Messick's, a helping hand with your land.
Neil from Messick's here.
Today, we're out with the Kubota B-series tractor.
I wanted to go through
and show you some of the differences
between using a mid-mount finish mower
and a rear 3-point mounted finish mower
and show you some of the differences
in these mowers
between their different construction
and different applications
for the varying mowing chores that you may have.
Before we talk about the construction of the mowers,
we're going to show you some of the functional differences
and how they work differently
when you're actually operating the tractor.
The first thing we're going to show
is the trimming implications for having the mower beside you
and underneath of you where you can see it
versus back behind the tractor.
We're going to start the machine up here
and follow this asphalt edge right here.
I'm not actually going to cut the grass,
but I'm going to explain to you
how trimming along, say, fence rows and stuff
can be very different
with these two types of mowers.
If we put on our imagination hats here,
imagine with me that we've got a fence line
right here along this grass between, say,
where the grass is and the asphalt is.
If I go to mow along that fence line
with my mid-mount mower,
I have a very clear sight line here
from the seat where I can sit down
and see the edge of my mower deck,
making it very easy to track along this asphalt edge
Now, versus that 3-point mower
that's back behind me here,
when I look behind the tractor,
I can't see nearly as well
where the edge of my mower deck is.
I can eyeball it,
but I don't have that straight sight line
to be able to see where I'm at.
I also run into a little problem here when I go to turn.
If I want to turn away from my edge here
and I turn my steering wheel,
the tractor in the mid-mount mower
tracks away from my fence,
but if you look behind me here
and see my 3-point hitch mower,
I've now swung my 3-point hitch mower into my fence,
possibly hitting my fence post
or those kinds of things
because this thing being behind you
tracks differently from the tractor.
You just have to be cognizant of that.
If you have a mower behind you,
it's not going to track with the tractor
because it's not within its wheelbase
and it can swing underneath of things.
Now, some guys do actually like
having that mower back there for fence rows.
Because it's behind the tractor,
you could do things like back underneath the fence rows,
say you want to get underneath the wire for instance.
Having a little bit wider mid-mount mower
can help that by buying the largest size that you can,
but having that rear mower does allow you
to push it back into places
where you wouldn't be able to get a belly-mounted mower.
Here's another great example of that.
I'm tracking along this sign right here.
As I come past it, and go to turn away from the sign
watch my rear-mount mower.
It swipes right over here right into the post.
That's your application
you've got to watch when you turn away from things.
Cutting around things is easier
with my mid-mount mower as well.
When I'm eyeing up my telephone pole here
and I approach my pole,
I can easily see down to the cutting edge
of my mid-mount mower
and just circle around this
Even with this large B-series tractor,
the turning radius of these tractors is actually surprisingly tight.
You can cut tighter circles around things
than what you would expect.
This 01 series also has turning brakes as well
so if you want to cut it even tighter,
you take your tractor into two-wheel drive instead of four-wheel,
come up here and then brake your inside tire
and you can see how tightly I can stick around this pole.
Now, when I do that,
you can see I skidded there a little bit on the inside
so doing that can tear your grass up a little bit,
but you could do some really tight turns
and very close trimming with that mid-mount mower.
Looking on my rear one over here,
when I want to get up against this thing,
I really almost have to get close to it
and take a swipe past it
and then come back around and take a swipe past it again
and almost take at least three or four passes by this thing
to get close to it
because I can't track nearly as close to the pole
with that mower behind me.
You can see, as an operator,
the mid-mount mower is just overall easier to trim with.
I can get closer to things, I can see my edges a lot better,
I know where my mower deck is at at all times.
It just gives you a little bit more comfort factor
in residential mowing.
That said though, guys do like the rear mowers
for some more commercially-minded applications
where, say, fence rows
if you want to push underneath of things
or get underneath the pine branches and those kinds of things,
you could turn that mower up back on
and back up into those areas
where you're not going to be able to get your entire tractor.
Now, if you look at the construction of these mowers too,
you can see that more field-oriented perspective
in the way that these are built.
There's just some limitations to that mid-mount mower
on how heavy duty it can be.
You can only fit so much mower
underneath the belly of a tractor.
When you look at a rear mower,
you'll usually see heavy construction.
When you look at, say, the size of the gauge wheels
versus the gauge wheels on a mid-mount mower,
the size of the tubing, the size of the spindles,
the bulk of the blades.
Your 3-point hitch mowers are built a little bit heavier.
For that reason, they are popular with the guys
who might be mowing a lot of acreage.\
You're going to go out, you're going to cut a four-acre field
it's a good application for a 3-point mower.
You're not doing as much trimming,
you're buying a heavier duty mower
and just dragging it behind the tractor where you always know that it is.
For field applications,
maybe worth looking at a 3-point,
but for more residential applications,
we always will go to the mid-mount first.
Another factor you may want to consider
is what your grass conditions are like.
If you look at the construction of these mowers,
you look at the mid-mount
and notice that the mid-mount decks aren't as deep
as what the rear-mount decks can be.
Again, when the mower is underneath
the belly of the tractor,
the deeper they make it, the less ground clearance you have
so that becomes a bit of an issue.
Generally, your rear-mount mowers
are going to be a deeper, heavier deck
and therefore able to handle higher volumes of grass better.
Rear mowers are often rear discharge as well,
so when you go into that really thick, heavy, clumpy stuff,
a rear-discharge mower has a much wider opening
across the back
and can discharge and clean that grass out
a lot more quickly and a lot more effectively
than a side-discharge mower does underneath the belly of a tractor.
Like all things in the tractor business,
painting with a broad brush is never a good idea.
One implement is never the right choice
for every person that's out there,
but if we generalize here a little bit,
typically, we're putting mid-mount mowers
into residential applications
and rear-mount mower into a more commercial,
industrial, agricultural-type application.
Just differences being the mounting style,
the ease of trimming,
and back here, the volumes of grass
and the durability that that mower can offer.
If you're going through the purchasing process right now,
we can help.
Or you have any parts and service needs
for a piece of equipment
that you already have,
give us a call at Messick's.
We're available at 800-222-3373 or online at messicks.com.
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