We have some experience with both the FC 243 RTG and the H7220. My wife and son bought a used FC 243 RTG 2 years ago and after one season the rubber rollers started to pile off at the ends. This mower had supposedly only cut 200 acres, still had the majority of the paint on the cutter bar and turtles. She paid $9K for it and got one season out of it and checked into replacing the rollers, about $6K with labor. They decided to buy a new FC 243 RTG, well it came in with a damaged and defective top roller. They offered to replace the roller and she said no she was buying a new machine not a rebuilt one. The fiasco was a nightmare from the get go because of the way the deal was handled but I won't get into that. We met with the Dist. Rep. from Kuhn to go over the Mower and he even found more defects than we did. She decided to walk away from the deal and drove straight to the nearby NH dealer and he had an H7220 on the lot that had just been taken from the crate and assembled. The NH dealer came and look at the Kuhn and we showed him the rollers and he offered $8500 on a trade for the H7220 which something like $24K and 0% interest. She and our son made the deal and that was that. BTW: The Kuhn dealer only offer her $4500 on a trade for a new Kuhn. So they lost $500 on the Kuhn mower and used it for one season, about 100 acres of mowing, the increase in productivity over the NH 478 was well worth the $500.
Now everyone really liked the 2pt. swivel Gyrodine hitch on the Kuhn, you could turn it back on itself with no driveline chatter at all. The quad rib tires helped it track better in wet ground and was easier to clean up.
Now the good points of the NH, one is the hydraulic tilt, very nice. It is easier to hook up than the 2pt. hitch but the 2pt hitch wasn't too bad either and makes it hard for someone to steal, nearly impossible to tow without a special hitch or a tractor. The conditioner Roller pressure is much easier to adjust. Parts availability is much better for the NH than the Kuhn.
Now this is going to be hard to believe but the 9'2" NH pulls less on the tractor than the 7'10" Kuhn. I have no idea why but everyone can tell it. We had figured on having to pull the NH behind the CaseIH 5140 90+ PTO HP but it was tied up doing other stuff when the new NH came out of the shed for the first mowing last year so it was put behind a JD 5065M cab tractor that tests out at 57hp at the PTO according to Tractordata.com. Not sure what you're going to be mowing or pulling the NH7220 with but it may have enough HP.
It doesn't take too hard of a turn to hit the tongue protection bars on the NH with the rear tires but you can get used to it. I have numerous videos of the both the Kuhn and the NH on our Youtube channel.
Both machines have Pros and Cons. We actually asked the local Kuhn dealer recently about a possible trade of the NH for a new FC 243 RTG and he told us today that there were none in the warehouse but more were coming. I think everyone has talked about it this and have decided to keep the NH.
NH7220 behind JD 5065M cutting Ryegrass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vJDbTYFMPM
Kuhn FC 243RTG behind the JD 5065M cutting Soybeans and Millet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPNpsJSCqQU
Our Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperHerefords/videos
