Pulling a rough cut mower ok? (Sustained pulling capacity)

541 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by cpy911, 8 d ago

cpy911

Discussion Starter · 18 d ago

Hi,
I am still kind of new to tractoring and have a question about working a machine (and how much). I have a John Deere 445 with about a 1000 hours. (Gas Kawasaki engine, with hydrostat transmission). It was originally used as a finish mower, but I put a Little Buck loader on it and now use it only for moving mulch, manure and as a powered wheelbarrow to lift stuff I just don't want to, it works better without the deck for these tasks. I bought an older sears GT6000 as a dedicated finish mower.

My question is for field operations. I have a couple acres down by the creek that are wet most of the year and by the time it dries out to get a machine down there, the grass is 2'-3' tall! It is mostly grass now with weeds and no brush.
Is the 445 designed to pull a rough cut mower (I assume about 250-300 lbs of an older agrifab machine I got for cheap and fixed up) over a fairly flat field of about 2 acres sustained pulling? I would probably do about 1/2 acre sessions of about 30 minutes and take break. This would be for mowing the 2ft-3ft tall grass 1x-2x a year.

I just had it out to test the setup and ran it for about 30-40 minutes without issues, mostly flat ground. Not overheating. I had the throttle about 1/2 - 3/4 with the cruise control on going about 2-3 MPH.

Is this a reasonable use case for this? I have seen guys do plow days and I assume they are pulling a plow for at least an hour or more with garden tractors without issues. Is the transmission up to this? (I regularly change hydraulic fluid too).

Below is my setup...is this machine designed to handle this?

Thanks!

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cpy911

Discussion Starter · #4 · 17 d ago

I just ran it some more and did half an acre or so and was running 3/4 to full throttle without any problems. Did not ever use the differential lock.

I am still thinking of upgrading to a larger machine if I am going to do this regularly though.

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cpy911

Discussion Starter · #7 · 13 d ago

Dean W. Sarow said:
Always run at full throttle, keep your unit clean of grease,oil and clippings.Use a temp gun if your concerned about heat,

I have a heat gun. Any idea what the outside temperature of the case would be for normal operating temp?

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cpy911

Discussion Starter · #9 · 11 d ago

7echo said:
I would get it under control then mow it more often, before it gets so tall and thick. I feel like more hours on the machine with less load would be better than less hours under a heavy load in this case.

That area is basically a marsh land near a creek. It is very, very wet and even 4wd would get stuck outside of very late spring and summer months. By that time, grass is 4' tall!

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cpy911

Discussion Starter · #11 · 8 d ago

Dean W. Sarow said:
A sickle bar mower might be a better option,research it on google,not sure in your area if you could rent.When you talked about the frequency you could get in there because of wetness,i.m.o.you are abusing a lawn mower designed to do 4-6 max.Thats what I would do.

I wonder if there is a gas powered sickle bar mower that I could put on the front? Interesting.

Just to confirm, I am not using the finish mower deck. I am only using the machine to pull a rough cut mower that weighs about 250#-300# along. So, it is only slowly pulling along about 2 MPH. I was wondering how it would hold up to sustained pulling of this weight on flat ground for about an hour.

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