A friend of mine uses one similar to this. He pulls it with an ATV, does a pretty nice job.

Keep in mind, double the gas usage.

 

A friend of mine uses one similar to this. He pulls it with an ATV, does a pretty nice job.

Keep in mind, double the gas usage.

Thanks. The gas thing is definitely a downside, and these mowers don't have that big of tanks. It does seem that at least one of them could be ordered with a bigger tank though. I figured that by the time Mrs. CP ran a tank of gas through the mower, she'd be ready for a break anyway. Man, how thoughtful of a husband am I?:lol: But I figured with us cutting the field twice a year at most, it wouldn't be a deal/bank breaker. And besides, I'll still have the 3PH brush hog on the diesel tractor, just in case.

 

I think the tow behind mower would be a pain unless you are in an open area. But It would be nice to be in a heated and cooled UTV cab in the summer while mowing a pasture.

 

Swisher?

 

You're looking at all wrong, you use the tractor/RC to mow, then drive the Mrs. around on the Gator to show her your fine work.:lol:

 

Blast, I must’ve flunked that lesson at Gizmo’s school of good husbandry![emoji23][emoji23]

 

I think you would be well served to buy just the Gator and forgo the mower. You can already mow. Now you need to travel in style. Wouldn't the Gator be a deductible business expense?

 

Wouldn't the Gator be a deductible business expense?

Absolutely.

I've struggled with this because I'm a small operation. In 20+ years of surveying I have really only thought an ATV/UTV would've been handy a handful of times. In the last 6 months though, I've done 3 surveys (with 1 more pending) where I could've used one. Maybe I'm getting older and my legs more tired? Maybe I'm getting wiser.....work smarter. not harder. I'm pretty sure the latter is correct.:lol: I'm finishing up my last big survey today and told Mrs. CP, no more big ones for a while because I'm too busy with smaller stuff, and quite frankly the smaller stuff is easier money. That being said, I would want to get the most out of Gator. Mowing is practical so that stands right out to me, and I feel that after 13 years of living here, I would quickly tire of just riding it around the perimeter of my field.:unknown:

 

Time to bump this back up, now that I actually have a Gator. My RC is 48", so I feel like I'd like something wider than the standard 44" two wheeled cutters, mainly to save time, and apparently spend more money of course. I have thought about buying a used one to see how I like it, but they all seem to be beat up pretty badly. I do think I want the rough cut type for a couple reasons. One, there is no brush in the field, but the grass can get pretty tall (4 feet high at least) if I only get one cutting in per season. Second, the cut doesn't need to be finish cut length. 4" high after being cut is probably too short actually. Swisher and DR seem to be the big names and most common. Two things I like about the Swisher is that there are local dealers and the tires are no flat. DR does offer a reconditioned unit for the about same price as the Swisher. Non of them come cheap, anybody have thoughts on these two, or any other ideas?

DR PRO MAX52T Tow-Behind Field and Brush Mower (Brush Hog) | DR Power Equipment

Our top-of-the-line Tow-Behind, the PRO MAX52T, cuts 52" wide. Its powerful 22 HP V-Twin engine lets you mow up to 2.4 acres per hour and reclaim overgrown property in record time.

www.drpower.com

Country Cut 52

Country Cut 52

www.swisherinc.com

 

i have no knowledge of any of them mowers(pull behind ones) but CP-if it works out for u--i might be interested as i would be more happy in my caddy with my ac turned on and charley boy listening to hi sown radio station as we go about mowing the meadow and the other part of the yard that way. yelp i could enjoy that greatly.

carry on-CP--and i told ya u would love ur caddy-err-buick lol

 

$3,300 to $4,000 for 4" of cut additional width to use once a year......

Surveying money must be good.

My bet is the rotary cutter would work better for a years worth of growth than either of those machines.

For that kind of money I would be looking at a flail mower.

 

yeah i must of forgot to tell ya about them flair mowers. jeez--how could i forget them. go to u-tube and look at them fellas in them far away countries, as they pull them flail mowers behind their 4 wheelers, pretty neat job they do. thanks RTGT--u always come up with the answer

 

Mowing with a side by side just seems like it would be incredibly cumbersome unless you have a huge open area to mow.

I actually like brush hogging with my tractor.

 

so -CP-u bought a mower yet??? got any pics of it working in the field??? we're ready to look. ha

 

You’ll have to be ready, and waiting for a bit yet. I’m keeping those moths locked up a bit longer.

 

Maybe one of our great moderators could change the name of this thread to simply, “Mowing with a Gator/UTV/SxS” or something similar?

I did buy a mower to tow behind the Gator, but not a brush mower. Instead I purchased a finish mower, a 66” Swisher Trailmower with a 14.5hp Kawasaki engine. I found this ever so slightly used on CL not far from here. This was after Mrs. CP asked why I was going to buy another brush mower when we already had a brush hog for the tractor. I countered with that we already had a finish mower, two in fact, the 185 and 1026R. Then by a fluke, I found a brand new bagger setup for the 1026R on CL and a short time later, this Swisher. I was able to buy both of these for the cost of the Swisher brush mower I was looking at.

I did have to recently replaced a couple sheared off bushings and lost knob handles on the height of cut adjustments. My son mowed a rougher part of the field, after brush hogging it, for the deer to graze in front of the stand, and that might have proved a little too rough of terrain. I noticed the parts missing and broken after that. Luckily Swisher had the parts readily available and they arrived quick, very friendly and great customer service! The parts were quickly replaced, as everything was very easy to access.

It will leave small, tiny clumps of grass if there is some dampness in the grass, but they are not visible from the house and usually disappear in a day or so. I can’t tell if the clumps are from the mower itself or from grass clippings collecting on the tires that eventually fall off. Like I said though, and the pics will show, it’s still a great cut. I’ve also been happy with the lack of grass build up under the deck, very little. I will have to replace a stretched belt on the PTO engagement, but the seller bought an extra deck belt and PTO belt and gave them to me. Swisher gave me a couple tips on replacing the belt. So, both Mrs. CP and me are quite happy with our new mowing setup. This also allows me to leave the bagger on the 1026R for the lawn around the buildings. Oh, and the 66” width covers the width of the 825M Gator very well. It will offset too, but I haven’t found a need to do that yet.
Here‘s some pics from my mowing yesterday......

Before.....

During....

After.....

 

That’s awesome Jamie! Curious on what your ground speed was during mowing.

 

Good question. Swisher says to not mow at any more than 5 mph. The area right behind the house and barn, our back yard, is fairly smooth ground and you can mow it at 10 mph without much trouble, and my wife does! I would say my son and I, who mow it the most, average 6-8 mph and you get the results you see in the pics. The area behind our neighbor’s place which we have been mowing at twice the height of the backyard, we used to mow each week as lawn, until it just became too time consuming. With the Swisher, we’ve been mowing it every other week. The moles and field mice have had a field day over there and it is much bumpier. I did mow than once at 10mph trying to stay ahead of a thunderstorm. Yesterday I mowed right at 5-6 mph at it was fine.

Also, with the suspension, I can stop to pick up a stick and just hop right off, no need to take a few steps and straighten up after sitting so long. The ride is great!

Of course I am using twice the gas. Between the Gator and the Swisher, I go through a fair amount of non ethanol. Both engines are actually pretty good on gas IMHO. But the Gator just gets used so much!

 

SWEET!

 

Hummmmm, lets see:
HVAC cabbed XUV 835m Gator pulling a Swisher around in 95*+ heat in summer, hummmm.

 

Well,,,,easy come easy go.