# Reel or rotary



## Iceman01 (Sep 29, 2021)

Situation: New house; new Bermuda sod laid in two stages - 20000 sf last fall and 20000 sf this summer. So just under an acre. Soil is heavy clay. It is very bumpy/uneven despite having it professionally laid. My 62" zero turn does a terrible job of cutting. Scalps something awful because of unevenness.
Would like to go to a fairway mower like a JD3225…feel like five floating reel gangs will follow the unevenness much better. The catch is I have some 80yo white oak trees that drop sticks and acorns in the fall. I can and do pick up the sticks and twigs but acorns-not! 
Yes I need to level the yard and will start that process next spring.
Should I give up on my plans for a reel mower because of the tree debris? Going to look at a 5-gang rotary mower (called a rough mower I think)tomorrow…maybe a good compromise?


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

I think you will have a hard time maintaining several reels with debris on that much yard. @Ware had a rough mower for a while and can give you the details on it.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

For less than an acre I would probably be looking at a trim/surrounds mower with 3 reels or decks.

As far as a rotary rough mower goes - the floating decks will scalp less than a zero turn, but it won't replicate the look of a reel cut.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

I don't think you'll be in too much trouble with random acorns…. People act like reels are super fragile, most of them are not.


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## Retromower (Jan 28, 2021)

Iceman01 said:


> Situation: New house; new Bermuda sod laid in two stages - 20000 sf last fall and 20000 sf this summer. So just under an acre. Soil is heavy clay. It is very bumpy/uneven despite having it professionally laid. My 62" zero turn does a terrible job of cutting. Scalps something awful because of unevenness.
> Would like to go to a fairway mower like a JD3225…feel like five floating reel gangs will follow the unevenness much better. The catch is I have some 80yo white oak trees that drop sticks and acorns in the fall. I can and do pick up the sticks and twigs but acorns-not!
> Yes I need to level the yard and will start that process next spring.
> Should I give up on my plans for a reel mower because of the tree debris? Going to look at a 5-gang rotary mower (called a rough mower I think)tomorrow…maybe a good compromise?


Id forget about the reel for now until you can get the yard more level and until you can do something about the debris. Reel mowers dont handle any kind of yard debris at all and with a unlevel yard, you can go low enough to make it worthwhile dealing with a reel mower anyways.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

I think you're looking for somebody to magically tell you it's going to work when reality says it's not going to.

I'd rotary mow it and work on how level the yard is.

$0.02


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

I wouldn't be bothered with a fairway unit for 1 acre. Even if every square millimeter of it was turf mowed @ 1/2" . The maintenance on the machine itself will suck up every minute of spare time you thought you had.

Tri-plex, a greens/tees unit is fine if the lawn is clean and flat. A trim and surrounds tri-plex will handle light debris just fine but an effort should still be made to clear the lawn before mowing. Maybe a buffalo turbine blower? Now there's some overkill I could get behind!

The unevenness can and should be corrected by leveling with sand. Often skipped by the builder's contractor but necessary, even for rotary-mowed lawns IMO. Once the dips and high spots are taken care of, then you only need to plan your mow-pattern around any land contours. 62" is a big on 1 acre unless it's wide-open.


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## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

A utility triplex like the Toro 3100d with plow through most smaller twigs without even noticing. My kids dropped some change(nickle and a quarter)and roofers left some nails in the yard I didn't see when I was mowing. Came back another day and noticed it had sliced right through all of them. Was worried and checked the reels and bedknives with no visible damage.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

MrMeaner said:


> A utility triplex like the Toro 3100d with plow through most smaller twigs without even noticing. My kids dropped some change(nickle and a quarter)and roofers left some nails in the yard I didn't see when I was mowing. Came back another day and noticed it had sliced right through all of them. Was worried and checked the reels and bedknives with no visible damage.


They're built VERY differently than a typical 5" greens/tee mower for sure!


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## Rucraz2 (Apr 8, 2018)

Do not get a gang reel!!


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## Kmartel (Feb 12, 2019)

A trim/surrounds mower is all you need for an acre. I cut my acre in about 30- 35 minutes with a 3100d.


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## Iceman01 (Sep 29, 2021)

Update: Found a used Tri King. Purchased same. It spent the entire winter in the mower shop. Now I'm mowing at 1". Asphalt roller rental is in the near future to start leveling.


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