Mowing 5 acres

I would like a 616/629/720 for bi-weekly mowing smooth flat

Yeah, just a dedicated mower.

I restored a B and put on 3pt  hitch and restored a 5ft finish mower . Less than 35 hundred.,does real nice  and got about twice the power of a cub .It will run on about one gal of gas an hour.

I mow my 6 acres with a C allis with a woods L306. 72" belly mount mower. does a great job. I sit well above any dirty grass clippings. the larger tires on a tractor bridge gopher holes so you won't even notice driving over them. the deck Is much tougher than a mower. I go a whole summer between sharpening the blades. get a narrow front and you will be amazed how close you can trim around things. The only down side is if you hit something with it you will destroy it. I take the same tractor down to mow our church and its much faster than the new JD X320 we have there.

Roughly how much is a brand new woods belly mower (and mounting hardware)
for my 1948 wide front C?  Which model Woods to get now? C has hydraulics, under hood muffler. 

However, there are low hanging branches all over. That is one reason to think lo-boy.
Can that C turn tight enough? Brakes work OK.

Is an Allis Chalmers IB a "lo-boy" (relatively low hood, seat, steering wheel), and suitable for belly mower work?  I like the look of them little puppies. Does that frame make working on it a pain? You know, like difference between wrenching on a forklift (not fun) and an ag tractor (hobby fun).

I do like the A/C stuff and I grew up with that C. 

My D-12 III works real nice with a 6' 3 pt finishing mower. Power steering would make it nicer!

Having owned two 154's and a myriad of Cub Cadets, as well as operating some Low Boys and F-cubs with mower decks below and behind, I'll agree that none of them really fit in the tight-turning highly-maneuverable category.

I have one question for you:

You're mowing 5 acres 2x a week during the 'thick' season.  DO you want to spend your time during those two days wrestling a machine for 4.5 hours each of those days, or would you rather spend an hour mowing, two nights a week, and spend the other 3.5 hours playing with tractors?  that comes out to 7 hours of additional shop-time...

If you want to putter along on an old tractor, and really need a REASON to justify having another old tractor, just to dedicate to mowing, and spending the extra 7 hours a week doing it, that's totally understandable.

If you want to get it done, and get back to the shop to play, then I recommend getting a good used 60" commercial zero-turn.

I can mow our 5 acres, even with a MESS of trees, flowerbeds, vegatable gardens, vehicles, tractors, and all sorts of other obstacles, and knock it all off in about an hour and a half.  Better yet, I can make macaroni and cheese for the kids, and my WIFE will run out and hop on the ZTR, and have it cut down in time for dinner... and she likes it as 'quiet time'... and after dinner, I head out to the shop and play with tractors....

Seriously... the amount of time I used to spend just SHIFTING between forward and reverse on the Low-Boy... or cranking the wheel around on ANY 4-wheel mower... if I limited the ground speed of my ZTR to HALF what I could do on a CA, I could still mow circles around it with the ZTR.  The time I've saved, gave me the time to do so many other things.  Most 60" ZTRs will knock down about 5 acres per hour, and burn about a gallon-and-a-half an hour.   My 154 would burn about 2 gallons an hour, and it took me two nights of three hours a night mowing it (48" Woods), then following up with a walk-behind to trim all the areas the !#@%# thing wouldn't get to.  I wore out my knee clutching that thing...


Edited by DaveKamp - 27 Aug 2012 at 11:55pm

My Dad mows with a cub lowboy. Very under powered and slow. Cute little tractor though. I mow with a C and will mow in any gear I want.

Roughly how much is a brand new woods belly mower (and mounting hardware)
for my 1948 wide front C? Which model Woods to get now? C has hydraulics, under hood muffler.

This old girl has served me well for many years.

Edited by Dick L - 28 Aug 2012 at 12:04pm

 All depends on value of your time and if you want to spent it mowing for hours & hours with an old unit. Or if you want to get job done and be doing something else. Most of us would rather spend less time mowing and having more time to do other things! Also wife and kids can run newer units and you'll have even more time!  

Yeah a zero turn will blow away anything else.  I would have to smooth out the fields a little I would think.

Nobody commented on the IB idea. Is that model not suitable for
a Woods mower? How is that to get on and off of is the battery in the way.

keep in mind a cub's pto runns counter clock wise, so it's backwards. I would try to get some thing with a hand clutch that you can engage incase you get into a high spot of grass. much better than having to push in the clutch and mess around.

I apologize if this has been said before, but think about this 5 acres (that's aproximately 5 full football fields), 48"-72" at a time.  You are tlaking about lots of hours, no matter how much you love the tractor, that is going to get old fast.  You need something much larger, or you won't last at it.  Depending on what type of grass, or lawn you have you may want to consider a gang mower, that does 12' to 20' at a swath.

hey stan ,thanks for posting that youtube clip, made my day!