Transporting brush-hog

[joshuabardwell]

I am going to brush-hog a nearby property tomorrow. The place is just a few miles down the road, and I'm going to just drive the tractor over, instead of putting it on the trailer. My question is, is it okay to ride like that with the brush-hog on the 3ph? It bounces up and down a lot. At first, I figured I would just let it ride on the tail-wheel, but then I thought probably the tail-wheel's bearings and such probably aren't made for miles of road at 10-12 mph. I figure the 3ph hydraulics are probably pretty tough, but then again, the brush-hog is a lot of weight hanging pretty far back, and the kinds of bounces and jounces it goes through when riding at road speed might wear on the hydraulics. So I thought, maybe I could take a 10k ratchet strap and run it back around the tail-wheel and up across the top of the ROPS or something, just to take some of the bounciness out of the trip.

Any thoughts? Am I over-thinking this?

 

[KB9UDE]

I would keep the mower a foot or so off the ground and just drive! :thumbsup:
I have done it for years on all sizes of tractors and never had a problem.

 

[kebo]

My thoughts.... if you are that concerned about it just hook up the trailer and haul it to the job! That way, you save some wear on the tires and possible stress on the hydraulics.

 

[boggen]

image from....Double HH Quality Products - Don't Compromise... Demand Double HH

stay straps, would hold the 3pt hitch in a single position.

or get check chains, if you do not have position control on 3pt hitch.

===============
"slow moving sign" on rear of tractor would be advised. to many folks are down right stupid, and gun it the first chance they think they can get.

 

[TripleR]

I am going to brush-hog a nearby property tomorrow. The place is just a few miles down the road, and I'm going to just drive the tractor over, instead of putting it on the trailer. My question is, is it okay to ride like that with the brush-hog on the 3ph? It bounces up and down a lot. At first, I figured I would just let it ride on the tail-wheel, but then I thought probably the tail-wheel's bearings and such probably aren't made for miles of road at 10-12 mph. I figure the 3ph hydraulics are probably pretty tough, but then again, the brush-hog is a lot of weight hanging pretty far back, and the kinds of bounces and jounces it goes through when riding at road speed might wear on the hydraulics. So I thought, maybe I could take a 10k ratchet strap and run it back around the tail-wheel and up across the top of the ROPS or something, just to take some of the bounciness out of the trip.

Any thoughts? Am I over-thinking this?

There was a really long thread on this a year or so ago with concerns similar to yours.

I grew up farming and live in farm country and the only time anyone runs a rotary cutter with the wheel touching in transport is if it is a pull type.

I routinely run mine between farms in the raised position and it even addresses this in my manual.

 

[joshuabardwell]

stay straps, would hold the 3pt hitch in a single position.

or get check chains, if you do not have position control on 3pt hitch.

===============
"slow moving sign" on rear of tractor would be advised. to many folks are down right stupid, and gun it the first chance they think they can get.

I don't have stay straps, unfortunately, but thanks for pointing them out. The 3ph has position control, so I am fine there. I don't have a slow-moving sign, but I do have flashers and turn signals, and it's my understanding that the flashers cover me there (but I'm not 100% on that).

 

[joshuabardwell]

It sounds like there won't be any harm in moving the brush-hog on the 3ph. Thanks for the input, everybody!

 

[joshuabardwell]

There was a really long thread on this a year or so ago with concerns similar to yours.

I did some searching and couldn't find any such thread. If you happen to have a link to it, I'd appreciate it.

 

[TripleR]

I did some searching and couldn't find any such thread. If you happen to have a link to it, I'd appreciate it.

Here you go, it was a little older than I thought.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/176952-pull-bush-hog-lift-when.html

 

[joshuabardwell]

Thanks for the advice, everybody. I did the job today. The road trip was totally uneventful. Even though I was going much faster than I do in the field, the road was smooth enough that the mower barely bounced at all. Frankly, it gets a lot more bouncing up and down in the field than it does on the road, so there you go.

About the only thing that was notable about the trip was an odd left-to-right undulation that occurred at speed on the return trip. It was "phased" in nature, as if (and I'm not saying this is what was happening, but it is an example of what might cause the phenomenon) the rear wheels were slightly different sizes, and slightly out-of-round, so that at one point, they were out of sync and the tractor undulated left to right, and then they slowly moved into sync, and the tractor undulated up and down... and then back out of sync again. The undulation was coming from the rear wheels, or thereabouts--definitely not the front of the tractor, and 99% sure it wasn't the implement swinging around, because it was far too regular for that. I noticed that it only seemed to be happening when the engine was pulling (not 100% sure about this). When coasting down-hill (pedal down, but HST not pulling), it didn't seem to happen. Then, when pulling on a flat, it would happen. I speculated that maybe it had something to do with the diff--that maybe the tractor hadn't shifted out of 4wd for some reason when I took it out of 4wd after finishing mowing. I slowed down and put it into 4wd, which put me in a bit of a pickle. It wouldn't come out of 4wd, so I straightened the wheels and rolled slightly forward, which usually does it. Oops. Since I'm on asphalt, I'm only binding up the diff more. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, until I realized I could just raise the front wheels with the loader, tap the HST pedal slightly, and it freed up instantly. After that, the undulation seemed to go away... but I could have just been imagining it.

Anyway, I'm sure it's nothing, but it sure was interesting while it was happening.

Since I know y'all love photos, here's a photo of my tractor in the field after I finished mowing.