' deck (+40hp mower) and I absolutely LOVED cutting with that and immediately resolved to purchase a tractor.

Note; I wear foam roll-up plug hearing protection so this is not me being stupid other than I should have a hat on (my excuse being I mostly try to mow at night).

1024x768-John-on-the-John-Deere.jpg



However, and quite honestly, and despite hating to mow, I would rather 'not' let it get as high as i this photo, again.

As for the mower Ive used the first 20 years here, it's a 60in 3-blade deck, what Jacobsen refers to as a surrounds mower. 1985 model (so now 40 y/o) bought from the airport authority. Does the job but the little Kubota diesel is underpowered compared to new zero-turn mowers, e.g. marginal if it gets any higher than the above night time photo, especially if it's wet.

1024x768-John-cleans-up-the-mower.jpg


Finally, thanks everybody who has taken time to respond and try to help guide me.
--
John
 

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NCL4701

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I haven’t bought a rough cut mower recently. Only thing I have to add is in regard to the heavy, medium, light duty. I have a Howes 500 Economy grade rotary cutter (about 570lb 5’ deck) for rough cutting areas we mow once or twice a year to keep trees from taking over. This is the sort of stuff it cuts.

Before (various native grasses, various forbs, and a lot of sweet gum saplings)
IMG_9037.jpeg

After
IMG_9039.jpeg

Partially done grasses, mostly broom straw with some I don’t know what all mixed in.
IMG_0836.jpeg

The busted up sticks on the left side of the pic are the remnants of 10’ to 15’ tall mature witch hazel bushes that covered this hill. Cut about 3 of them with a chainsaw. Didn’t like fighting through the branches searching for the base with a Husqvarna 455 on a 95 degree day. I decided to see if the Howes could live up to its 1.5” stem rating. After a couple of slow passes, it ground them to chips.
IMG_2519.jpeg

That’s a light duty rough cut rotary cutter doing light duty stuff. If you’re just mowing grass, regardless of height, I don’t know why you’d have any need (or use) for a medium or heavy duty cutter.

This is the Howes. It’s also an example of a cutter bought used that still had a fair amount of life in it. It looks like crap. That’s what it looked like 25 years ago when it was bought used after the prior owner beat it half to death. Still works perfectly.

IMG_7022.jpeg
 
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JimmyJazz

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I have the County line model and it works great. I have been using it for maybe 10 years with zero maintenance and no problems. About 15 hours per year in usage. I have broken many a shear bolt especially during the earlier learning curve period. I pull mine with an old orange 40 horsepower Allis Chalmers. Good luck.
 

jbeech

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Kubota L3010, Jacobsen 417D
May 23, 2025
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Sanford, FL
NCL4701 . . . thanks for sharing those photo.
JimmyJazz . . . appreciate the sentiment, thanks!

Meanwhile, been communicating with D2Cat about a flail mower and am basically convinced that would suit my purposes. So right now, job one is getting the belly mower out from beneath the tractor to inspect/prep it for service . . . yard already needs mowing.

So I'll be doing that in the morning when I pull the front wheels to drop them off to have the new tires put on. It'll be my first opportunity to inspect the horse's teeth, so to speak, because I purchased the rig sight unseen from a fellow about 150 miles away and had another guy fetch it for me.

640x480-Kubota-9.JPG



The tractor itself is exactly as represented, and I am perfectly satisfied. However, I've already junked the rotary deck because the gear box failed under a light load (cracked the cast iron housing dumping all the 80W gear oil). Shear pin failed when the gear box broke, and that's actually when I discovered it had crapped out as the tip off something was wrong was looking behind me expecting to see mowed grass, and it wasn't being mowed.

Anyway, since the deck itself was Swiss cheese with rust, I had already planned to fabricate a replacement - until - the gearbox let go. So that plan went out the window and I put it on the street. And no, not the end of the world because the seller made no representations whatsoever about the mower deck. No bad feelings about it failing, just one of those things.

Meanwhile, the belly mower deck looks, maybe not new, but definitely decent. Like it's experienced, but not trashed - or so I hope - but there has to be a reason he didn't use it. I'll find out soon enough.

640x480-Kubota-15.jpg



So whilst I've no clue why the seller didn't use it, it was 'the' major appeal. However, I've never used a belly mower and have no clue how effective it'll be. Expect it to be very effective else Kubota don't make them, right?

Meanwhile, I expect to continue using the Jacobsen for the surrounds (e.g. around the house, workshop and pumphouse, plus going in and around the oak trees, which line the street in front). But, I also secretly hope I may be able to do this entirely with the belly mower and thus, put the Jacobsen out to pasture. Basically, I am hoping this Kubota will allow me to do the same job, just faster . . . but only time will tell.

Anyway, D2Cat (and others) have made a good point about shopping for a used whatever (brush hog or flail mower). Minor point being, I've not been letting the grass grow under my feet. Been on Facebook Marketplace and Craig's List already.

Unfortunately, the only rotary mower decks I've found have been rather well used where decent looking ones are priced at $800-1000, which would see me buying a new County Line for $1500, instead. And even crappy looking ones are $400-500 (but I'm not kidding about them looking like shit). Fortunately, I can afford a new one, it's just that I'd rather not spend so much because I'm really hoping it's just the backup for when I don't get out to mow in a timely fashion.

Anyway, I have found an interesting deal on a Land Pride finish deck model where the seller wants $2000 and the deck's virtually unused (claims only 3 times). But, it's a finish deck instead of a brush hog. Not really sure that helps me. Or at least no more so than a flail mower would. And per D2Cat, a flail will be less trouble because he mentioned ho little maintenance he's had to do (none?) and I know from experience how much work is involved keeping mower blades sharp. These are photos of the finish deck. New they're $3300 so at $2k the seller wants it's gone.

Land-Pride1-RCF2060.jpg


Land-Pride2-RCF2060.jpg


Anyway, if I were shopping for a finish deck, I'd have bought this one already. Good brand, good price. Meanwhile, I continue nosing around for a used rotary cutter or flail.
--
Cheers,
John
 

D2Cat

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One of the limitations with a belly mower is it only raises "so" high, then it hits it's stops. If you keep your grass cut to a reasonable height that is not an issue.