Vermeer 7020 disc mower

[oliver maverick]

I've recently aquired a 7020 Vermeer 9' disc mower and am looking for insight on this mower good or bad. I'm familiar with Kuhn / New Holland and even New Idea designs but haven't used or seen one of these before. Paid $1000.00 for the mower and it looks to be in pretty good shape, good paint, very little rust on the cover, not much wear on wear points, and all shields in place. The catch was that the main drive gear box was stripping. Upon tearing into it I found the small gear that drives the cutter bar shaft was ate up as well as the two bearings that hold it in place. The bigger drive gear was unhurt, I guess its a stronger metal. I'm thinking I got a pretty good deal, I'd just like to know a little bit more about this mower, what years they were made,dependability etc. It looks to me that the last two inches or so of the cutter bar would lay the standing grass down without cutting it and make it harder to cut on the next pass. Any insight is appreciated, and sorry for the novel.

MAV

 

[keh]

Don't know the age, but those had Lely cutterbars. I was told by a Vermeer dealer that the metal top was too heavy for the cutter bar and caused breakage in the cutterbar area. Quite a few of them lasted long enough to wear out so I guess it depends on how it is treated.

The cutterbar is in segments, which are right and left segments, so keep up with the order they are in if you take it apart. The segments are driven by a square piece of very hard key stock. It will round off where it goes into the gearbox, requiring replacement. It might be a good idea to switch ends to even out the wear.

The segments are held together by a long rod. If the mower hits something, this rod can be bent, making the cutterbar hard to turn. I understand the rod can be taken out and straightened, saving the price of a new one.

Each segment has sealed bearings in it. According to HayDr, who posts on here, the sealed bearings require less horsepower to pull than
a gearbed mower that runs in oil because each gear acts as a hydraulic pump.
There are also bevel gears which have to be packed in a special grease occasionally. The grease is not cheap. You have to remove the nut at the top of the blade carrier. then lift off blade carrier to get to retaining bolts. I've never done this, but my cousin who has one broke my 1 1/4 six sided socket trying to get the nut off, so they can be tough. The walls are too thick to get an impact socket in there. They do not have to be greased every year unless it is used a lot.

There is a cast iron spacer between each segment. It is not protected by a skid plate and holes will wear in it after a lot of use. The holes can be filled by welding.

The blade carriers will wear in two at the edge after a while. They can be reversed to equalize wear. They are made of hard steel and welding them up does not work. Cracks appear.

Vermeer has bought out Lely and is now making the mowers. I took a deep breath and bought a new one 2 years ago. Love it. It is made heavier and should avoid some of the problems I mentioned.

Oh, the gearbox you mentioned requires grease also.

Good luck, I'm curious to hear how it works out for you.

KEH

 

[oliver maverick]

Thats a lot of useful information. I plan on buying the special grease, I think it is called EP-0 or EP-00 and repack all the segments before I put it to use. I have at least a month before I"ll need to put it to work which gives me time to go through it. I"ll have to get an owners manual for it, I guess the main box takes 140 weight oil. I have about 70 acres of hay to cut 3 times per year and think this mower will handle it. With the price of diesel shooting up I"m just trying to save a little money on custom baling by at least cutting it myself. Thanks for the information.

MAV

 

[keh]

Hope it works good for you. Thanks for replying.

KEH