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Super A belly mower vs newer residential mower

B

bluegrasmtns

New User
I'm contemplating getting a SUPER A with a Woods L49 belly mower. I mow about 4 acres that is flat and rectangular that takes me forever using an ancient 46" Murray.

Would the Super A handle the 4 acres pretty quick, or would it be just as quick to get a new 46-50" cut mower? I'm looking to spend about $2000 and already have the perfect tractor treed.


TIA.
 
I would get the Super A just because, IF IT IS SOUND, it will last a lifetime... The mowers they make today may last 10 years or so (if you are lucky). Course the Super A may not be as fuel efficient, but...

That is my cents worth. Super A...
 
I've got an A with an L59 mower and use it to mow about 3 acres and love it! It was a major improvment over the little JD STX 38.
Make sure you get some turf tires if you plan on mowing your yard when it is soft and wet.
 
My "57 130 with a woods L59 used less fuel to mow the same area as my 24HP 2Cyl 50" cut Craftsman hydrostat mower. It was faster, and a LOT more fun.
 
I mow 8 acres with an H and a belly mower and my neighbor mows about the same with a zero turn mower in half the time. NO DOUBT in my mind I have more fun. You ask why I mow 8 acres? It is my therapy after a long week of work and raising two teens. Its the only peace I get.
 
The good zero turns will run you about 9 to 10k or more at 52"+. They are necessary if there is a lot of stuff in the way, that is trees and landscaped areas. At equal width, the zero turns will not work any faster than the SA in open space except that the zero turn does not waste as much time at ends. For wide open space the SA will do just fine. If you let the grass get deep, do not expect to get far above first gear, second at the most and you may have to double back over. If the blades get dull, it will not cut well. I use a 6-foot finishing mower behind a Ferguson 50 with a Perkins diesel to cut about 5 acres with trees and steep ditch bank but no major landscaping. It takes me about 4 to 5 hours but there is a lot of weed eater work and I only get there about every 3-weeks. Also remember that the PTO on the SA is not live. You will not be able to ease up to tight places or change direction without comming to a complete stop.
 
If you hate cutting grass and want it done as fast as humanly possible...the ZTR is fastest.

I've mowed with a cub and L59 and unless I constantly stayed ontop of the grass height, I was always bogging....hence my next tractor the Super A...plenty of power.

Super A does best where the mowing path can be developed into long straightaways. It doesn't have a prime turning radius and so time can be lost by having to trim around lots of trees, bldgs, etc.

However, I just love using the tractor, the throaty exhaust note and I know I can rebuild it and it will outlast me.
 
The guy that figures out how to put an engine-speed electric belt-drive clutch on a Farmall Super A or an Allis Chalmers B/C/CA will be doing us all a big favor. Heck, even a John Deere H or M could run a mid-mount mower then.
 
(quoted from post at 08:43:41 04/09/09) The guy that figures out how to put an engine-speed electric belt-drive clutch on a Farmall Super A or an Allis Chalmers B/C/CA will be doing us all a big favor. Heck, even a John Deere H or M could run a mid-mount mower then.
Click to expand...

All it takes is money....
 
I can get it done in about an hr and a half to two hrs but the above comments are correct about agility of a machine like this. I still have to go back with the push mower in some spots. But I am not sore from bouncing up and down over an uneven lawn
 
If you like using 50+ year old technology...get yourself a SA. I HAD one, glad to see it go. Wide turning radius, low on power.....lets face it..18-20 horses ain"t much. No live power...so if you have to stop and back up...you wait for everything to quit running before shifting gears...it becomes a PITA real quick.

Back in 1955, it was the cat"s a$$...but that was a LONG time ago. A newer farm tractor and a finish mower will eat a Super A"s lunch and zero turn..ha! A ZTR is the ne plus ultra of grass whackers. That"s all it is made for and all it is fit for...but if you want to mow grass and get it done...that"s what you want. No, I don"t own a ztr. I have 6 foot Woods finish mower that I pull with my 5320 JD. I"ve owned 2 SA"s and a Cub. I kept one SA to cultivate the garden with..all it"s fit for in my estimation and I use the new tractor for everything else. The SA I had with a belly mower was in fine condition...it was just an outdated machine and a PITA to use..once you"ve been used to something better. Way back.I also had a small Jap tractor with a belly mower...nothing more than a rider on steroids. It went away too.

There"s lots of nostalgia buffs here that praise the old stuff...but 99% of that is imagination...and the "way grandpa used to do it." Grandpa is usually dead and gone. If he were alive...he"d have something better than a 50 year old tractor and a belly mower. An A model Ford car is nostalgic to take a ride in...but I sure wouldn"t want it for my daily driver or have to depend on it for hard use. Same way I feel about mowing with a SA.
 
Oh I don't know... Considering you can put a woods under a SA for a lot less than the price of a 54" POS from your nearest big box store I'd say it is ok. Sure you don't have LPTO but then again you won't be replacing spindle housings each time you hit a stick or a pebble... or clip the dirt... You won't replace driveline bearings and pulleys every year and you won't have the weld on the mower deck every few weeks... Or crawl underneath with a screwdriver and scraper every time you mow to clean out the grass... These new decks discharge like crap... These new mowers don't turn much sharper than a SA either...

Have a Husqvarna 2254 right now that is the biggest POS there ever was... Look at the list above.. and it is only 3 years old. I take pride in how I take care of my equipment too... If I was any more careful with the stupid thing I'd be able to transport uncrated eggs with it. About to put a for sale sign on it and hope to get enough to cover the majority of a new L59 for the SA... Cheaper than a $5K simplicity...

(quoted from post at 10:44:49 04/09/09) If you like using 50+ year old technology...get yourself a SA. I HAD one, glad to see it go. Wide turning radius, low on power.....lets face it..18-20 horses ain"t much. No live power...so if you have to stop and back up...you wait for everything to quit running before shifting gears...it becomes a PITA real quick.

Back in 1955, it was the cat"s a$$...but that was a LONG time ago. A newer farm tractor and a finish mower will eat a Super A"s lunch and zero turn..ha! A ZTR is the ne plus ultra of grass whackers. That"s all it is made for and all it is fit for...but if you want to mow grass and get it done...that"s what you want. No, I don"t own a ztr. I have 6 foot Woods finish mower that I pull with my 5320 JD. I"ve owned 2 SA"s and a Cub. I kept one SA to cultivate the garden with..all it"s fit for in my estimation and I use the new tractor for everything else. The SA I had with a belly mower was in fine condition...it was just an outdated machine and a PITA to use..once you"ve been used to something better. Way back.I also had a small Jap tractor with a belly mower...nothing more than a rider on steroids. It went away too.

There"s lots of nostalgia buffs here that praise the old stuff...but 99% of that is imagination...and the "way grandpa used to do it." Grandpa is usually dead and gone. If he were alive...he"d have something better than a 50 year old tractor and a belly mower. An A model Ford car is nostalgic to take a ride in...but I sure wouldn"t want it for my daily driver or have to depend on it for hard use. Same way I feel about mowing with a SA.
Click to expand...
 
Oh, I don't know either... All it took was about 3 trips over my lawn to figure out the optimum path to take to minimize stopping, and the non-live PTO became a non-issue. I can mow 1.25 acres with 10 trees, a mailbox, an odd-shaped house, and two barns to drive around and only stop to back up twice. Takes about an hour, and this is with a Cub LoBoy. An A has a tight turning radius compared to my LoBoy.
 
Ranch king 20 hp 54" cut my lawn equals 7 hrs.
Farmall A 60" cut 3 hrs.

I use the ranch king for trimming around trees and close to the buildings, swing set, ect.

The a for the big part. The A moves along quite a bit faster than the ranch king. The ranch king must go slower to do as good as a job.

Fuel consumption?? The ranch king when trimming will need fuel before I'm done The A will mow twice maybe three times on the same tank.

Joe
 
The shape the country is in today might indicate that Grandpa was not all wrong. At least he did not spend 3/4 months pay for a lawn mower, paid cash for his house and never had a credit card.
 
I"ve used a SA with Woods L-59 for 25 years to cut about 2-1/2 acres. I finally broke down & bought a 52" Hustler ZTR with a 19 HP Kawasaki 2 cyl. I cut my mowing time by 1/3 and eliminated string trimming completely. But the ZTR is very noisey and dirty, throws up clippings & dust all the time. The SA was smooth & quiet, & didn"t need ear plugs. Also I took the wheel weights off the SA, but it still compacted the yard too much, the ZTR has softer, wider tires. Both pretty easy on fuel. I fly light sport aircraft, so still use the SA to mow the runway.
 
Finish mowers are the best. I've used a Super A with a 42 inch belly mower and a JD 420 with a 3ph finish mower. There's no question, the finish mower is faster and does a better job. If you already have a tractor with a 3ph get the finish mower. A ZTR is the quickest you can get.
 
I mow 3 acres with a Farmall A / woods L59 belly mower. 10 years ago i traded a snow blade for a cub caddet even for the L59. It does a great job. I will say the first time i put the belt on it, i was shocked to see all the turns and twists the belt is suppose to have in it.
 
Grandpa usually lived in old farmhouse that froze your balls off in the winter, had no AC and he had never heard of a credit card...but he got credit at the bank to put his crops in from year to year and most often he ran a grocery bill at the country store. All too often grandpas farm was either cut off of great grandpas farm as a wedding gift or handed down to him after great grandpa and grandma got too old to work it any longer. I"ve lived all that and know how it goes. Grandpa might have also been frugal...but he was far from stupid and if he needed something to work with...he went and bought it. And when he did..he generally bought it new...as in the most modern available in his time...that"s where all these 1940"s model hand me downs came from. Grandpa didn"t give up the mule and go buy a 1917 model tractor in 1940...he knew better.Folks ought to apply the same logic today, that grandpa did, back then.
 
The deciding factor for me is my age. I can tear around @8mph on my 50" zero turn, or go @4mph on my tractor with a 6' Woods belly mower. If I had to do without one I'd get rid of the zero turn, especially for the type of area you describe. My half-century plus bones don't like the jarring of the little tires on the zero turn. I just use it for trimming, where it really shines, and not @8mph!
 
Lots of good advice so far. The quick and dirty, the ZTR can't be beat to mow quickly, but it is expensive, probably at least $5K if not more like $8 to $10K. I got tired of all the dinking with my Cub Lo-boy and bought a used ZTR in the $2000 range. Now I am dinking with the ZTR. If money is tight don't think you can beat the Super A, if getting the mowing done quickly with little hassle is important then I think your going to have to increase the budget quite a bit.
 
i think either will work in your situation. super a with a 50 inch woods is a good open country mowing machine. the ztr is also a good open country or lot of obstacle mower. ztr will prolly be a little faster, but bumpier. my mowing fleet includes farmall b 59 woods belly mower, farmall cub 59 woods, farmall m woods rm 600 3 pt finish mower, cub cadet 122 w 42 inch deck, jd l10 auto-42 deck, jd gt 245-54 inch deck, hustler 295 ztr- 72 inch deck. the two fastest mowers are the m with the 3 pt woods and the hustler ztr.
 
You might be right. Had a 96 year old nieghbor that died couple months back, he had farmed, ran MF dealership, amoung other things and was a millionaire many times over but would squeeze a nickle until Buffalo choked and he could not understand all the modern self indulgence.

I have late model 20 HP MF diesel with 3 point finish mower and on my grass it does excellent job as it is mostly wide open area. If I had it to go over I would buy 140 instead, the late model is allready giving trouble and is a PITA to work on and I am afraid that soon parts will be impossible to find.
 
Grampa might've done all that back in 1940, but he was doing it to make a living. We're mowing lawns.

Grampa would also flip his lid if he saw the garbage that manufacturers are putting out and calling lawn mowers these days. He'd say, "give me my old Farmall Cub any day of the week over this shiny overpriced tin crap."

Grampa never mowed his lawn, anyway.
 
Last year I had to make the same decision. I have a newly rebuilt Super A and a new Woods L50 mower that was configured to fit a JD 850/950 that I had bought a few years ago. Reviewed the Woods on-line manuals and determined it was going to cost more than $1000 for the necessary SA brackets. Decided that I wasn't impressed with the awkard appearance of the mounting system used on the SA, so scrapped this project. Those that mowed a lot which I had consulted never encouraged this endeavor anyway. Looked at a low hour, reasonably priced 4WD JD 750 with a 60 inch 3pt finish mower. Almost bought it but decided that I wanted something more maneuverable. Zero turns then became the focal point, but finally bought a good used diesel JD model 935 w/60 inch cut because the better half prefers a steering wheel rather than joy sticks. Although significantly more money, this outfit would mow circles around a SA and 50 inch Woods. Therefore my suggestion would be to go for a zero turn style mower.
 
Bought it. Used but not abused. Runs like a top. Have the guards to go on there. Spindle bearings are smoooooth.
superA.jpg
 
Mowed today, it needed it, I swear. Took me a little over an hour. Even got up next to the house pretty well, just had to weed eat a little more than usual.

This is going to work out great. :lol:
 
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