T33
Member
In your opinion who makes the best disc mower. (for hay) :?:
Disc mower
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Herefordcross
Well-known member
How much money ya got to spend? All of them are expensive new and if they're used much it hurts your pocket badly. Bought a "slightly used" one at a sale" ran over eighty acres and it cost me $4,000 to fix, not very much fun at all to fix either. I even did it the cheap way by cracking the housings open and reusing the gears out of the old turtles.
Crowderfarms
Well-known member
IMHO, The best are Krone, Vicon. I've seen a lot of Bush Hog brand mowers with cracked housings.
Bullbuyer
Well-known member
Got an old Lely - we bought new years ago. A new set of blades every year and that's about it for maintenance. Mowing up here in the mountains can be rough but the machine seems to handle it quite well.
Tennessee Cattleman
Well-known member
I have had a New Holland 616 for about 4 years. So far so good. Seems to be well designed & built.
Cabo
Well-known member
I have a Kuhn 600 HD Gen II and in my opinion there is none better.flaboy-":txedaxzz said:
flaboy-":2rje7hu7 said:
Kuhn makes the John deere too. We have had a few problems with the Moco. Expensive to repair.
Neighbor bought a new Kuhn this year. No problems yet and somehow takes less power to pull than the JD's.
Well MikeC beat me to it. He is correct; Kuhn makes JD Mowers and Fluffers. If you look close the Kuhn name is stamped in the metal. In the past two years I have used a Kuhn, JD and a Krone (all new) and liked all three of them. I have to agree with Crowderfarms, the Krone is built like a Sherman tank. I don’t think you would go wrong with anyone of these. I just wouldn’t pay more for green paint when you’re getting the same thing as a Kuhn.
hayray
Well-known member
I have one of the first disc mower conditioners made by Deere and the cutter bar and gear boxes were all made by Khun over in France. I have had it for close to 14 years and it works great. I think you guys down South are talking about straight disc mowers minus the conditioner, right?Auburn_Ag":1af513tl said:
hayray":23mh4wen said:
Well, I am. We can't grow much stalk forage down here. I guess bermuda grass could be conditioned. We tried it years ago (conditioner) but didn't see much diff in drying times.
I have to admit I am using a 1998 Fort Italian made thing. Been using it since 98 also. It's about shot now but I needed something fast back then and it was all that was available in stock.
BTW, the Kuhn I saw was at a JD dealer.
T33
Member
The Kuhn, Krone, & New Holland are the ones available near me.
Right now I'm leaning towards the Kuhn GMD700/800.
Right now I'm leaning towards the Kuhn GMD700/800.
LaneFarms
Well-known member
I have a new holland 616 and it has lasted forever. It takes a little more horsepower to pull because it weighs so much but it does a fine job cutting. We also have a vermeer 7030 so far so good, its lighter and a little easier to pull and the parts seem to be a little cheaper than the new holland.
johndeerefarmer
Well-known member
I have had the JD 275 for 2 years. It is made by Kuhn (GMD 700). The JD was $7300 and the Kuhn was $7100. Both were sold by the JD dealer.
I would advise getting a CAT 2 Quick Hitch to go with it. Makes hooking it up easy.....
Also, the rope, parking latch rigging is a pain in the a**
I mowed 17.5 acres in 3 hours yesterday. It was a light crop due to drought. This was at 7 mph.
I would advise getting a CAT 2 Quick Hitch to go with it. Makes hooking it up easy.....
Also, the rope, parking latch rigging is a pain in the a**
I mowed 17.5 acres in 3 hours yesterday. It was a light crop due to drought. This was at 7 mph.
ironpeddler
Well-known member
Both mowers are shaft driven and do a good job. The Vermeer/Lely style cutterbar has been around since the early 1980's. Lely was the first shaft driven design. This design works well with 30-80HP tractors. The Lely design does take 20% less HP to operate. The NH616 is too heavy for most 60 HP tractors. The HayMaxx/Lely style 6 disc mower weighs 400 LBS less than the NH. Since there is this much weight difference you can see that the HayMaxx design works well with the 35-55 HP tractors that many of the smaller operators use. NH has realized this and is now marketing a lighter Sitrex disc mower as their economy disc mower.LaneFarms":1u7fe1qp said:
cowtrek
Well-known member
Most of the disc mowers (at least the mower bars) are made by one of only a few companies. Kuhns are very good. The JD mower is the exact same mower in green paint. Kuhn also made the old NH mowers, the old gearbed types, before they switched to the shaft-between-boxes type they sell now, which is Lely if I remember right. Morra, Sitrex, Farmtrac, and about half a dozen other off brands are Italian for the most part. I can't remember who Bush-hog is made by. Vicon is a good mower from either Germany or Holland. Vermeer is a good mower, made by Lely too I believe.
I've run a 9.5 foot Kuhn behind a 5610 New Holland tractor for a neighbor and it runs like a dream. I personally run a PZ Zweegers CM 212 drum mower, bought new in 88 and only had to replace the cluster (input) gears year before last, the skid saucers, transport strips, blades, and blade holders in all that time, and I used to cut road hay in gravelly conditions and stuff, which is real hard on it. They were bought out by Vicon about 5 years ago or so. Excellent mower.
Like the guy said about buying a used disk mower, buyer beware! That's usually why used disk mowers are dirt cheap; if they had a lot of trouble free life left to them odds are the guy would've kept it himself. And repairs are major $$$ so you have to get it for a song to really come out if/when it does need major repairs. You might get lucky and get one cheap that goes a long time without repairs, but if you pay big money for it and then have to repair it too you can easily have as much money tied up in it as if you'd bought a new one, but you're still stuck with an old clunker. Be REALLY careful of the auction machines. I've seen ONE, maybe two mowers that were worth a crap at auction in the last two years. One was a brand new Pottinger (who knows who makes that, never heard of it before and the bar/turtles looked competely unlike ANY other make) that was sold at every sale for about 6 months or so, over and over again (probably rebought it looking for a sucker) and the other was a Zweegers drum mower but the dummies lifted it off the trailer by it's cylinder rod and bent it into a pretty 'U' shape. Saw one Kuhn that was ok, looked like minor repairs would get it going. Saw at least 8 various makes that were completely worn out or torn up, bearings out, bars locked up, gears turn a turn or two and lock up, etc. Be sure you can get parts for whatever you buy too. Some of these 'off brands' are here today gone tomorrow and if you can't get parts you've got a new lawn ornament. Good luck! OL JR
I've run a 9.5 foot Kuhn behind a 5610 New Holland tractor for a neighbor and it runs like a dream. I personally run a PZ Zweegers CM 212 drum mower, bought new in 88 and only had to replace the cluster (input) gears year before last, the skid saucers, transport strips, blades, and blade holders in all that time, and I used to cut road hay in gravelly conditions and stuff, which is real hard on it. They were bought out by Vicon about 5 years ago or so. Excellent mower.
Like the guy said about buying a used disk mower, buyer beware! That's usually why used disk mowers are dirt cheap; if they had a lot of trouble free life left to them odds are the guy would've kept it himself. And repairs are major $$$ so you have to get it for a song to really come out if/when it does need major repairs. You might get lucky and get one cheap that goes a long time without repairs, but if you pay big money for it and then have to repair it too you can easily have as much money tied up in it as if you'd bought a new one, but you're still stuck with an old clunker. Be REALLY careful of the auction machines. I've seen ONE, maybe two mowers that were worth a crap at auction in the last two years. One was a brand new Pottinger (who knows who makes that, never heard of it before and the bar/turtles looked competely unlike ANY other make) that was sold at every sale for about 6 months or so, over and over again (probably rebought it looking for a sucker) and the other was a Zweegers drum mower but the dummies lifted it off the trailer by it's cylinder rod and bent it into a pretty 'U' shape. Saw one Kuhn that was ok, looked like minor repairs would get it going. Saw at least 8 various makes that were completely worn out or torn up, bearings out, bars locked up, gears turn a turn or two and lock up, etc. Be sure you can get parts for whatever you buy too. Some of these 'off brands' are here today gone tomorrow and if you can't get parts you've got a new lawn ornament. Good luck! OL JR
john250
Well-known member
I'm running a BushHog HM 2409, I believe the bar is a KUHN. I chose it because the dealer is both good and close. I'm quite satisfied. With a 95 horse tractor, I do most of my mowing at 8.6 MPH. No joke. The irregular shaped fields I run 6+.
With any disc mower, I think having a heavy tractor is as important as the mower. They place extraordinary loads on the hitch and considerable side draft on the steering. I mowed thousands of acres with a Massey 275 pulling 7 and 8 foot bars. It had the horsepower, but could have used more heft.
With any disc mower, I think having a heavy tractor is as important as the mower. They place extraordinary loads on the hitch and considerable side draft on the steering. I mowed thousands of acres with a Massey 275 pulling 7 and 8 foot bars. It had the horsepower, but could have used more heft.
