It's Mowing Season! - Part I

By: Brian Goley

Introduction

You say your lawn is a little larger than the average lawn.  Do you own an utility ATV?  Why not turn it into a mowing machine?  As quads have become more and more popular, they have been replacing some of your more common lawn care equipment such as riding mowers and tractors.  Over the past decade, we have seen more and more quad accessories evolved to become practical tools for landowners.  Mowers have been one of them.  There are different types of mowers on the market for your ATV, everything from push to pull behind to even undercarriage attached.

Our friends at Kunz Engineering have been developing a quality made pull behind or wing mower for years and have graciously allowed us to evaluate two of their products:  The Finish Cut and the Rough Cut models.  Designed to be pulled by garden tractors, riding mowers, ZTR Mowers or utility ATV's, the mowers we will be testing are designed to be user friendly, strong, reliable, maneuverable, and reduce our mowing time to allow us to do the more important things in life other than mowing grass.

Our evaluation units are currently being put through a full season of mowing on our test facility.  The units are being put through multiple mowing conditions; average day of mowing, extreme mowing as you can see from the picture to the right, light and heavy trail mowing, and some specially designed mowing conditions.

Our report, It's Mowing Season! - Part II, will provide our viewers with a wealth of information on the AcrEase Units and how they performed in our long-term testing.  Stay tuned to ATV Source for that review.

Description of the Product(s)

AcrEase Finish Cut Mower
Model C60K

The 60-in. commercial model comes with 3 blades and a 15 HP Kohler engine. Each mower comes with infinite height adjustment, anti-scalp wheels, four pneumatic tires, relube blade spindles, and universal hitches. An optional set of pneumatic tires can be bolted to the center section of the 60-in. decks to give them additional floatation capabilities on rough lawns, road banks and around ponds. The mowers can be pulled individually or ganged together behind or to the side of an ATV. The low profile design makes it easy to trim around trees, under low branches, and close to buildings. The deep deck with large side discharge provides a high quality finish cut with excellent air flow and uniform discharge at high mowing speeds.

Specifications

AcrEase Rough Cut Mower
Model MR55K

Their AcrEase Rough Cut features a rear discharge, heavy 57” cutting width deck, electric start 17 HP Briggs & Stratton or 20HP Kohler engine, and a manual clutch for blade engagement. To reduce the bunching problems associated with most rough cut mowers, it’s design features two 30” blades that increase mulching action. The cutting height can easily be adjusted infinitely from 2” to 8” by turning a crank on each side of the mower deck. The heavy deck is formed from 10 ga. steel with 7 ga. sides and two 1/4” top plates in the blade spindle area. Blade spindles are constructed with large 30 mm. shafts and can withstand the abuse of cutting up to 2” dia. saplings. This tow-behind mower also has all four tires positioned within the width of the deck to allow for mowing close to objects.

Specifications

Contact Information
Kunz Engineering, Inc.
2100 Welland Road
Mendota, IL 61342
Phone: 815.539.6954
Fax: 815.539.6955
Email: info@kunzeng.com
Web Site: http://www.kunzeng.com/