AC 620 60" cut ability

Good Day All

Can the 620/720 60" cut taller grass quickly like you see them new high powered zero turns? I say no. Just last week I was cutting juicy green grass (with my 620) about front tire high. The deck can't eject the clippings. I do have the "rock" guard installed. I creep thru that tall grass, and can hear the clippings making a flapper like all wadded up noise, then they finally get spit out , looks like a cow puked. Sort of pathetic actually. The deck also isn't good at sucking up leaves and chopping them. Leaves in a hole or wetted down are untouched. On shorter grass, yeah you can go 60" wide at a good clip. I think your 2 hour time would go down vs. the machine you are using. However, I have a JD 318 with a 46" deck and essentially the same 2 cyl Onan motor as the 620/720/Powermax. It can chop through tall grass and suck up leaves. My 620 can't do like that, even if I take a narrower cut.
On the other hand, the cut looks really good, all them rollers prevent scalping. When I got done cutting, I thought, wow, the place looks like Augusta golf course. Not looking in the direction of the miserable-cutting tall grass.
Disclaimer, I bought this 620 used about 2.5 years ago, it seems to be a typical working example, but maybe something is wrong. I have no experience with them when new back in the day. I was considering taking off the rock guard.

IF the machine had a 540 rpm PTO I would set-up my little 620 garden tractor as a tractor, not a large lawn mower. Use a 3pt finish mower, 12" plow, 4ft disk, drawbar 6ft rotary hoe and drag harrow. No mid mower deck swap.

Something tractor-like and sort of in the same league- Simplicity Conquest XL, John Deere x700 series, or their prior 585,485 , maybe 425.
You can get 4wd, water cooling and 540 rpm PTO and mini-cat 1 hitch. Nice are the lawn mower like foot pedals for the hydrostat. Kubota BX's are option also. These machines I just listed cost a mint new, could be $14K. But didn't the 1975 620 cost about $7500 when new?
Good luck finding any of the above alternatives for $1500.

$1500.00- I think that if the  tractor works properly, I would grab it.  Paid much more than that for mine - a 1974. I have mowed grass that is not dry, but not as high as the front wheels, tho - just normal height to be mowed.  Works well for me.  Usually mow in 2nd gear, and over half way on the hydro lever.  We don't have real good grass around here, but it seems I mow at a faster speed than my neighbor does with a comparable size unit, (much newer,but smaller mower deck), plus the AC leaves a very smooth cut.  I do not have a rock guard on my deck.  My other mower (year 2000) also has a 20 hp. engine, but a 48" cut.  Makes a lot of difference cutting 12" inches more each pass with the AC.

Edited by macvette - 28 May 2015 at 10:38pm

A 620 does a good job cutting grass, but don't expect to be finished with your lawn in half the time.  While they were made to do a good job, they were not made to do a good job QUICKLY!  Also the turning radius on them are probably worse than your current mower.
Much as I love my 620, for your purposes a newer zero turn would probably work best.

I cut several acres with mine. Engine is tired and deck is too. Still cuts faster than any tractor style around these parts.
Any side discharge deck has to toss the extreme closed in blade to the center blade and then to the outside discharge side. lots of grass clippings going out one small opening. A rear discharge deck will eliminate that choking, but it won't look as clean cut. Love mine, just wish they had new engines. Tracy

Ken, 

quality of cut is all about the blades and the correct blade tip feet per second    just because the blades have been sharpened dosnt mean that they arnt wore out also the deck levaled with the front of the deck being 1/4" to1/2" lower than the back.        canot find my litttle rpm chart for blade tip speed .             longer blade less rpm shorter blade more rpm

My deck is set up correctly including difference in height from front to rear and my blades are always sharp but I have never tried a "High Lift" blade so as to cut all the grass nicer at a slightly higher speed. If I could do that I would just keep my reliable MTD...actually it is a LOWES. I'm sure you guys know the story of this particular model MTD.

Edited by Ken P - 29 May 2015 at 11:47am

If you decide not to buy the 620, how about passing the deal along to the rest of us? I'd be interested depending on where it's located.


GB :)

Im going to look at it tomorrow morning if all goes well. if ultimately I don't buy it then yes I will tell everyone here about it.

Well, I guess I was already thinking about what else the new owner could do besides mow-'cause I see a 3 point back blade in the background!  Looks like a cat. 0 to me!  Guess I should stop dreaming about attachments I would like, and let Ken make his own decision!

Well, Ken = all of us are anxiously awaiting your conclusion and decision!

Good luck to all of you I enjoyed my short but sweet membership to your forum. I can see this would be a welcoming place to get all kinds of useful information. I will stay a member but won't be active at all as I don't own a AC or even what would most consider an interesting yet useful  classic machine. I think the AC would fit this desire well. When I was 13 my neighbor had an AC 16 Horse single cylinder with 4 tiny headlamps and that thing was a beast. Thats why I consider AC my first choice in heavy duty homeowner garden capable tractors. Maybe in the future, who knows!!

Edited by Ken P - 01 Jun 2015 at 11:14am

Imho, you should jump on the 620. I have one, and a jd gt235, and just inherited a cub cadet enforcer zero turn. The cub doesn't have any suspension and in my rough yard rides like crap and dont like hills! 30 minutes on it & i bail. I prefer the allis.

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