On 03/31/05, I bought a new HD8DC Howse 8 foot pull type heavy duty rotary cutter with a 100 PTO horsepower gearbox. Also, I got with this rotary cutter front and rear chain guards, and a one hose hydraulic to raise and lower the rotary cutter. The total price that I paid for this complete rotary cutter package was $3,400.00.

1. Howse Rotary Cutter Gearbox
2. Howse Rotary Cutter Blades

This was the cheapest brand 8 foot heavy duty pull type rotary cutter with a 100 PTO horsepower gearbox that I could find for $3,400.00. Did I pay to much for this Howse brand rotary cutter, or is this price about right? Before I bought this Howse rotary cutter, I checked out a lot of other brands of heavy duty rotary cutters, and couldn't find a heavy duty 8 foot rotary cutter pull type with a 100 horsespower gearbox any cheaper than this Howse brand.

I would like to hear your pros and cons about this Howse brand rotary cutter and the price that I paid for it, because I have never owned one of these before. Surely someone on this board has bought a Howse brand rotary cutter. I was wanting to know how a Howse brand rotary cutter compared to other brand rotary cutters. The reason that I bought a Howse brand rotary cutter is that I got a real good deal I think on this brand instead of buying another brand rotary cutter. I would like to hear replies on any size Howse rotary cutter pull type, or lift type. If you bought one of these rotary cutters, has it been a good cutter compared to other brands of cutters that you know about?

I bought a howse HD120 last september? That's a 10' 3pt lift style cutter. 120hp center gear box, 80hp side boxes. I paid 2500 tax included. The pull type was about 400$ more. No chain guards.

But they were about 400$ more as well. Ya didn't get raped or anything. But wasn't a rosey deal either. If ya add in the hyds cost for the pull type and the guards The price come sout almost equal between your 8' and my 10' Factor in steel surcharge that has happened since now and then and that cuts the difference down a bit more. I'd guess I'd say you got a fair deal.

Nothing to cry about. You can't touch an 8' in another brand with those guards for that money. I hear that howse is coming out with a 15' batwing ( copy of a rhino15 I think ) I wish I'd have known that and I'd have held out on my 10' mower. I think you'll like your mower. Came with a slip clutch, and most of the big howse mowers have the rubber coupler pads to help with flexing and shock loads too. It's real heavy duty metal, and looks good.

I had to assemble mine. If yours came assembled. I'd upgrade that from a fair to a 'good' deal, as it took me a couple good hours of hot/heavy/hard work to get that monster put together. Howse customer support was great. My manual was wet and stuck together.Dealer didn't have a spare. They mailed me one out asap. Soundguy Thank you very much for your input on your Howse rotary cutter.

I thought that I got a fair deal on this rotary cutter for $3,400.00. The dealer is going to install the front and real chain guards on my rotary cutter, and also for this price, he is going to deliver it to my farm 20 miles from his dealership.

Dealers here in Kentucky tell me that the price of steel has gone through the roof since last year, and that is the reason that rotary cutters have gone up so much in price. Anyhow, all the other brands of rotary cutters such as Bush Hog, Woods, Rhino, and some others, the dealers wanted over $4,000.00 for a pull type 8 foot rotary cutter. One thing else about the price that I paid for this rotary cutter, the price of $3,400.00 was the total price. There is no sales tax on tractors and farm implements here in Kentucky that is going to be used on the farm. It seems like here on the board that a lot of other states charges sales tax on tractors and implements that are going to be use on the farm because you stated you had to pay sales tax on your rotary cutter in Florida.

By not having to pay sales tax on farm implements makes a big difference when buying here in Kentucky. I have a HD10 that I have had for three years. I just finished replacing a 'input' gear on one of the outside gear boxes. It appears that all at once the input cover's bolts decided to loosen and that allowed the input gear to move away from the out put gear.

At the time I was exceeding the cutting limits by a lot by cutting many Sweet Gum saplings of up to 4' in dia. And a few even greater!

Not smart on my part but I needed to re claim this field. The damage was that I sheared 4 teeth off the input gear! Howse was good about sending me additional drawings of the gear boxes along with some helpful suggestions. The lady that handled the parts order was great and the parts were in my hands in a couple of days.

Neither the manual nor their web site had clear enough or sufficient drawings/illustrations to cover the repairs and ID of parts. As Ken Sweet said in a post some time back, you will have to work with this drive train on occasions, granted, I did because of a need to get something that I knew was stretching the design of this machine. But, it stood up better than one might expect. There are better rotary cutters but I'm not sure they are worth the additional cost to me or cost of that size tractor to power them. The one major PM item that you must do with any rotary cutter is to keep the nuts and bolts tight. I use a very nice 6ft pipe on the wrench to tighten the big ones. But I sure missed these on the input plate of the gear box!

Why didn't the clutch slip? I had it way to tight! This lesson cost me about 3/4 days work and $100 plus dollars! I cannot emphasize this enough TIGHTEN ALL NUTS AND BOLTS OFTEN - TAKE THE TIME TO ADJUST THE CLUTCH PROPERLY.

WATCH WHAT YOU CUT! Soundguy This is good news to me.

I had the impression that Howse was a brand to avoid so when I went looking for a mower last year I just looked at the higher end mowers like JD, landpride, ect. In the end I am still without a mower because I couldn’t justify or afford the $5000+ prices I was getting quoted.

This spring I am hurting for a mower but I still can’t afford those prices. Your price seems more manageable. I would like to go with a 10’ or at least the 8’ and its got to be heavy duty. Did you purchase yours locally or can you recommend where to find one? 40Kchicks I don't know if you are talking to me, or soundguy, but I will give you my input on the new 8 foot Howse pull type rotary cutter that I bought last week.

I looked at all the brands of cutters that you mentioned in your post, and most of those brands for a 8 foot pull type rotary cutters were over $4,000.00, and more. I could not afford that kind of price. Price is the main reason that I bought a Howse brand rotary cutter. Here in Kentucky, I couldn't find a heavy duty 8 foot pull type rotary cutter, with front and rear chain guards, with a one hose hydraulic to lift and lower cutter, and with 100 PTO horsepower gearbox any cheaper than $3,400.00 that I paid for the Howse brand rotary cutter.

There are probably some people in other states that will say they can get a heavy duty 8 foot pull type rotary cutter set up like the one I bought cheaper. The price of steel keeps going up all the time.

If this same size rotary cutter was priced 4 or 5 months ago, I am sure the price might be less. This Howse brand rotary cutter is make in Laurel, MS. If you would like to look at one of these rotary cutter, this is their website: Cabinholler. ( and also for this price, he is going to deliver it to my farm 20 miles from his dealership.) Sounds like you got assembly and delivery. That makes it a great deal. I had to get mine on a flat bed, and then assemble it.

That's worth a couple hundred right there. ( was the total price. There is no sales tax on tractors and farm implements here in Kentucky ) In florida we pay a reduced rate for farm. For instance.

Most of the state is 6.5% or 7% and farm stuff is 2.5% on machinery. And usually 0% on feedstuffs and hay.

Ive been looking high and low for shredders in 5' or 6' and teh Howse brand shows similar if not identical specs as the major brands like bush hog, rhino, etc, except its priced as though it was not made out of 24k plated gold. I have been told by howse that they are great reliable mowers (duh) and ive been told by a place that USED to sell them that they are cheap junk with chinese made gearboxes. I mean, to me, a shredder is a shredder, it has blades, a gearbox and something to hook it to the tractor. Its hard to screw that up, but the major brands seem to have a bunch of gimmicks and specs that play into the pricing.

Howse Rotary Cutter Gearbox

I mean, they arent exactly complicated pieces of equipment. So, whats the deal with them, are Howse Cutters as good as the major expensive brands? I have a 6' Howse I bought in 2000. I paid something like $500 for it. I mow mostly pasture (about 6-7 acres) several times a year.

I have also cut down a lot of brush along the creek and fencerows cutting sapplings and some cedars 4' - 5' tall. Also hit chunks of stuff floated up out of the creek.

Sheared a lot of pins but has never given me a problem. There are many on here who have been pleased with them. There are also some who have bashed them for being cheap. But I am not sure how many of the bashers actually owned one. For myself, I can see no reason for spending $1200 - $1500 or more for a 'name' brand. Are Howse Cutters as good as the major expensive brands? There is really no simple 'yes or no' answer.

Howse, as well as the other major brands, makes light, medium, and heavy duty models. So when you are comparing rotary cutters, you want to be sure you're comparing light duty to light duty, medium duty to medium duty, etc. Instead of a light duty of one brand to a heavy duty of another. Personally, I've owned a light duty 4' Bush Hog Squealer and a light duty 5' Howse 500. The Bush Hog was rated for 1' brush while the Howse 500 was only rated for grass and weeds. The fact is that either of them could cut inch and a half to two inch stuff occasionally without showing any problems.

In my opinion, the Bush Hog was better quality than the Howse. It was designed better if you wanted to remove the blades and/or the stump jumper, I liked the shape and size of the blades a little better, etc. However, either one was more than adequate for the work I wanted to do, so the cheaper Howse was a better deal for me at the time I bought it. I can only suggest that you first consider what you'll be cutting with the rotary cutter, big heavy brush, grass, weeds, large or small saplings, etc., and maybe what percentage of the time you'll be cutting the different materials. Then of course, you consider the PTO horsepower of the tractor you'll be using. The different rotary cutters have gearboxes rated for different horsepower. The ratings are not absolute, but of course if you buy a rotary cutter with a gearbox rated for 40 hp and then tear it up, using it on a 100 hp tractor, you'll probably have a problem with the warranty.

So be sure the gearbox is rated for as much, or more, horsepower than your tractor. Than compare specs for things such as thickness or gauge of the deck, solid vs. Laminated rear wheel, ease of removing or sharpening blades, size (width and thickness) of blades, stump jumper or not, slip clutch vs. Shear bolt, etc.

Now with all that long winded answer, I'll say that the expensive brands are probably better, or stronger, or longer lasting machines than the cheaper brands, but only you can determine whether they are worth the extra cost. So, whats the deal with them, are Howse Cutters as good as the major expensive brands?

Thanks!In a word, NO.But they sure aren't JUNK either. Howse builds a decent medium to light duty mower that will meet the needs of most end users.

Bush Hog, Rhino, Woods, and the rest of the 'big names' builds medium and heavy duty mowers that are by far better for HEAVY use. The 'big names' light duty mowers aren't much different than a Howse mower other than they come from a company with more parts and service 'support'. Unless you're going to be continuously mowing heavy weeds, brush, and working in rocky, trashed up conditions, a Howse mower would PROBABLY serve the purpose just as well as ANY mower on the market. 6 years ago, I bought a KK 6' mower, thinking I could 'get by' with a light duty mower. Well, It's history now and I'm back to using Bush Hog and Woods products now.

The light duty 'off brands' are ok for the occasional user, or they guy who's cleaning up a few acres. Get serious and start mowing quite a bit, and these light duty mowers are 'throw-aways' after a few seasons. The cheaper mowers end up costing far more in the long run. A couple years on a $750 'cheapie' with broken parts along the way, or buy a heavy duty, high quality mower and get many years. Take a long look at what you're doing with it and judge how heavy of a mower you need. My dad currenlty uses a 10' Howse cutter with his AC 8050.

The unit is used to mow pastures and see's very little brush. I would consider it medium duty when compared to a Bush Hog or Woods brand. It has been trouble free for over 8 years and was purchased used. If I was in the market for a bush hog I would get a medium duty rated unit at the least from whomever. I've been currently running a 5' BUsh Hog Squeeler and it has been fine for my needs.

Howse Rotary Cutter Blades

It I were to purchase new though I would get a heavier duty unit. I think Bird makes some very valid points. A rotary cutter can take on some pretty heavy abuse.

I have a KK 72' and it is a tank. Cuts any tree I can get under it, and has taken on some basketball sized rocks by accident. It does have a few dents now, and is rusting faster than the better brands due to their poor paint prep. If I had to do it over I would probably get another KK or Howse though. I want to use it hard sometimes and not worry about dents and scrapes. I can buy 2 of these for the price of one of the better brands. Now, if I only mowed grass and could take it easy on a cutter, I would consider all the brands knowing it could last a long time.