Should I Raise My Drum Mower Cut Height?

Howdy Folks! Welcome to 8th Day Chronicles here at Cross Timbers Farm! THANK YOU for stopping by our channel today!
Come along with me today as I share my experiences with adjusting the cut height on my Farm Maxx / Kowalski 135 Drum Mower using the Farm Maxx / Kowalski cut height adjustment kit, and if this kit is "right" for you and your hay fields or not.
Through much trial and error of adding/subtracting spacers, I have found the "best fit" in cut height for OUR hay fields. These cut height adjustment kits are not a "one size fits all" type adjustment to your drum mower. What works well for ME may not work well for YOU. Hay fields are different, terrain is different and hay thickness is different, and maybe more importantly, your opinion of cut quality may be different than mine. As our hay fields evolved into better producing hay, and after study of TIMING and GROWTH STAGE of hay grasses and if they are in reproductive stage or not (stems or no stems), that ultimately determined if a much higher cut height on our drum mower produced a satisfactory cut or not, for MY PREFERENCES. On thin hay I found a high cut height didn't affect cut quality much either way, but once our hay fields (soil amendments for years) improved and our hay got MUCH thicker, on 2nd and subsequent cuts of hay the higher cut left a less than desirable cut quality, for MY liking. Your mileage may vary, not everyone will judge cut quality and how much it matters to you, the same. I have discovered this is much open to interpretation on what YOU consider acceptable cut quality, or not.
Thanks for watching, I sure appreciate it!
Equipment Used:
Farm Maxx / Kowalski FDM 135 Drum Mower,
Farm Maxx / Kowalski Cut Height Adjustment Kit,
Sony ZV-1 Camera,
Rode Go II Microphones,
UbeeSize Tripods,
Disclaimer! Our channel at 8th Day Chronicles / Cross Timbers Farm is for entertainment purposes only. Any methods, techniques, resources used are for entertainment purposes only and we do not make any claims regarding the safety of techniques, equipment, resources or information used in our videos. If you use any of our information or techniques we assume no liability whatsoever to your safety or outcome, you assume your own risks, property and bodily!
Safety Disclaimer:
If you are not experienced in working on/with heavy farm machinery, DO NOT attempt installing parts/kits/adjustments yourself. Have an experienced machinery mechanic do the job for you. You must have ALL safety protocols in place when working on farm machinery. This video is for entertainment purposes and we DO NOT suggest you attempt this yourself. We make NO CLAIMS that this technique and/or kit install will perform to your expectations, we share this video for entertainment purposes only.

[@Gore50]

Hey Darrin, Thanks for the video. Here is something I did seemed to help me with my drum mower. I adjust my top link which angles the drums slightly back so there is more ground clearance in the front of the drum and believe it or not but it raises the height of cut i probably leave about 3-3.5" maybe 4" the other plus if you have any small flat rocks in the fields it will want to skim over them easier. Never want to hit a rock but should you come across one I found it's better than having the drum lay flat. Lastly I have found no difference in cut quality or performance of the drum mower by doing this. Talk soon Hay season will be here quicker than we know it !

[@8thdaychronicles]

Thanks, Jimmy! It’s interesting to hear other folks methods. Appreciate you sharing. Pray you and family are doing well!

[@tommywise1702]

We love our drum mower. We also purchased a height adjustment kit for our ibex mower. It cuts about a 3 1/2 inch stubble with the height adjustment, it was to short at the factory setting. The ibex can only have 1 shim from the factory, but if you're handy you can make it taller. 3 1/2 inch stubble is fine. Our field is as rough as it gets. We still get the cutters in the dirt some, if I could go to 4 1/2 inch stubble I would. May make another set just not yet. Informative video, thanks bud.

[@8thdaychronicles]

We sure like our drum mower too, I’ve been seeing more and more drum mowers around too, they are catching on some. With 2 spacers above factory height is about as low as I wanna go, the cut quality there is fantastic. Thanks for the kind words, yall are fantastic.

[@christopherpyle3503]

Thanks for the video. Happy New Year and God bless you and your family.

[@8thdaychronicles]

Thank you Sir. I pray God blesses you richly!

[@POWERQUEST123]

We run the fdm 185 and had the same issue horrible cut quality will all spacers on each side, we removed half of them and the quality was fantastic. 3 spacers seems to be the best of both worlds.

[@8thdaychronicles]

Yes! Good comment! Our cut quality with 6 spacers per drum was not horrible, but not great either, and thats somewhat relevant to he person's likes I guess. Actually at 1st cut with high grass and stems, it was actually pretty good, but once we got into 2nd and later cuts with stemmy grass, the cut quality really suffered, to me anyhow. Thanks a bundle for sharing your experience also, much appreciated!

[@POWERQUEST123]

@8thdaychronicles We have 1 field we are reclaiming that is full of broom sedge and with all spacers it would only cut about 70% of the sedge and would just knock it over.