Anybody use a Promow reel mower?

[mc25a]

I've been intrigued by these pull behind gang reels for several years now. There are a few reviews out there but nothing really in detail and nothing I can find about how they hold up over the years.

One thing I've noticed is that the units with very poor reviews are generally the cheaper reels. The FLEX 58 and up (gold series reels) get fair to good reviews and seem a lot heavier duty.

I have a new (last year) Walker zero turn I could probably get 5k for and thought about the FLEX58 model from promow. It is about $1600 and they claim is not expandable, but I think anyone with any fabrication skills at all could figure out a way to add a couple reels if they wanted to go bigger.

I'm particularly interested for a couple reasons. One is my allergies are terrible with that dust blowing up in my face and it sure would be nice to have all that behind me. The other is I have low hanging fruit trees so mowing under without driving under would be nice too. My Walker is actually quite good for that too with it's out-front deck.

I had another idea just to buy two reels and mount them to each side of my cub 86 (probably to the back) to be used in conjunction with the 38" deck. So probably another 36" of cutting width considering overlap. Having some means to fold them up would allow me to just use the deck for rougher sections of lawn. I'm just not sure how the reel would do that was on the side of the rotary mower's discharge.

Third idea, no deck, building a lifting mechanism for the reels from the mid-mount deck carriage and a third in the middle rear attached to the sleeve hitch. This way I could readily lift the entire apparatus for crossing the gravel drive. This would probably cut better than pulling them because they would cut before the rear tires ran over the grass.

Anyway, just some ideas I've been kicking around. I know the reels require more maintenance and a smoother, cleaner yard.

[Tractor2nv]

I have seen them work,professional built and shade tree engineering. Tow behind gang units cutting result as to greens on the golf course...if there are no debris such as sticks,rocks,ect..Backyard fabricated one worked better than the dealer unit. Gentleman used the plans out of an old Mother Earth News magazine,found all three push reel mowers at yard sales,fabricated hanger/tounge from scrap. But he had to pick up debris in the yard first. We all should pick up the yard first no matter what we use.

[cdmintmi]

Id check golf courses and used golf equipment sites. Alot of courses are getting rid of tow behind uints and using rotary units now. Im sure you could find some heavy duty comercial grade gravity driven reels that will last a very long time with some maintenance. I think if I wanted to I could pick up 5 of them right now. Just remeber reel mowers dont do all that well in tall or wet grass. Thats why alot of courses are getting rid of them for rotary units (plus rotary units are just faster). There was a guy that live near me growing up that had 3 rotary walkers rigged together that he towed behind is rider. Now that was pretty cool for someting so simple.

[mc25a]

There is a 100" tow behind unit out now, almost 4k so I could get two of the 60" units plus the 38" deck and be money ahead of that. Considering overlap, about 12-13' per pass!

I just hate to put the money into something like that and find out I really don't like pulling a mower.

[green 4 acres]

I am wanting to build one myself as I have a small golf green I play around on with a 9 iron ... a few years ago you could find plenty of 21 in reel mowers at swap meets etc. for $15 and I need to build a branch catcher
Don

[Mountain Heritage]

Just remember....they are cool and do a great job - but do you want to be looking behind all the time while mowing? Front mount and a drop down wing on each side of tractor would be much better in my books.....easier on the neck - less chance of spilling beer too!