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Won't recommend a brand as your common sense will direct you at the time of purchase; i.e. well built units look well built. However, I offer some thoughts. 1. Gearbox is most important. The gears in the gearbox (one at a time) have to transfer the torque to the blade from the tractor and transfer the "shock load" from whatever you're cutting back to the PTO. It takes a beating so you need to get as heavy a one as you can. Even if you are only running 50 hp, a 65 hp or higher would not be wasted money. Replacements are expensive and difficult to find and install. 2. Slip clutch/shear bolt. This is the guy that saves either the driver or driven. It is most important that it work as designed. Problem with slip clutches is getting them adjusted tight enough to not slip when doing what you want but to slip on things that could break something. That's difficult, especially season after season when the plates that contact the disc surfaces like to rust and hence hold harder than you originally planned. A seasonal cleaning and readjustment is really necessary. A shear bolt needs to also be large enough to retain power yet shear when desired. Size and tensile strength play into that. 3. Stump jumper. If your ground has obstructions, is irregular or has other things that could interfere with the blade turning you should consider a stump jumper. This is a large round disc under or attached to the blades to give you a round surface to slide over whatever, rather than have it open and have the rotating cutter arms whack it as they go by. 4. Area of cutter. The cutting area of a 5' CICVULAR mower is 19.6 sq ft.; a 6' is 28.27 sq ft, an 8' is 50.2 sq ft. Notice the area goes up real fast. Now if you get a multi-blade mower, like an 8' with 2ea 4' blades, several things happen: (A) the area is now 2x4 ft or 25 square ft (down from 50, which means you get the 8 ft cutting capacity yet only need the PTO hp of a 6 ft cutter. (B)If 3 pt, your front to rear length drops from about 10+ ft to 5+ ft yet you still get your 8 ft width. This is very nice if you have hilly or terraced land. You get the wide cut yet the mower is short and can follow the terrain much better. (C) The dead weight is somewhat proportional to area so the weight is probably 40% less. (D) If drag type, you will need rear wheels that have to be adjusted (mechanically or hydraulically) and both leave something to be desired.....problem is keeping the deck level. 5. 3 pt vs drag. In the larger mowers, weight gets to be a problem and drag usually wins; however, 3 pt is the most versatile and offers quiter, more reliable operation (of the shaft and U joints) as they are always in the line of drive rather being at angles in turns. 6. Bat wing style. Probably the best larger mower in the size you are mentioning would be a 3 section batwing. You have the narrow front to back dimension, yet get the width you need. It flexes at 2 joints so it can follow the terrain much better. The tires are more closely coupled to the respective decks, so leveling is not a problem..... ....only problem is that it is pull type so you need a well braced pto shaft and you need 2 remote hydraulic controls; one for each wing, unless you are going to drop both simultaneously, which is not that bad either depending on your circumstances. There's more to consider but this is enough for now. Good luck Mark
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