Bought the FM170 Finish Mower, works fantastic, mowing about 3 acres of smooth pasture, when any parts are needed, BESTCO folks are great to work with and very knowledgeable, fast shipping, Thanks BESTCO

While the assembly instructions are not good, the mower assembly isn’t difficult to figure out by anyone familiar with a socket-set. A check-inspection as if you are the factory final-quality-inspector is a good idea...found a couple of loose items, but nothing difficult. Overall, this is a good value for the price and does a fine job of cutting my 20 acres of turf aircraft runways. One rwy was overgrown and probably should have used a rotary cutter first, but this FH-FM180 did fine first-pass, second-pass made it golf-course quality. WARNING: Blade bolts are LEFT HAND. Use 80/90 gear oil, 1 qt in gearbox. Grease 3 spindles, and two zerks in PTO shaft U-joints. No-scalp wheels are not greaseable, and their longevity will be interesting. Warranty support is GREAT! I had a center spindle seize after ten hours and their new parts-guy ROCKY is FAST and knowledgeable. Thank you!

This PTO driven finish mower seems to be very well constructed and heavy duty. Betstco had the best price with free shipping. It arrived promptly, well packaged within a steel angle iron frame, which one end piece unbolted to allow mower to be carefully lifted out. There wasn’t any assembly instructions included, but a good picture on the front of the operation and parts manual was sufficient. I spent a couple hours assembling and tightening all bolts. The gear box takes 1 quart of 80w-90 gear oil which needs to be purchased and installed before use. I had to shorten the supplied drive shaft 5” for a proper installation length.
My initial trial cut set with all spacers at bottom of axle spindle, which is the highest setting, was a touch too high. So with each 1” spacer moved above, to spindle clip side, made a beautiful cut down around 2 1/2” range. This I being used to cut a 5 acre horse pasture, which has been 99% cleared of rocks and has a slight rolling terrain.
I had been using a 54” craftsman garden tractor for the past 15 years. I should have purchased this 15 years ago, because this unit took me about 2 1/2 hours, instead of 5 hours and I was not a green furry looking monster when done. And didn’t have to spend another hour cleaning up my lawn mower and myself.
I’m using this FM180 behind a MT2201D Mitsubishi, which just cruises right along, no bogging down, just cutting grass and taking names. The rear discharge keeps the blades free from clogging and bogging down. After using the first 2 1/2 hours I just hosed the top and bottom down, blew it off, dried it and greased parts. I also pulled belt covers just to check for adjustment, which were snug before first use. I found they now needed a slight snugging as they must have “set in”. I adjusted the belt drive back about a 1/4” after making a mark on housing in original position. I also pulled the blades to refresh the cutting edge. (Note: the blade bolts are left hand threads and take a 13/16” socket)
I highly recommend this unit from Betstco, as after a ton of research, found this to be the best deal you can find on a heavy duty, well built finish mower. Many of the reviews on the King Kutter were not good and were considerably more money.
Thanks so much to Betstco!
Stevereno

Instructions are inadequate. The mower comes in a steel frame metal banded to a wooden pallet. Mower and accessories are securely wired to the frame. Unpacking was uneventful until I tried to remove the mower from the frame. I had to hacksaw the frame apart. The assembly instructions are laughable as the say to refer to the exploded view.
Unfortunately it is low quality and inconsistent with the picture. This made assembly of the 3pt top link attachment a challenge. There is a note that says oil has to be added to the gear box - while it calls out 90 weight, it does not say how much is needed. There are clearly labeled access points for the blades. But there are threaded holes, but no xerk fittings. :-(. Finally, the PTO drive shaft would not slide on the splined shaft because there was a very big burr in the spline directly in front of the spring loaded lock. I had to file down. Finally, the plastic safety cover on the gear box is so small I can't get my hand in to press the lock button on the drive shaft.

The overall quality of the mower appears to be good. To be a really good product better however, unpacking and assembly instructions are needed. Either install the missing xerks or supply them. And supply better information about the gear box oil requirements.