I've found a 35 year old Kubota B7200HST 2wd 3cyl 17hp diesel w/317 hours for $3500 ask. Appears to be in decent shape and mower cuts good in video. I need a small rotary cutter 4' or 5' but could also use the mid-mount finish mower.

I don't know much about tractors but my usage will be ez mowing work of 2 acre lot about 3 times a year. Without doing research I'm just assuming that the rear pto has nothing to do with mid mount mower and I could attach a bush hog to the 3 point hitch and truck along.

I used to get this mowed for $100, then $150, then $200 and now the only response I've had is $400 and it's not that hard, I used to do it with my 61" zero turn back when I did a few yards for wam but I gave that up about 10 years ago. Is this a rabbit hole I should ignore?

I’d jump on that like a chicken on a June Bug.

Yes. The tractor should have a PTO selector lever with three positions 1) Rear PTO only 2) mid PTO only and 3) both rear and mid simultaneously. You would select rear only.

17 HP is pretty small for a brush hog, even a small one.

If what you are cutting is rough terrain, you may also have clearance issues with the mid mount attached.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
17 HP is pretty small for a brush hog, even a small one.

If what you are cutting is rough terrain, you may also have clearance issues with the mid mount attached.

Two observations:

1. I ran a 5 foot Woods rotary cutter (bushhog) with a John Deere 750 compact rated at 17 PTO HP (some sources rate it at 20) for nearly 30 years. As long as I matched my ground speed to conditions, it handled it just fine, and I mowed some seriously overgrown fields, including poplar saplings up to 2 inches in diameter. If you step down to a 4 footer you should be fine.

2. If the growth is tall/heavy enough to require a rotary cutter, I'd expect you'll want to remove the mid-mount, if for no other reason than to avoid damaging it.

If you used to mow that field with a zero turn then you should be OK with bush hogging with that tractor. Buy a small cutter and plan on going pretty slow.

My Toro zero turn has a 24 hp Kawasaki and I have used it to mow some pretty tall, dense stuff but it took some time.

Oh, that's a really good deal on that tractor in this day and age, especially if it has a front loader.

I owned a B7500 hst (21hp, 17hp at the pto) with a 54" mid deck and used it raised all the way to mow a small pasture twice a year just to keep it cut down somewhat. At that point the weeds were almost up level with the hood so obviously I was going very slow.

I had considered buying a 4' cutter for that tractor but never got around to it. The B7200 hst puts no more than 13-14 hp to the pto, and just weighs 1200-1300# so I wouldn't even consider hanging a 5' cutter off the back.

The rear 3-point raise/drop control simultaneously raises/lowers the deck if it happens to be on. But the deck arms can be held up in the raised position, while using a 3-point attachment, by pinning the decks lift arms. So you could pull a 4' cutter with the deck still on but pinned up. However the deck isn't difficult to remove if you have a hard, flat place like a garage floor or driveway.

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
I've found a 35 year old Kubota B7200HST 2wd 3cyl 17hp diesel w/317 hours for $3500 ask.

I sold a B7300 w 800 hours for $7K 3 years ago. I would buy it back for same in 2 minutes.
I never used the mid mount mower, always used a 4’ brush hog or finish mower.
Billy