The obvious route to boosting rear-mounted mower workrates is to stick a second unit onto the front of the tractor. But there are alternatives. Perhaps surprisingly, a big trailed mower is capable of returning similar output figures to a wider, mounted ‘combi’ – as we found out when we pitted two Krone units against each other
Extra metal, more sophisticated technology and a higher buying price tend to deter the dedicated mounted-mower man from switching to a trailed model.
For precisely those reasons our testers raised the odd eyebrow at the suggestion that a big trailed mower was not only capable of keeping up with, but perhaps even surpassing the performance of a wider, mounted combination. Surely the wider working width ‘combi’ would always win the day, they said. But ‘it ain’t necessarily so’, as our test results prove.
In the profi comparison, we used three Krone mowers. The mounted pair comprised the 2.8m frontmounted AFL 283 CV and 2.8m rearmounted AM 283 CV, combining to give a total working width of 5.2m. Up against these two was the trailed AMT 4000 CV with a 4m working width (3.8m effective width).
The aim of our test was to answer the following questions: Is there a difference in power requirement between the front- and rearmounted mowers? Do trailed models have a higher power requirement than a mounted combination? Is one type easier to operate than the other? What are the potential outputs of the respective mowing configurations? The tractor used in our test was a Deutz-Fahr Agrotron.
Looking at the various mower specs in greater detail, the AFL 283 CV was mounted on the Agrotron’s front linkage using a quick-hitch A-frame. To hitch on, you simply fold down the conditioner’s deflector plate under the coupling points. Once the mower is locked in place, the deflector plate is folded back up with the help of gas dampers.
