Second hand disc mower - advice please !

bouli73

I am in the market for a second hand disc mower. Could anyone give some advice on what to look for in a decent second hand mower and what models to consider? I dont want to end up buying a dud that has the ar*e torn out it from use.

Any advice greatly appreciated
Thanks

leg wax

bouli73 wrote: »

I am in the market for a second hand disc mower. Could anyone give some advice on what to look for in a decent second hand mower and what models to consider? I dont want to end up buying a dud that has the ar*e torn out it from use.

Any advice greatly appreciated
Thanks

i think people will need more information like land type, rocks, flat, tractor horse power , acerage to be cut, trailed or on arms, and most important price range.

bouli73

sorry should have clarified

I have a 168 MF tractor. Land is generally good, 70acres, and flat, no rocks. approx 10 acres would be poor quality with rushes. Price range - I would consider somewhere between 1500 to 1800 if this is realistic but would be grateful for any views on this

blue5000

Hi Bouli, what width are you thinking about?
You going using it for topping as well?
Drums or bed?
Personally I'd prefer to spend a bit more money and buy new, at least then you know what sort of work it has been doing. Second hand mower you just can't tell what sort of a life it had.

bouli73

yes, would be using for topping as well. was thinking of something around 5ft 6 drum mower. New is probably too rich for my blood at the moment

dasheriff

Well bouli if your looking for a good disc mower i would go for a krone, jf or a kuhn they are top quality i have a 9ft krone myself it has gear drive insted of belts i have never had an ounce of trouble from it..but a clean 6ft from any of the usual top makes should be trouble free really..
If your buying second hand shake the discs and make sure there is no play in them otherwise you could have bearing trouble and ask when was the oil in the bed changed last and watch his face when you ask some lads dont no it needs changing atall;)

maidhc

We bought a s/h Krone disc mower. It was supposedly reconditioned by a main dealer, and we got a 12 mth warranty.... but sweet mother of god it is a pig.

We have it 10 years at this stage, but it only does about 70 acres a year, and almost every year it has suffered some reasonably major mechanical or structural failure. I am intimately aware of almost every bearing in the bed, and our local engineering shop has done a superior job than what Bernard Krone ever did.

I think it was dogged by its previous owner mowing rocks in west cork, but some parts are inexcusably weak.

mayo_lad

bouli73 wrote: »

sorry should have clarified

I have a 168 MF tractor. Land is generally good, 70acres, and flat, no rocks. approx 10 acres would be poor quality with rushes. Price range - I would consider somewhere between 1500 to 1800 if this is realistic but would be grateful for any views on this

bouli73 wrote: »

yes, would be using for topping as well. was thinking of something around 5ft 6 drum mower. New is probably too rich for my blood at the moment

hi bouli you might be able to pick up a new pz drum mower ''out of the box'' for that sort of money you would have to put it together your self or give a mechanic a few hundred euro to put it together
we have a pz mower around the house for the last few of years and it has given us no trouble so far it's is a great mower for cutting down rushes and topping grass with out any faults
or you could pick up a like new one like this http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/1548948

reilig

A drum mower like a pz etc is manufactured to cut about 5000 acres in its lifetime - then you have to start to do major surgery on it like rebuilding the drum shafts and main bearings. Some of the cheaper drum mowers that you can buy these days will have main bearing failures at less than 3000 acres. In comparison to some of the old drum mowers - I have a neighbour who gas a gear driven new holland drum mower for the last 22 years. He estimates to have cut 15000 acres with it. But you can't buy them anymore.

A good quality disc mower should cut 20000 acres in its lifetime. You may have to replace a spinner bearing every couple of thousand acres, but this is cheap and easy to do.

I'm with you on the Krone Maidhc. A neighbour, who is a contractor bought a new 8" krone conditioner a few years back. It hadn't cut 200 acres until the mainframe cracked. They replaced the mower for him - funny thing is that he had 3 krone mounted mowers that year and all of them suffered cracks. They ended up doing a deal with him for the next year for a trailed mower - 3 years on, he still has it.

I have a Vicon 8" disc mower myself. It cuts about 100 acres per year and has given no trouble.

I hear that the Kuhn are a very heavy duty and stand up to a lot of abuse. They are expensive to buy though - both new and second hand.

snowman707

malone engineering in mayo are now manufacturing trailed and side mounted mowers,

IMO they are one of strongest I have seen

However there will not be available for some time secondhand

reilig

snowman707 wrote: »

malone engineering in mayo are now manufacturing trailed and side mounted mowers,

IMO they are one of strongest I have seen

However there will not be available for some time secondhand

Totally agree. I have seen them at various shows and they look good. There's a bit of weight to them too which suggests that heavy steel was used to manufacture them.