# 12 foot batwing mower



## 1eyedjack (Feb 28, 2013)

looking at buying a 12 foot batwing mower to clip the pastures need something easy to pull and cuts great . Locally have bushhog dealer and a rhino dealer both gave be a price on the two .Bushhog was $ 10130.00 the rhino about a thousand dollars more . Even priced a woods for 10900 which I have heard bad things already about these. My question is which do the folks on here prefer?


----------



## snowball (Feb 7, 2015)

Around here our mowers get used hard our pastures are rough and a lot of thick brush when we mow them cow paths and washouts and ant hills are hard on them... a woods mower doesn't last very long here . A lot of JDs here but it's because of good dealer support.. there are some Rhinos and they work well we don't have a good Bushog dealer in the area but heard a few bad stories about their gear boxs..


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

1eyedjack said:


> looking at buying a 12 foot batwing mower to clip the pastures need something easy to pull and cuts great . Locally have bushhog dealer and a rhino dealer both gave be a price on the two .Bushhog was $ 10130.00 the rhino about a thousand dollars more . Even priced a woods for 10900 which I have heard bad things already about these. My question is which do the folks on here prefer?


If I were in your situation, I'd buy a lightly used Deere MX-15 over any of the (new) ones you listed, unless you're buying a 12 footer for low HP reasons.
Deere has a double deck design that keeps 90% of the top deck of the mower looking like new for many years. Bush Hog may have a double deck now, too.
If you have to buy the 12', dont buy the Woods. I had a 15' BW-180 XHD. It had really massive gearboxes, but the deck suffered bad damage from cutting heavy brush after only 1-2 years. It had a very basic 1 spring suspension.
I do about 50k in field mowing/brush cutting per year on my CX-15 and it's built like a tank.
Check out the lighter duty Deere MX-15 if you can swing the 15' size and extra cost. You'll get the double deck and the really good Deere paint job. Nothing looks worse than a rusted, dented bush hog deck(s)


----------



## 1eyedjack (Feb 28, 2013)

Yes I have a jd mx 8 mows ok need something easy pulling they say the 12 ft are it the 15ft is too big for us at this time not to say they don't mow good . Going pull with a jd 5105 45hp or 5420


----------



## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

I bought a 15ft bush hog a few years ago. It does have a double deck, but only for the back half. I use it mainly on ditches and to mow in between tree rows. Its hit quite a bit of stuff and only has one small ding in the part of it that isn't double decked. It seems well built and I think it will last. My only complaint on mine is one of my gear boxes leaks oil out of what I think is a breather. It bubbled some out when it was new the first time I ran it and I thought it was maybe overfull. I notice it leaks then the wings are folded up for storage and that gear box was almost empty of oil this spring. I plan to replace that part but haven't been to the dealer yet. Just keep checking an adding oil.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I bought a Rhino TS12 about 2 years ago. Works great for me. It is a light duty mower for clipping pastures, but thats what I wanted. I also have a lot of hills so I didnt want something heavy. Works well on my 65 HP and 89 HP tractor. It doesnt have a CV PTO shaft so thats a little annoying. Also look at the hitch setup. It bolts to the hitch so that the pivoting point is back further. That allows you to turn sharper, but is a little annoying to hook up. If you are fine with the hookup/hitch issue you will like the mower. It has worked well for my needs.


----------



## LaneFarms (Apr 10, 2010)

PaMike watch the hitch on your mower. I had a ts12 and the hitch broke. It has one bar that levels the mower on the right side. Where that bar attached to the tongue the square tubing twisted and eventually broke. I had a local shop fix it and got rid of it. It did do a good job of mowing.


----------



## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Will keep an eye on it. Since its the first "big" piece of new equipment I have bought I am pretty gentle on it..


----------

