reese mowers

[cowsrus]

I have been looking at these mowers for years. I,ve called complete strangers who own them and asked about the mowers. I think I would like to buy one but I,ve always thought that they were too simple and quite frankly too good to be true. No one I,ve talked to has said anything bad about them, but there has to be something wrong or else there would be a lot more of them around. I,ve tore up disk mowers by running into things several times and I,m thinking if these drum mowers work as good as advertised and are so simple (no gears or gearboxs) why don,t you see more of them. Most people kind of scoff at the mere mention of them. Has anyone operated one of these and could tell me some of the quirks of mowing with one of them?

 

[Bullbuyer]

Honestly - I've never heard of them. Sorry

 

[flaboy?]

I have never heard of them either.

I think the main reason most of us use disc mowers as opposed to drums is the current ones (drum) don't cut much at one time.

 

[dun]

The only significant problwm we had with a Reese is the drive belt. On the one I ised it would twist and didn;t last even a full seaon without needing rplacing. After 3 years the inner skid foot had to be replaced. It's also very heavy and needs a pretty heavy tractor to keep from squating to the right side when you raise it

 

[MikeC]

I must've had a reese mower one time and didn't know it.


Every time I started the PTO, the gearbox would squall in an

obnoxious tone..........REESE...REESE......REESE. REEEEEEESE!!

 

[Family Tradition]

Cowsrus I'm using one now. I think thier kinda viewed as the poormans disc mower.The one I've got cuts 5.5ft. can't cut thick hay as fast as disc but it sure beat a sickle bar mower. I think you can get them up to 7 ft. I'm pleased with mine second season bought it used one year second owner and no problems yet. The only fault I've found is that it brings all the hay to the center so it leaves a ready made windrow so drying time is a little longer. I just rake it a little early let it set a little then bale .

 

[ironpeddler]

I have been looking at these mowers for years. I,ve called complete strangers who own them and asked about the mowers. I think I would like to buy one but I,ve always thought that they were too simple and quite frankly too good to be true. No one I,ve talked to has said anything bad about them, but there has to be something wrong or else there would be a lot more of them around. I,ve tore up disk mowers by running into things several times and I,m thinking if these drum mowers work as good as advertised and are so simple (no gears or gearboxs) why don,t you see more of them. Most people kind of scoff at the mere mention of them. Has anyone operated one of these and could tell me some of the quirks of mowing with one of them?

There is nothing wrong with a Reese drum mower. They are very expensive and do require a much larger tractor that the same size cut disc mower.
HayMaxx has the PZ style drum mowers to 75" and they are less than $3,000, new.

 

[ERNIBIGB]

We have used the Reese mowers for the last several years. They are very tough machines. I think the reason they aren't seen around as much is because dealers know they won't be selling many replacement parts or replacement mowers.We own one that has cut thousands of rolls of hay and has been used to clip a few thousand acres of pasture in its ~10 years. Replaced belts once due to twisting and binding on startup. This machine has been used enough to wear out 2 NH disc mowers. The downside is the manual fold. We have built up the skid shoe but never replaced it. I did replace the outer wheel with a cheap hard rubber tire,no more flats. The ones we own cut about 6.5ft. Tall grass that is down can get into the belts causing problems but other than that it works great.

 

[ERNIBIGB]

can't cut thick hay as fast as disc

I have found the faster I keep moving the better it cuts. It does take a bigger tractor than CCM's drum mower but the Reese is built heaver and will take a beating. Fire ant hills and such are no problem even 2in. bushes can be cut right through.

 

[cowtrek]

We've got a PZ Zweegers drum mower (212 centimeter cut, which is about 7 1/2 feet) that we bought new in 89 and it works like a champ. We bought it instead of a disc mower because it looked to me like 32 gears and bearings in a cutterbar gearbox would be a maintenance nightmare. Zweegers only uses 6 gears and a common shaft in the gearbox above the drums. The Zweegers has been a REALLY good mower. It uses 8 little blades almost like a Kuhn blade but with no twist and a little 'hump' in the middle to keep them oriented right. They're reversible and have a quick-change tool that's easy to use. I wore out one set of skid disks underneath after about 13-14 years of use and replaced them; bout $300 bucks but not bad for that length of use and I used to cut roadsides and ran over a lot of gravel and pavement so that cut into the lifespan of the skid disks I'm sure. I did have to have the input shaft gear changed out at about 12 years old but I've cut some VERY heavy stuff over the years; thick bahia, seenybeans, smutgrass, thick native grass with blackberry vines, and other really tough to cut stuff and 95% of it I cut at 6 mph with my 72 horse NH 5610 and it had its hands full! I was cutting some heavy smutgrass at the time the input gear took a dump. The only other problem I've had was I broke the drag link from the 3 point frame to the main frame that allows it to swing back if you hit something and also allows the mower to swing straight back behind the tractor for road transport. I was mowing a guy's place that was ate up with hog wallows and the tractor and mower were pitching back and forth like a rowboat in a hurricane and it just flat overloaded it. It took out one U-joint when it swung back too far before I could get stopped but it wasn't a bad repair. Other than that it's been a really good mower.

I can't speak to the Reese mowers myself but like you I've always been interested in them. Our NH dealer at Shiner used to carry the PZ Zweegers until they got bought out by PZ Greenland and the he started carrying Kuhn mowers. He had carried Reese mowers for awhile but he told me he didn't sell many so he dropped them. The Reese's used to be quite a bit cheaper than a comparable Kuhn (or other main brand, not the Italian knock-offs) disc mower but now the prices are pretty comparable so personally I think I would go Kuhn now. Reese seems to have raised their prices quite a bit, don't know if it's an exchange rate thing or what, but it's certainly not a good way to increase market share. I've heard varying stories from folks who've had them, most love them some hate them. Like you though, most folks you ask about them (most have never owned one or heard of them) just snort and deride. Good luck! OL JR

 

[dun]

Something else of interest, at least it was when I did it, a Reese will but right through a heavy duty T-post of you turn to close and hit it with the outside of the drum

 

[cowsrus]

Thanks guys for all your input. I found a dealer who had a used one on his lot and Friday I bought it. It is a Reese model# 3100 which is a 10 1/2' cut pull type drum mower. It has no gears and 4 drums with 3 blades on each drum. I liked it because of the easy hookup and the wide cut.It,s mine now for better or worse, so I hope it lives up to my expectations. I,m going to mow this afternoon.

 

[cowtrek]

Thanks guys for all your input. I found a dealer who had a used one on his lot and Friday I bought it. It is a Reese model# 3100 which is a 10 1/2' cut pull type drum mower. It has no gears and 4 drums with 3 blades on each drum. I liked it because of the easy hookup and the wide cut.It,s mine now for better or worse, so I hope it lives up to my expectations. I,m going to mow this afternoon.

Lemme know how it works out for you, please! Where are you at and what are you cutting with it?? Be really interested to know where you got it and what it cost too Have a good one! OL JR

 

[flaboy?]

Had a Vicon years ago with 3 blades on each disc. Best cutter I have ever seen. I don't know if Vicon still has the 3 blade setup or not but most don't.

 

[cowsrus]

I found it at a dealer in Iola, Kansas. It cost me $3000. A new one list,s for $10,500. The previous owner told me it was about five years old and he cut about 300 acres a year with it. I had to pull it 92 miles home behind my pickup. Kind of a wide load,not to bad pulling it though. I used it last night, cut about 10 acres of real heavy native bluestem/bermuda grass. It did real good. No plugging and I thought it did as good or better than the 10 1/2 Lely mower I had been using.

 

[cowtrek]

Had a Vicon years ago with 3 blades on each disc. Best cutter I have ever seen. I don't know if Vicon still has the 3 blade setup or not but most don't.

Yeah we've got a dealer in Hallettsville that sells new Vicons with the three blade turtles. They have two basic 3 point hitch designs now... the older cheaper design put the belts in front of the frame and the new design puts the belts behind but uses a big (4-5 inch) pipe to connect the gearbox and cutterbar. The gearbox pivots on the frame and feeds power down into the cutterbar thru a drum connecting the gearbox to the first disk on the cutterbar. I sorta cringe at that design because I had a middlebuster that used a large pipe frame and it developed spiral stress cracks that were impossible to weld up. Looks to me that with a 7 1/2 to 9 foot 'lever' (the cutterbar) transferring all that torque through that pipe it would eventually stress crack. Even if it's solid steel I think structurally the next place it'd fail would be the welds connecting the 'pipe' to the thick backer plate attached to the cutterbar. Sure wouldn't want to hit anything with it!

The older style Vicon has the box and frame pivot bolted to the end of the cutterbar like Kuhn, NH, Bush-hog and everybody else IIRC. Guy I buy tops from uses one to cut just before he loads them. Looks like a real good mower OL JR

 

[cowtrek]

I found it at a dealer in Iola, Kansas. It cost me $3000. A new one list,s for $10,500. The previous owner told me it was about five years old and he cut about 300 acres a year with it. I had to pull it 92 miles home behind my pickup. Kind of a wide load,not to bad pulling it though. I used it last night, cut about 10 acres of real heavy native bluestem/bermuda grass. It did real good. No plugging and I thought it did as good or better than the 10 1/2 Lely mower I had been using.

See what I mean about the list price?? Seems awfully high for a mower with less moving parts/ simpler design/ no gearbox. Seems like the machined gears and close tolerance stuff would be the pricey part. Maybe the exchange rates are bad and that drives the prices up. Interesting...

Sounds like you got a REAL good deal on it! Know what you mean about hauling long distance... Our other place is 100 miles west of here in Shiner. I buy virtually everything from the NH dealer there because our NH dealer 23 miles from here is pretty sorry, and the NH dealer 13 miles away is lawn/garden city farmers only--big$$$ don't know sh!t bout nuthin... I needed a Donahue (implement) trailer but couldn't find one in this part of the country cheap found one at NH dealer near my Brother in law for $800 in good shape so I bought it on the spot. Had to pull it 1200 miles home from nothern Indiana. Put lights on it and worked great. Would have had to pay nearly double that for one within 200 miles and it would have been ragged out.

So it handled the bluestem/bermuda real well then?? Any bahia or smutgrass?? That seems to be the ultimate test of a mower IMHO because both are like trying to cut steel. The only time I've had to drop from 6 mph to 5 mph with my Zweegers was because of bahia or smutgrass. But it did do a beautiful job of cutting it... left it looking like a lawnmower after it was all baled up.

Really interested in your comments/experiences because when I DO have to get another mower all I can afford is used and a Reese would seem to have a lot less to go wrong and a lot more visible as to the mechanical condition of it. Hard to see inside a cutterbar/gearbox Thanks and Later! OL JR

 

[cowsrus]

I don,t think we have any bahia or smutgrass, but we have wiregrass and crabgrass. Anyways,like I said before I have been looking at these mowers for years and finally talked myself into buying one. So far i,m happy with it, but I,m not trying to talk anyone else into buying one. Everyone,s got their own ideas of what they want. I just wanted to hear of anyones personal experience with them to help me make up my mind. Thanks again.

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

I've had a 2400 HL Reese for about 8 years, It's heavy and It takes a heavy tractor to handle it. Works great on level to slightly rolling land. NOT worth a flip on some of my steep hillsides. Works best running OVER it 540 PTO RPM's. NO problem's with belts or bearings, 8 knives will mow 100+ acers if you dont hit any rocks or steel fence posts . I have mowed at 10+MPH, BUT I would not buy another 3 point mounted Reese mower, But would look at a Reese 3400 Trailed mower, A Reese trailed mower should take care of 99% of the problem's that a Reese mounted mower has. BUT if IRONPEDDLER would come down $500.00 more I would buy a TM 700 from him.LOL