Thanks AA,
My brother has a Sportsman 500 and he likes it. I like it as well, but I have nothing to compare it to. He mentioned that I should go with a bigger one but he is not putting the money down for it.

Dujie

 

Seat of the pants!! Yours! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
You need to sit on em and ride em. Bigger is better.
The AC 650 should be on top of your short list. They have so many attachments it makes your head spin. I think they are trying to storm the market. Go to the dealer and check a brochure, you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

Eiger2, I am in agreement with you. You have to go and try them out. That is step two! I will more than likely do that this weekend. Thanks for your response.

Dujie

 

Dujie, I have a Swisher RT-50 Trail Cutter which I’ve put the most of my ATV mowing hours on. It weighs 628 pounds and has a 12.5 Briggs & Stratton engine. Right now it is broken (I hit a rock, something I’ve done many times but this time something in the engine broke). I haven’t got around to fixing it yet simply because I recently acquired a Kubota BX-22 tractor with a 60” mowing deck and also a used old Ford 3000 tractor with a 5’ bush hog for the rough stuff. I now use the Kubota for finish cut areas and the Ford for what used to be meadows and hayfields. Now most of the work that my Grizzly does is pulling a trailer with stuff on it or dragging logs out of the woods.

That particular model of trail cutter (the RT-50) has since been replaced by a smaller model (the RT-44). I did feel it was somewhat underpowered because you had to take it pretty slow if going through a fully grown hayfield or over top of a rose bush. I also have a finish mower, a 44” Swisher (T-44 I think) which has a smaller engine on it (this is what I’m pulling with my old Grizzly in my photo page). I mostly used that to mow the pasture areas that I keep cut short (which I now use the Kubota tractor for).

If I were to buy another rough cut mower I’d look for something with a Honda engine on it (preferably) and something with a lot more than 12.5 horsepower…

 

grizzly all the way it is reliable and never ever breaks. One thing that need to be inproved thought is 4 wheel drive system. It is the best quad and kills in the woods.

 

Hey Trx250Time, What can be improved in the 4 wheel drive system?

Dujie

 

2TV,

The swisher seems more economical than others I have seen; however a 44 inch cut just does not seem wide enough. Which rough cut mowers have a honda engine?

 

Dujie, from personal experience if you plan to cut overgrown areas that have hard to see rocks, it’s actually better to have a mower that is no wider than your ATV. The idea here is that maybe you will “feel” a rock as you roll over it (assuming you hit it with your tires) so you can stop or go around in time before hitting it with the mower. I can also tell you that I was able to detect more rocks with my old solid axle Grizzly than my new IRS Grizzly that has a slightly wider track. Not only does the new Griz have more space for the rocks to go between the tires, but I’ve actually run over some and either didn’t feel them or thought it was a hump in the ground rather than a rock because of it’s better suspension and ended up dragging the mower over the rock. I do however have a better technique with my Kubota, I just lower the front loader bucket so it’s near the ground that way I can hear & feel the rock. Then I’ll just mark it for digging up with the tractor’s backhoe later on!

Anyway, back to the ATV mowers. Here are the three that would probably be at the top of my shopping list if I were in the market for another one:

1). Rough Cut – 57” MT55K; 20hp Kohler engine; Kunz Engineering (web site “kunzeng”).
2). Rough Cut – 48”; 13hp Honda engine; Cycle Country (web site “cyclecountry”).
3). Finish Cut – 60” T-60; 13hp Honda engine; Swisher, Inc (web site “swisherinc”).

I was a little vague with the actual web site URLs because of forum “rules” but you can figure them out. For a rough cut mower I would strongly favor item (1) because of the 20hp engine due to my experience with the 50” mower that I currently have where I found it’s 12.5hp engine to be underpowered on many occasion for my application. I thought that I had found a different model with a larger Honda engine once upon a time but I couldn’t find one in my recent search. Therefore I feel the 20hp Kohler would be a better choice for a rough cut than a 13hp Honda. Good luck!…

 

Bigger is not always better.The 500HO Sportsman has all the power you would need to do work with and it is a great powerplant.Now if work is your main goal check out the Bombardier Traxter and Quest.

 

I have been looking a lot over the past week or so and I am leaning toward the Sportsman 500 HO. I am also looking at the AC TRV 500.

Any thoughts on the AC TRV 500?

Thanks,

Dujie