What Topper?

grainboy

Member
Location
Bedfordshire
Have a few available,
 

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tinman

Member
Location
Ulster
I'm always willing to learn but I'm still not sure that seems very logical.
I'm worried that some manufacturers don't appreciate the job most of us are trying to do with toppers if they think that is a good example.
I had the head of one manufacturer of flail toppers visit me after the paint on their machine caught fire while I was topping rushes. He was a very good and knowledgeable chap but had no idea how tough soft rushes that hadn't been touched for over 12 months could be.
Many flail toppers are actually only designed for 'de-heading' grazed pastures and they are brilliant for that purpose. The main design problem is that they can't deal with the sheer volume of material in dense rushes. The only option for me in these situations is a drum mower and then use the flail to mulch the sward once its dried out.
If you look at the brochure specs of toppers in the 2-3k range you will find that most spec the Max driven Hp to be no more than 45 or 50 altho the machine itself looks like it could handle a lot more, indeed nobody could be faulted for thinking 100 odd Hp would nearly be too small for it but in reality all that's really happening here is that the manufacturer of the topper has cut the price so fine to compete with the rest that inevitably something has to happen, either something breaks, it's not fit to cut heavy forage or in your case it goes on fire its that wound up.

Bottom line however is the topper you have is too light for what you want it to do and unless you get into the 5k+ bracket your not going to get anything that's going to do what you require.

I'm not 100% on my number here but iirc that spearhead is good for round the 200hp mark at the shaft, just to add, I didn't buy it because it was a spearhead, I bought it because it had bipi running gear.

A 12mth old rush isn't really too hard to chop up, not when you've cut 5 to 10yr old ones it isn't anyways.. :D
 

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
If you look at the brochure specs of toppers in the 2-3k range you will find that most spec the Max driven Hp to be no more than 45 or 50 altho the machine itself looks like it could handle a lot more, indeed nobody could be faulted for thinking 100 odd Hp would nearly be too small for it but in reality all that's really happening here is that the manufacturer of the topper has cut the price so fine to compete with the rest that inevitably something has to happen, either something breaks, it's not fit to cut heavy forage or in your case it goes on fire its that wound up.

Bottom line however is the topper you have is too light for what you want it to do and unless you get into the 5k+ bracket your not going to get anything that's going to do what you require.

I'm not 100% on my number here but iirc that spearhead is good for round the 200hp mark at the shaft, just to add, I didn't buy it because it was a spearhead, I bought it because it had bipi running gear.

A 12mth old rush isn't really too hard to chop up, not when you've cut 5 to 10yr old ones it isn't anyways.. :D


Fair point.

I had purchased this machine directly from the manufacturer, explicit in how it was to be used.
It wasn't cheap and this is why they were good enough to come and have a look.
Any machine can deal with rushes under a year old, the shear volume of old ones takes some dealing with.
 
I agree, cutting grass and docks up is one thing, but anything else, tree suckers, gorse, brash, tree roots, rushes and those sedge things that grown in bunches are another matter.

The batwing job is not something I would want to hitch to a 100hp machine. I used a 4.5m spearhead batwing once hitched to a New Holland T7060 and it knew it was there on some old setaside stuff.
 

ford4000

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
north Wales
I think that a disc mower would be best for doing the job you described, I've never had a topper as it seems to me that most farmers spend a lot of time and money repairing every summer. Disc mowers cut better, are tougher and you can travel a lot faster. Their achilles heel is old rushes, they will trip the break away mechanism often.... But the gearbox won't explode though !
 

tinman

Member
Location
Ulster
I think that a disc mower would be best for doing the job you described, I've never had a topper as it seems to me that most farmers spend a lot of time and money repairing every summer. Disc mowers cut better, are tougher and you can travel a lot faster. Their achilles heel is old rushes, they will trip the break away mechanism often.... But the gearbox won't explode though !
im afraid ive wore that shirt in the past, decided to go with a new kuhn heavy duty type disc mower, it made it 3 years before it spat the dummy out, and oh boy did it do it royally, seventeen of the twenty two odd gears in the bed were damaged and all over the head of a small stone no bigger than my fist that wedged itself between two discs that a cow had rubbed out of a bank while scratching herself.
that was the last disc mower about here, they are not stronger than a proper topper, the gearboxes will break and they sure as hell arent designed to be cutting gorse, rushes or anything else in that category im afraid.

and as ive said before, a disc mower just leaves a dirty swathe lying behind it that takes the rest of the year to dissaspear, if you think thats ok im good with that too but i want to chop stuff up fine and get the grass up as quick as possible again.
 
im afraid ive wore that shirt in the past, decided to go with a new kuhn heavy duty type disc mower, it made it 3 years before it spat the dummy out, and oh boy did it do it royally, seventeen of the twenty two odd gears in the bed were damaged and all over the head of a small stone no bigger than my fist that wedged itself between two discs that a cow had rubbed out of a bank while scratching herself.
that was the last disc mower about here, they are not stronger than a proper topper, the gearboxes will break and they sure as hell arent designed to be cutting gorse, rushes or anything else in that category im afraid.

and as ive said before, a disc mower just leaves a dirty swathe lying behind it that takes the rest of the year to dissaspear, if you think thats ok im good with that too but i want to chop stuff up fine and get the grass up as quick as possible again.

I would not want to take any mower near the land I have run a topped over in the past.
 

ford4000

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
north Wales
im afraid ive wore that shirt in the past, decided to go with a new kuhn heavy duty type disc mower, it made it 3 years before it spat the dummy out, and oh boy did it do it royally, seventeen of the twenty two odd gears in the bed were damaged and all over the head of a small stone no bigger than my fist that wedged itself between two discs that a cow had rubbed out of a bank while scratching herself.
that was the last disc mower about here, they are not stronger than a proper topper, the gearboxes will break and they sure as hell arent designed to be cutting gorse, rushes or anything else in that category im afraid.

and as ive said before, a disc mower just leaves a dirty swathe lying behind it that takes the rest of the year to dissaspear, if you think thats ok im good with that too but i want to chop stuff up fine and get the grass up as quick as possible again.

A new Holland disc mower lasted me about 25 years topping .. And I got it 2nd hand ;)
Use the khun mower now, but very little to be honest as times have changed, the weed wiper and managing grass better means there's not much need for topping
 

HarryB97

Member
Mixed Farmer
We have a rear mounted Kuhn flail with hydraulic sideshift. We've had it for 14 years and it's still as good as new cuts brambles bonnet high, saplings as big as your fore arm and does a really nice job on grass, would have another tomorrow. Apart from new flails and a couple of sets of belts it's been trouble free.
 

AFM

Member
Spearhead multicut. A 300/3metre one would do a great job. As previously said on this thread it creates a vacuum and lifts whatever is being cut up, cuts it several times to mulch. We sell them but use them as well!
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Thinking out aloud really...

I'm getting asked more and more for topping work, currently borrowing a topper, It's time to buy one...

I cut general weeds, nettles, thistles, docks, which is easy enough, but also get asked to cut that feggy grass that's come to a head, and sometimes that wiry mountainous grass that's dead thin and dead tough. That takes some cutting, never leaving the finish that I feel is good enough.

It can be driven by anything from 60hp to 100hp.

Options...
9ft behind the tractor topper
8ft offset topper
Second hand flail topper
Second hand disc mower
Anything else?!

What should I be going for...?

:)
I have a foster 9 foot in line two rota topper must have had it 15 years, it would cut what you are wanting to do I would think, it wasn't big money back then 1300 quid I think but not sure what it would be now.
I use it on our MF 565 which is about 70hp, the pressure control quadrant comes in handy for dodgy wet or steep places
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
A flail machine would do near 3 times a better job in that kind of material.

… and take twice the horsepower. That's never going to look like a lawn in one go anyway!

I've go a Starcut Spearhead. Same as the Multicut. Great for a mulching but it's a steady job on really thick stuff.
 

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