Rotary cutter.

[In Utopia]

Mowed a neighbor's field the other day. It was mostly knee high blue stem. I used his tractor and 5' shredder that didn't have anything on the discharge opening. Not only did it leave clumps, but it also left growth that was about 6" tall and about 6" wide.
No matter what ground speed I used it still did the same thing.
Cutter was set with the rear 1" higher than the front.
Looking across the field it sort of looked like a bad haircut.
I thinking about adding chains to see if it makes any difference in the cut.

 

[SDT]

Mowed a neighbor's field the other day. It was mostly knee high blue stem. I used his tractor and 5' shredder that didn't have anything on the discharge opening. Not only did it leave clumps, but it also left growth that was about 6" tall and about 6" wide.
No matter what ground speed I used it still did the same thing.
Cutter was set with the rear 1" higher than the front.
Looking across the field it sort of looked like a bad haircut.
I thinking about adding chains to see if it makes any difference in the cut.

If it is not cutting chains will make no difference.

Are you operating at 540 RPM?

Are the blades in good condition and properly installed? I've seen blades installed upside down. Blades cut poorly on the back side.

Is rotation correct? I've bought 2 different new cutters only to find that at least one gearbox was incorrect resulting in incorrect rotation of one spindle. Again, blades cut poorly on the back side.

Are the skid rails above ground? If the skid rails drag the ground, clumps of cut grass will collect in front of the mower only to be dumped when the mower is raised or crosses a rise or depression.

SDT

 

[In Utopia]

Everything is as should be, in fact previous owner welded steel caster type wheels on the front of the shredder to prevent the skid rails from dragging. Rear wheel hits the ground occasionally.
Got back up here and here's what it looks like. Had some rain up here last week, so the KR blue stem started perking up again.
Blades are on right, rotation is right.

 

[Russell King]

Mowed a neighbor's field the other day. It was mostly knee high blue stem. I used his tractor and 5' shredder that didn't have anything on the discharge opening. Not only did it leave clumps, but it also left growth that was about 6" tall and about 6" wide.
No matter what ground speed I used it still did the same thing.
Cutter was set with the rear 1" higher than the front.
Looking across the field it sort of looked like a bad haircut.
I thinking about adding chains to see if it makes any difference in the cut.

In my experience with KR bluestem you cannot get it mowed well and it will look like your mower is not even trying to mow well. You may get it cut with a sickle bar mower going very slowly but a rotary mower blows it down before it hits the stems

 

[Cathy Liebchen]

Looking for thoughts on the back of my LP RCR1860 rotary cutter. It has the solid plate. Getting some clumping when mowing the pasture. Would like the chain guard but $160 seems steep. Can’t do that right now. Don’t want to waste the money on the rubber one. How dangerous is it really to just take the plate off? Dealer told me no big deal. Anyone else just remove it?

That’s actually a very reasonable price for the chains. We run front and rear chains on every cutter

 

[Goz63]

That’s actually a very reasonable price for the chains. We run front and rear chains on every cutter

In the grand scheme it isn’t that much I guess but for what you get it seems steep. I ended up just taking the rear plate off. There isn’t a huge opening anyway. I really mostly use the rotary cutter on our pasture. Nothing big in there to throw. Seems to be working well. If someday I have $160 just burning a hole in my pocket I may get the chains just to max safety.

 

[jimh406]

I had rear chains put on my cutter before delivery. Yes, they are very pricey. I did it because Neil Messick said it helped with getting rid of clumps. It’s been a very dry year, so I only mowed one time with the cutter. It seemed to work. I couldn’t tell where I mowed except for the difference in height. YMMV.

 

[In Utopia]

In my experience with KR bluestem you cannot get it mowed well and it will look like your mower is not even trying to mow well. You may get it cut with a sickle bar mower going very slowly but a rotary mower blows it down before it hits the stems

Makes sense since it's really dry right now. Blades aren't flat, they have a rise on them, supposed to help with pulling grass up as it's cutting.
For grins I might make up some chains and see what happens as far as clomping goes.