Rotary Cutter Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters

   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #1  

john_bud

Super Member
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Sep 23, 2000
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I was at the local dealer yesterday and picked up the propaganda on the Woods cutters. They look pretty good in the pictures, but how do they hold up, work? Anybody been using Woods over Bushhog or the lower priced units at Farm/Fleet?

Also, I have an L3410, what's the downside to getting a cutter with higher HP rating than the tractor can put out? I am thinking of getting the medium duty series and it has a gear box for 30 to 120 hp duty. I realy don't want to save a couple bucks now and have to buy a better unit later!

I have 240 acres of mixed hardwood tree farm and I need to cut some nasty stuff. Probably 2-3" is the largest diameter brush. But it is THICK in some spots and grows faster than I can clear by hand!

Suggestions are very welcome!

John Bud
 
   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #2  
Re:5 ft kingcutter

i have a NH 1520 with 23 hp, it runs a 5 ft king cutter without problem, the cutter is rated for up to 60hp i think. i dont know how big a cutter you are thinking about but i hope this gives you some idea.

alex
 
   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #3  
John, it seems to me that there are two hp ratings to consider. You say you are looking at a cutter rated for 30 to 120 hp. It's my understanding that what that tells you is that you will need a 30hp tractor or larger to power it in normal conditions (there may be light duty conditions in which a smaller tractor can do it, but not recommended). And it tells you that a 120hp tractor should not tear up the gearbox, but that if you use it on a bigger tractor than 120hp and do damage it, it won't be covered by warranty.

Bird
 
   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #4  
John, you'll always want the gearbox rating to be higher than your tractor so it won't self-destruct. The actual horsepower required to drive the cutter is more a function of the cutter diameter and what you are cutting. I've got a JD light duty 5' cutter I use with my 790 (25 PTO Hp). I'm cutting weeds, light brush and grass. For heavier brush and small trees, I'd stick with the 5' but go to a heavier duty model (thicker steel etc.). One other consideration is the driveline protection. Mine has shear pins but if you are into a lot of stumps you might want to go with a slip clutch. There is also something that lets the blade ride up and over a stump (the name escapes me). Check out the manufacturers sites for some additional details. I think Woods is www.woodsonline.com.

Good luck /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

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   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #5  
I've got an old woods 5' rotary cutter that's about 20 years old, although I just recently became the owner of it. It only has a 50 hp gearbox rating, and my tractor is 50 pto h.p. I've used it to cut some 'nasty stuff' lately and it's been working great so far. I have been doing some land clearing by backing over grown up brushy areas (packed with 1/2" to 3" diameter sweet gums/oaks). So far, I've not even broke a shear pin in spite of this heavy usage. I plan to replace the cutter sometime but only because I need a 6 or 7' wide unit.

Boots.
 
   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #6  
Rob,

The attachment on the rotary cutter to ride over stumps is called a stump jumper.

Hope this helps...
Dan
 
   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #7  
Thanks Dan, I must be getting old to forget an obvious name like that /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

This might be a good time to interject a "moment of shop safety"...

Bush hogs can really launch things! I read on this board, and had friends tell me, so I don't run the cutter when anyone is around. The first time I cut my property I hit several football sized rocks. The energy in the cutter was enough to shatter these rocks and send pieces flying. My cutter has some big dents in the side now. For sure, I'll not use it with anyone anywhere nearby.

Remember to "read, understand and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools. And wear these /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif, safety glasses".

Now, where have I heard that before? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

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   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #8  
Rob,

I'm very impressed you have Norm's safety mantra memorized! :cool:

What I would like to know is HOW the stump jumper works. I don't remember seeing info in the MX6 manual about it and I have not had time to look under the cutter. I have only use the cutter for about an hour so far. It will be a few years before I really get to use it for long periods of time. The next couple of weekends I'll be finishing my gate/fence to control access and finish pulling up stumps that might hit the cutter when I'm mowing or box blading.

I'm almost finished with clearing up the road enough to run the cutter and clean up some new growth from the stumps I cut last spring/summer. Its amazing how fast and thick this new growth can be.

You are absolutely right about the safety aspects of a rotary cutter. Last weekend I had the dogs out for the first time when I was running the tractor. They did pretty well but they stay to close to the tractor for them to be around when the cutter is running.....

Later...
Dan McCarty
 
   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #9  
<font color=blue>Bush hogs can really launch things!</font color=blue>

This is no joke, and it sort of scares the crap out of me. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Just for perspective, a number of years ago I was mowing my old suburban home front lawn with a 26" Toro power mower (you tractor guys may have heard of these -- you walk behind the thing and actually push it by hand. [laugh). It turns out my neighbor's juvenile deliquent son had tossed the head he broke off of a bolt into my yard (my place was always his garbage dump). We're not even talking big here -- it was maybe a 3/8" bolt head.

Anyway, when I went over it with my Toro, the blade launched it with enough force to put a sizable dent in the passanger door of my pickup truck, which was parked in the driveway on the other side of the yard, some 75 feet away. It dang near penetrated the metal! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I wasn't mad at the deliquent or upset about the dent so much as I was aghast at what might have happened if one of my dogs or, worse, a neighborhood kid had happened to be in the path of that projectile. That was the last time I wore tennis shoes to mow the lawn (heavy boots seemed more prudent after that), and I became extremely mindful of anybody coming within range when I'm mowing. Now that I have my own kids, we have strict rules about staying away when the mower is running.

So, to bring it back to the tractor world, I now own a 5-foot rotary cutter which I will use for the first time come spring. It came without any kind of guards (it didn't occur to me that they would be an "option"), so I just recently bought and installed both front and rear chain guards (see attachment). Even so, I'm more than a little fearful of what the potential is for launching a rock through the side of the house.

Let me ask youse experienced folks -- mowing is one of the most common chores you can do with a tractor, but what sort of precautions do you take? Most of my mowing will be between the house and the main road, and I'll have to get pretty close to both. Do you normally shut down your PTO when a car drives by? Or when you see a human within a couple of hundred feet of your mower?

Any tales to share?

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   / Woods Brush Bull Rotary Cutters #10  
Dan, from what I've seen of the stump jumpers, it's a rounded "pan" that covers the center portion of the cutter blade. Without it (like mine), if a stump gets past the swinging portion of the blade and is struck by the center portion it would make for quite the collision (blade to stump that is). The rounded stump jumper allows the whole cutter to ride up and over the stump.

Clear as mud?

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