Drum Mower

A

atbmcc

Active Member
Looking to buy a drum mower to do a bit of topping mostly. Might need to cut a few acres of hay meadow too but is unlikely as contractor usually does it.
Something along the lines of a pz but I know there are many other makes of drum mowers. What makes are best and what should I avoid. Can you get/make skids for them instead of lengthening the top link?
 
Ten years ago after having three pz165 mower s I landed all to a recycling yard, I went and gave 6 grand for a new lely disc mower which does a lot of mowing compared to what I used to do with the pz
 
Samasz make a lot of drum mowers and seem to be the best of them. I don't have first hand experience though
 
atbmcc said:
Looking to buy a drum mower to do a bit of topping mostly. Might need to cut a few acres of hay meadow too but is unlikely as contractor usually does it.
Something along the lines of a pz but I know there are many other makes of drum mowers. What makes are best and what should I avoid. Can you get/make skids for them instead of lengthening the top link?
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a drum mower is going to make sward of toppings, a disc mower would scatter them.
 
I see Fendt are offering a 10ft drum mower with 4 drums in it. You'd wonder what Agco are at sticking Fendt stickers on just about everything.
 
atbmcc said:
Looking to buy a drum mower to do a bit of topping mostly. Might need to cut a few acres of hay meadow too but is unlikely as contractor usually does it.
Something along the lines of a pz but I know there are many other makes of drum mowers. What makes are best and what should I avoid. Can you get/make skids for them instead of lengthening the top link?
Click to expand...
claas unifarm are the best .Like that went trough 2 pz mower back in the day and then went off and bought the claas unifarm almost 20 years ago and still have it ,cut several hundred acres for silage/hay when first got but nowadays does the premowing in front of cows Only ever replaced the blades and the belts a few years ago and she is well abused .Cheap mower as well if i remembere rightly a neighbour bought a new one back 5 years ago for E2600
 
Green Grass said:
claas unifarm are the best .Like that went trough 2 pz mower back in the day and then went off and bought the claas unifarm almost 20 years ago and still have it ,cut several hundred acres for silage/hay when first got but nowadays does the premowing in front of cows Only ever replaced the blades and the belts a few years ago and she is well abused .Cheap mower as well if i remembere rightly a neighbour bought a new one back 5 years ago for E2600
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A neighbour has an old Claas drum mower, but it is in Claas colours. I always though those red Unifarm ones were just a rebadge job, but if they are, they may have picked a good one to put their name to.
 
4255 said:
Ten years ago after having three pz165 mower s I landed all to a recycling yard, I went and gave 6 grand for a new lely disc mower which does a lot of mowing compared to what I used to do with the pz
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Drum mowers have a cutting life of anything from 750 acres to 1500 acres before you'll have to put shaft bearings or worse on the pz new shafts. They also don't like topping - spinning and cutting nothing seems to cause premature bearing and shaft wear. Like you, we went through 3 pz drum mowers. Bought a vicon disc mower in 1996. It cuts all meadow here (about 100 acres a year) and does some topping. Never had to put a part into it except for 1 set of belts.

I know people with disc mowers that have tens of thousands of acres cut and they are still in great shape.
 
We had a marangon disc mower for 15 years, cut everything from silage to fields of rushes lads would be looking for mulchers to cut. It did a bearing on the input shaft after 12 years, no other issues. Ideal for topping and mowing and handy money compared to the mainstream brands
 
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