Mowing With a Cub

[dan_c]

Gentleman,

When I purchased my 1950 Farmall Cub it came with an IH 5' belly mower. I find as has been discussed here that running that mower deck with an older under powered Cub is working the machine very hard. My Cub is in excellent mechanical condition. Would a Woods single blade smaller deck put significantly less demand on the machine? Also, would a Woods single blade deck produce good quality finnish mowing results as compared to the 3 blade deck? My application is large residential. I have heard it both ways, that the single blade mowers are very good and others say that the 3 blade 60" decks are far superior.

Dan

[phantom]

when i mow with my 42 inch i run over the grass with the tires, so i get lil ridges. where i use it ..........who cares.

[AP50Cub]

Dan,
I cut with a 55 cub with a woods 43" belly mower and it does a great job. It cuts better than my dads new woods 6' finish mower behind a new john deer. The cub is just not as fast. My brother has the larger woods belly mower under a 62 cub and with high grass it has a little strain on the cub, but still does a great job on his yard.
Good luck
AP

[Matt Kirsch]

Comparing a belly mower to a three-point mounted "finish" mower is not even close to fair. The belly mower will always do a better job for some reason.

My personal preference is for a mower wide enough to cover the rear wheel tracks so you're not running over uncut grass and leaving ridges like phantom described. But boy oh boy don't say that over on ytmag. Supposedly you can mow with a 60" deck hanging off to one side on a Farmall H with ag tires, and get perfect results. Yeah, maybe on a rock hard lawn in the middle of a drought...

Anyway, if you have the 60" deck and it's working, you've got nothing to worry about. A stock Cub can handle one easily if the yard is relatively flat and the grass isn't tremendously heavy. You don't have to take a full cut each time, either. Just overlap your previous pass a little more.

I don't know why they never made a 48" deck for a Cub. 48" is perfect, wide enough to cover the wheels, narrow enough that the Cub should have no problem running it.

[Mike in Louisiana]

Dan C, Are your blades SHARP ?????

Mike

[tool man]

Been on my 51 w/ an IH 42" deck all day (seven hours) mowed 9 acres of pit area at the local motocross track. Got lots of sunburn, drank tons of water and had a freakin' ball. All I get to mow at home is about an acre so it was tons of fun. Keep the blades sharp and slow down if it gets too tall.

[Joe in Grassy Creek]

Speaking of mowing. I tried to find the thread where the merits of mowing in heavy grass with the front of the belly mower lower than the rear versus front of the mower higher than the rear, but couldn't.

Last week I hauled the Cub up to the place in North Carolina. The grass in the meadow was taller than the hood of the Cub. I couldn't mow at all with the front of the mower lower than the rear. I cranked the mower all the way up, and the Cub went through it like a champ. Then lowered the deck for a finish pass, and the meadow looks like a golf course fairway Then took it down to the neighbor's place and did his meadow. Used all of about 2 gallons of gas. This thing is a work horse!

[dan_c]

Yes, I keep my blades good and sharp. I was not trying to compare a belly mower to a three point drag behind mower. I was asking for a comparison of the 43" Belly Mower to the 60" belly mower. I believe that my question was answered.

Thanks,

Dan

[Painless]

Joe in BR, are you using a 60" deck or a 42"?

Do any of you have experience with flail mowers? Do they cut nice enough for a lawn? From what I have read they are not dammaged by hitting rocks and stumps (low ones). I have about 10 low stumps, 2-4" in my dad's yard that will destroy a mower blade if I am not carefull.

[Joe in Grassy Creek]

Painless, its a 42C-4, so I think it's a 42 inch.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Painless, been using a Mott Falil for about 18 years. If you keep the blades sharp they will give approximately the same quality cut as the Woods 42 or Canco C2. One shortcoming is they don not mulch, only cut. If you let your grass get tall before cutting you end up with a lot of dead grass jsut laying on top. They will not throw rocks or sticks, due to the low weight of the knives. Hitting rocks or stumps will do make knicks in the individual knives due to the knives banging against the rock or each other when they hit. A Mott has a steel roller that gose all the way across the rear of the mower, that may get hung up if you try to drive over the stumps.

[Lurker Carl]

A flail mower with sharp knives will give you a reasonably nice cut on a typical lawn, not as good as a sharp rotary finish mower. It works better with heavier blade grasses (and weeds) than the fine blade grasses and leaves a mess of clippings behind when the lawn is too tall. It won't fling rocks and sticks like a rotary mower and can survive ocassional small stumps. No mower likes hard immobile objects - you can break, gouge or dull the knives but it won't knock the flail mower out of service.

[Painless]

Thanks guys, I guess I'll have to eventually rent a stump grinder and get rid of those stumps. I sure appreciate the input.

[Buzzard Wing]

Since I have done it excactly ONCE I am now a expert....

I cut some pretty tall and thick grass the first trip out with a C-2 (42"??) and found a couple of things that could be useful. Mosly it has been covered by other folks.

Don't take the full width of the mower the first time around. Raise the mower (front) in the expecially thick sections to avoid bogging the Cub. Wait a couple of days and 'cross' cut it to a lower level. I say wait only because I believe that some of the moisture will get out of the cut grass (making it lighter) and the grass that was 'flattened' by the tires would have popped up by then. You should also be able to cut lower the second time.

A during and after shot of the first mow....
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/Bu ... 025bc4.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/Bu ... 0b4965.jpg