Toppers: side-mounted or trailed

mj38 · 07-06-2014 7:09pm #1

Well lads, need to buy a topper fairly soon. Haven't got a huge budget. Have heard some people say that side mounted is better than trailed and others say that trailed can take more abuse. Most of my land is good quality but I have about 10 acres of grazing that is rough enough with a few rocks appearing above the surface so the machine needs to be durable. I had priced Belmac and they have a side-mounted for 1500 and a trailed for 1000. Are they a decent brand?

Zr105 · 07-06-2014 7:19pm

mj38 wrote: »

Well lads, need to buy a topper fairly soon. Haven't got a huge budget. Have heard some people say that side mounted is better than trailed and others say that trailed can take more abuse. Most of my land is good quality but I have about 10 acres of grazing that is rough enough with a few rocks appearing above the surface so the machine needs to be durable. I had priced Belmac and they have a side-mounted for 1500 and a trailed for 1000. Are they a decent brand?

We've always had side mounted here, and would be slow to change. You can lift it and carry it if you hit a wet spot and the skids aren't cutting into the field, also find it good on rough ground for the same reason, you can lift it over a big hump, the trailed can obviously lift to but I'm not sure how much having never driven one.
Big thing we find handy is its easy enough swing the mounted in under a single strand of electric to tidy it down if needs be.
Also its a bit narrower on the road but the down side to that is there's a bugger of a tail swing turning in off the road,

willfarmerman · 07-06-2014 7:38pm

Buy a disc mower. You won't be sorry. Tops and mows. Pick up a 8 ft Kuhn 3000 squid or so but you make hay by the day you mow. In valuable tool.

epfff · 07-06-2014 7:44pm

willfarmerman wrote: »

Buy a disc mower. You won't be sorry. Tops and mows. Pick up a 8 ft Kuhn 3000 squid or so but you make hay by the day you mow. In valuable tool.

Agreed
Have yet to see a topper that cleans field
Have side mounted topper here rarely use it as it won't cut traineen around cow dungs so I'm back with rotary mower
Disk mower all the way was always sorry I didn't go down the disk mower route
I

Miname · 07-06-2014 8:41pm

i have a trailed topper here and the grass is growing up around it since i bought the rotary mower (6,6"). i got it second hand for topping and never use the topper anymore. Far cleaner finish annd regrowth is way better.