Hi all,
I searched a few of the forums and still have a couple of questions someone may be able to answer for me.
I'm looking into rough cut tow behind mowers.
I see the swisher and the other popular rotary mowers. All of those keep there value , High $ items.
I just found and baught a small self powered flail mower from Mathews.
Can any one with any experience with small flail mowers or Mathews brand give me any insight on them.
I'm looking to mow a brush lot on 25 acres of hunting land, actually trying to mow about 4 or 5 acres or golden rod and briers to keep it from going wild.
Thanks

Deerkiller

 

I have the Swisher 44" ruff cut. For the money it should work better. If the stuff you are trying to cut is taller than 2 feet you will need to go over it twice. One side of the mower will cut real good the other side lays down and needs to be recut. Blade is very sharp and and it dosen't help. It starts and runs great.hit lots of rocks keeps on running just have to keep sharping blade.

 

I've got the Kunz Engineering Rough cut 55" with 20hp v-twin Kohler motor. The motor's awesome, starts perfect, runs strong. But the rest of the mower is compete junk. Only one belt driving the two blades off 20 horses = smoked every two hours. Clutch is hard to get to when it plugs, smoke once again. Bearings too small for the job = bearings replaced AT LEAST every 50 hours. Replacing the bearings is a pain in the a$$. Pain in the ace to raise and lower, and they catch water producing rusty parts (BAD). Overall a terribly engineered machine. Good points: Built relatively tough, cuts great when it runs (not very often), can cut 2" trees with relative ease. Even makes a great finishing mower. If I had the expertise to double the belts, install heavier bearings, electric over hydraulic rams for raise/lower and electric clutch this mower would be the cat's ace. But as is - WAY overpriced and under engineered in the important places. I recommend this mower for NO ONE, does not do what is advertised. 0.5 out of 10 rating. Do not buy this mower unless you want a permanent headache.

 

MESSAGE TO MODERATORS

ATVmowers called and asked if he could respond to Ace and try to help him out with the problems Ace was having. I gave him the go ahead to reply.

 

AceShwetz,

I am sorry to hear that you have had these troubles with your mower. I actually work for Kunz Engineering the manufacturer of the AcrEase and I was very surprised to find this post online. All other posts on various websites are always very positive and many AcrEase owners rave about their mowers. As far as durability we have talked to several customers this year that passed the 1000 hour mark on their rough cut mowers and 3000 hours on their finish mowers. I would like to help you out and get your mower back up to the condition it should operate at. I wish you would have called us back when
these problems first started. We are very committed to the products that we sell and go out of our way to help customers like yourself. We not only design and sell our products but we personally use and test them as ourselves as well.

Your experience with the poor belt life is very abnormal. In many cases customers are claiming 75-100 hours on belt life if properly adjusted. Also 50 hours on a set of bearings is premature. Bearings if not abused should go several hundred hours. How do your blades look? Have you hit a large number
of rocks and large stumps? The rocks I am refering to are say 40 lbs and larger and stumps larger than 5"-6" in diameter. I am not concerned about the occasional mishap of hitting such an object but I am concerned about it if it were a common occurance. How old is your mower? I have a good idea of why your belts are only going 2 hours. Check to see if the fixed steel idler on the left hand side (when standing at the rear of the unit) is slightly slanted. We experienced this on a limited number of mowers several years ago. If the mower happened to hit a number of large objects over a period of time this particular idler support could get bent. We now use a reinforment block in this location to prevent this problem for occuring. If this is the problem the reason for the very short belt life is due to a severe misalignment between the fixed idler and the drive pulley. In these cases two hours was about it for the belts. This may not be the problem but I would like to send you a reinforcement block just to make sure. Also what brand of belts are you using and how long did your first belt last? There is a huge variation from one belt to the next. Using an improper belt can lead to poor belt life as well. I would like to send you a belt as well.

I also wanted to let you know that we do have an electric lift kit option available now. This kit will spoil a guy very quickly. The controls sit right on the rack of the ATV and make for very easy and quick height
adjustments on the go. Also we now have the model MR55KE that has an electric clutch for blade engagement. We have also made a variety of other changes to make the product work that much harder for you.

I have send you a private message with the contact information on it. Please contact me so we can get your mower up and running like it should. By making a few minor changes I think we can make you a happy AcrEase owner.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Matt Kunz
Kunz Engineering Inc.

 

AceShwetz,

One other thing I forgot to ask is how you are engaging the blades. Are you engaging the blades in a clearing or are you trying to engage them while setting in uncut grass and brush. Engaging in tall grass will smoke a belt very easily. When the belt is properly installed and tensioned the 20HP engine will stall before the belt slips and gets smoked. The belts we are using are rated for 30 HP.

Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Matt Kunz
Kunz Engineering Inc.

 

I build Atv mowers I build mine with a 16 Hp v twin one belt with electric clutch, the bearings are 1 1/2" with the same shaft I built the first one 6 years ago and never put a belt or bearings in it yet. the deck is 1/4" steel diamond plate so very heavy duty, I do not have a electric lift only manual but it does not take long to crank up and down, this mower will eat anything you can drive over with a big wheeler in 4 drive.

 

I ended up finding a Mathews flail mower. It has a relitively small cut,36" but chews up almost anything i can pull it over. It doesn't throw crap like some rotary mowers do.
I'd like to see some pictures of your mower when you get a chance, sounds nice.
Deerkiller

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: BigDog800EFI

I have the Swisher 44" ruff cut. For the money it should work better. If the stuff you are trying to cut is taller than 2 feet you will need to go over it twice. One side of the mower will cut real good the other side lays down and needs to be recut. Blade is very sharp and and it dosen't help. It starts and runs great.hit lots of rocks keeps on running just have to keep sharping blade.</end quote></div>

I also have a 44" Swisher Ruff Cut and have found it to be a solid and reliable piece of equipment. The problem of heavy grass not cutting on the one side I found was caused by my trying to travel too fast. This mower will not do a good job in really tall and heavy stuff if you are going above about 3 MPH. If the grass is this heavy I usually raise the mower as high as I can get it and after getting it cut to this height wait a few days to let the cut stuff dry out and recut to a shorter height if needed. Works much better. The blades do need to be kept sharp to do a good job. What really amazes me about this machine is the way it will chop up brush and Sagebrush.

Mine is awaiting a part right now. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img] Turns out it will also cut the umbilical cord that goes to the quad if you don't remember to tie it up out of the way.

One other thing I would like to say about the Swisher, customer service from the manufacturer has been outstanding to say the least.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Deerkiller

Hi all,
I searched a few of the forums and still have a couple of questions someone may be able to answer for me.
I'm looking into rough cut tow behind mowers.
I see the swisher and the other popular rotary mowers. All of those keep there value , High $ items.
I just found and baught a small self powered flail mower from Mathews.
Can any one with any experience with small flail mowers or Mathews brand give me any insight on them.
I'm looking to mow a brush lot on 25 acres of hunting land, actually trying to mow about 4 or 5 acres or golden rod and briers to keep it from going wild.
Thanks

Deerkiller</end quote></div>

Flail mowers, as I understand it, have a horizontal shaft with chains or other devices attached. When rotated at high speed the flails cut whatever gets in the way. Is this the way yours is built?

If this is what you have it is imperative that the ground contacting safety shields are in place around the flail at all times. These things can launch a rock or other debris at high velocity and to considerable distance. Most farmers I know will not use these anywhere near a residence or anything flying missiles may damage. A lower speed version is often used by State and County road crews to cut brush and heavy weeds along roadways. These are, or at least should be, operated by skilled operators that know the hazards involved and avoid getting into stuff that will launch missals.