Rough cut mower - pull behind or walk behind

[CCook]

Does anyone have a pull behind or walk behind rough cut mower? Do they hold up to use? Any recommendation on brand(s)?

I need something to mow 2-3 acres of pasture above the usual lawnmower height of 4", but likely no higher than 8". Could I tow one of the pull behind rough cut mowers with my old riding mower? Some of the companies selling them say a riding mower as a tow vehicle is OK, but I’m not sure how that will work in reality. I would be looking on the smaller/lighter (and cheaper) end of these mowers, so I’m hoping my riding mower could handle it. Otherwise, I’d have to go with a walk behind.

Thanks !

[walkinthewalk]

I would never consider a walk behind mower for 2-3 acres on a good day in my youth. Over time you will regret all that walking especially if your knees give out.

If money is an issue and the pasture is flat, look at gang mowers of appropriate size for the lawn tractor.

if money is not an issue, buy a used (or new) 4-wheeler and a commercial set of gang mowers. 4-wheelers are great multi-tasking pieces of equipment:)

[SusanO]

What ever you do - do not buy a Swisher. I bought one of their rough cut walk behind mowers and it was a piece of junk. It never ran. The first year I had it I was able to use it 20-30 minutes, The rest of the time it was sitting in the shop waiting to be fixed because the belts did not fit the engine. . First - if it is under warranty - NONE of the reputable repair places are authorized to make repairs. So it went to their authorized repair shop that did not answer the phone. After 6 weeks when I got it back - it refused to start. I got a non-authorized shop to look at it ( one that repairs my other stuff). Apparently it is designed such that the fuel lines clog up the carburetor unless you run it at least once a week. Even when I was starting it all the time it was really hard to crank.

I spent I don’t know how many hours on the phone with the Swisher people trying to get this thing fixed. They thought I should drive to Mississippi to a repair shop ( ummm 4 hours) to get it fixed. When I still couldn’t get it to work their response was " What do you want us to do?" Like they had no responsibility for this piece of junk. It sits in my barn these days. I need it to work but I just can’t face the infuriation trying to get it to work.

Second you have to feed in cutting strings individually so you spend 45 minutes feeding in new strings and 5 minutes mowing. If you can even get the %%$# thing to crank.

Can you tell I hate this sinful waste of money:mad::mad::mad:. If I can’t get resolution I figure I can give Swisher their money’s worth in bad advertising!

[carman_liz]

We have an old riding jd mower and a new zero turn 54inch deck. The zero turn goes up to 4.5 inches and that height works fine for me as far as mowing and then letting the grass regrow during rest periods. Plus in your other post if you use T posts for now for your fence, getting a rough cut mower like that in and out of your fenceline will be hell on earth! Weedwacking would take me forever and I only have around 1.5acres of our 3.6 acres fenced!

I can use either of ours to go in and mow under the fence and kinda zig zag around the posts. The posts are around 12ft apart. The zero turn does better for those since the deck is flatter to the ground. I turn the fence off while I mow under the fenceline so I can lift the bottom strand of tape up with my foot if I need slightly better access lol. And so I do not shock the crap outta myself!