Unusual Brush Hog Design

[MDNick]

I have seen an unusual brush hog sitting next to the road a few times up in PA. Anyone in the DC/Frederick MD area that has been to Whitetail ski resort has driven by it, it is just north of Clear Spring MD.

It is painted industrial yellow and has a tire mounted to it like it is on a shaft behind where a gearbox would normally go. It 'looks' like there are some carrier bearings in front and behind the tire and appears to have a regular PTO shaft and 3PH. Does anyone know if this tire is used as a flywheel (don't know why you would want one and a pneumatic tire would make a lousy flywheel) or is THE gearbox with a friction contact drive against a plate above or below the deck. At 50 mph I haven't yet determined whether there is a gearbox. There is a band shield that goes from the deck, up over the wheel and down the other side. The tire is about the size of what you would find on a full sized car.

It certainly does not appear modern. Heck it might not even be a brush hog, but it is has all the normal brush hog looks, except of course for this tire.

Anyone ever heard of such a thing, or live in the area and want to go see the critter?

 

[Turtleboy]

You have spotted a Sidewinder brush hog. Quite odd looking I would agree. I believe the tire takes place of the gear box, which happens to the company's main selling point....no gear box to tear up.

Check out there website www.side-winder.com

 

[CSAW]

Looks interesting. How are the prices?

 

[Turtleboy]

Don't know anything about their pricing.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

As the tire wears... what keeps up the slack... do they have an idler type assembly...?

What PTO hp drives these... what is the cutting capacity of these units...?

They look very interesting... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[CSAW]

JM III I would assume that the pnuematic tire takes up the slack. I think that by adjusting the air pressure in the tire it would also work like a slipper clutch.

 

[rbargeron]

I think these date back to the '70s or earlier. Something tells me they were John Deere Industrial models (yellow) or maybe they were Massey Industrials. Some models had two more tires on the sides with a bellcrank affair for adjusting cutting height.

The drive tire drove on the stump-jumper disk through a hole in the deck. They seemed to disappear from the market - nobody else picked up on the design idea that I know of.

 

[patrickg]

I coulda bought one at auction last summer for $50. No tranny, no right angle gear box thingy needed. Really simple design. There is a hole in the deck where the tire tread contacts a metal wheel which is a part of the rotating cutter assy. If you jam the blade on a log or rock the tire slips and no power transmission components are damaged. Pretty light duty work for the tire, oughta rot off long before it would wear out (guessing, I never used one).

Patrick

 

[MDNick]

I knew the TBN brain trust would come through again. Yep that is what I saw. And is more or less what I figured it was. I'd think the hole in the deck wold be a hell of a place for debri to collect and come through, but maybe not.

Thanks, guys, yet another mystery solved. Is a nice drive train friendly design, though a bit odd. But odd only in that the standard gearbox is normal. Someone was thinking outside the 'gearbox'./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[hightechredneck]

My brother has one of these, but I'm not sure of the maker. It's a very heavy duty drag type unit. I believe it is either a 6 or 7 foot cut. I have used it behind an old MF 65 several times and could mow just about anything with it. He's still using it and swears by it. Never had any kind of maintenance other than a bolt on the transport axle breaking from the weight of the thing. It's got to be close to 2K pounds.

Regards,