Rotary Cutter gear box ?

[tater pop]

I'm in line to get a new cutter. I have a mx-5100 tractor I will be mostly cutting grass some a little hard to cut(watergrass) . looking at getting a 6FT rotary cutter . Does the higher HP mean slower RPMs I will not be clearing land with it.I just need something thats makes a clean cut.

 

[gpreuss]

Mostly the higher horsepower comes from more torque, although with the MX5100 you have to run 2700 rpm to get 540 at the PTO. The mowers are all made for 540 rpm, and cut best at that speed. If you slow them down too much you no longer get a clean cut.

 

[TripleR]

Not necessarily, check the Land Pride web site and it will give you blade tip speeds etc. and some high HP mowers are essentially the same as lower HP models. I haven't check other makes, but don't know why they would be different.

I use an RCR2672 and it works well in grass as well as brush. Lots of definitions of water grass, so I'm not sure what you have.

 

[Bulldog]

Like TripleR said, the blade tip speed is what you need to look at. For example, my 3008 Bushhog is 16,345 fpm and it has a very high quality cut. If you want a good cut for grass I wouldn't even look at anything under 15K fpm.

 

[tater pop]

Thanks for your answers, the reason I ask the question is years ago I had an older bushHog brand bush hog with the old big gearbox that thing would clear a thicket but did not make a good cut on pasture grass. My neighbor had a ford cutter with a small gearbox that would make a better cut in grass at a faster speed than I could run .

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Don't forget the size and type of blades also effect the cut too.