Mowing Is mowing a pasture supposed to be this hard?

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Were or did you activate the rotary cutter at low RPM's or high RPM's? Activating the rotary cutter at high RPM's on a high torque engine will result in something having to give in the PTO drive. The rear universal joint could have been the weak link that gave and saved expensive damage. A seven foot rotary cutter is a lot of dead weight to suddenly bring up to 540 PTO RPM.

Yes, good info....

 

[Lou66]

Well I got about 20A mowed today.. the only mishap was when I was washing off the tractor and mower,, tripped on the pto shaft trying to set over it,, fell off the mower deck and landed hard with water hose in hand.. As I setup I thought,, darn this crap is dangerous,, little sore on the left side but nothing that a hot tub and six pack didn't cure.. I think,, will know more in the morning.. but tomorrow is a brand new day,, Lou

 

[SPYDERLK]

Here's a pic of the other side that I was mentioning earlier

Something is wrong with this picture. Ive never seen a yoke that small on a bushog. The ones on my 5ft 127 JD Gyramor are significantly larger. That mower is way overated at 90ptohp.
larry

 

[Grateful11]

When you get her all back together your manual should say how much slippage the slip clutch slips, probably, at idle engagement. There's a 7' pull-type HD Bush Hog here that had to have the slip clutch discs replaced last year and it called for I believe 3-5 seconds of slippage at idle engagement. Yours may very well be different.

Maybe the rest of the week will turn out better.

 

[corey9212]

Man that is broke alright, something didn't slip like it should. I ran into a pile of target stands, wire, tires etc. last year with our M8540 and DS1260, if something hadn't slipped it would have been very, very ugly. Yes, I have grand kids.:laughing:

Yeah, got the mechanic out here and he was shocked at how it looked. He gave me a new shaft and adjusted the slip clutch according to the manual and it's worked great so far, I can tell it's slipping now when it's supposed to.

Were or did you activate the rotary cutter at low RPM's or high RPM's? Activating the rotary cutter at high RPM's on a high torque engine will result in something having to give in the PTO drive. The rear universal joint could have been the weak link that gave and saved expensive damage. A seven foot rotary cutter is a lot of dead weight to suddenly bring up to 540 PTO RPM.

I always activate the PTO with the mower raised up a bit (so there is no load when activated.) and the RPM's at around 1000 rpm's (just above idle.)

Ouch...! Sorry to hear about your "perils of pasture" mowing!!! Nothing quite like those lurking "gotchas" buried in the grass! Hopefully, you'll get that clutch adjusted for the next cutting.

Any further word on the transmission code? I think that would bother me more than the wire, gopher mounds and broken U-joints. That new, smoke breathing 115hp tractor shouldn't be doing that..

AKfish

The perils were a bunch of massive mole hills that had to get flattened with the mower. The mechanic hooked his laptop up and found the neutral sensor is malfunctioning, to go from 3 to 4 you have to go through neutral and the transmission is telling the computer it is in gear but the switch is telling it that it's still in neutral. They have a switch on order and said its ok to run it while waiting for the switch to come in.

Animals are supposed to mow the pasture.

Bruce

Yep but with only 4 horses to feed off of 47 acres a lot of the grass doesn't get eaten and the thistle gets out of control without mowing.

Well I got about 20A mowed today.. the only mishap was when I was washing off the tractor and mower,, tripped on the pto shaft trying to set over it,, fell off the mower deck and landed hard with water hose in hand.. As I setup I thought,, darn this crap is dangerous,, little sore on the left side but nothing that a hot tub and six pack didn't cure.. I think,, will know more in the morning.. but tomorrow is a brand new day,, Lou

I'm glad that your ok, I've tripped and landed on a mower deck before so I feel your pain.

Something is wrong with this picture. Ive never seen a yoke that small on a bushog. The ones on my 5ft 127 JD Gyramor are significantly larger. That mower is way overated at 90ptohp.
larry

I didn't know there was different sizes of shafts, I thought there was just 540 and 1000 rpm shafts not different thickness as well.

When you get her all back together your manual should say how much slippage the slip clutch slips, probably, at idle engagement. There's a 7' pull-type HD Bush Hog here that had to have the slip clutch discs replaced last year and it called for I believe 3-5 seconds of slippage at idle engagement. Yours may very well be different.

Maybe the rest of the week will turn out better.

The manual says what the gap should be for the tension, the mechanic used a feeler gauge to set it.

 

[LiveRoll]

You are in Innisfail?? Alberta? Canada?? Correct?? I am just south of you a few miles. I think you may be a little wrong on the thistles blooming already |I had snow here up until last week.. Perhaps you mean crocuses?? small purple and yellow stamened flowers that are the first ones up in the spring? Thistle normally don't bloom here until late July August. Good luck with your venture, It sounds like you had a pretty normal day...... Welcome to the rat race, trick is to not let the rats win!! Make sure you are all insured up!!

Cheers

Roger

 

[Verticaltrx]

I'll agree with others that you have way too much tractor for that mower. I'm betting that you'll burn the PTO clutch on the mower up next, you're just putting too much power into it. I'm surprised the dealer sols you that mower. If you want a mower that can handle that amount of tractor power you should be looking at a 709 (if you want to stay at 7') or go up to a 10' twin spindle or 15' batwing.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I can easily bog down our 65 pto shaft HP tractor with our 6' bush hog. That's over 10 hp per foot of blade. A shredder's HP rating is factored by the strength of the drive system and components. That is the pto shaft, clutch, gearbox and blade holder system. Like I said before, a 7' blade system is the largest typically sold and thus has the highest amount of mass to start. Also, the highest amount of crazy stuff happening when you run over something too big. I say "typically" because there is a whole class of higher ended brush cutter systems that cost an order of magnitude more than those that most of us use. It is easier to bend something on a 7' than a 6' if they are both rated for the same HP or ability to cut down say 2" brush/saplings.

 

[corey9212]

You are in Innisfail?? Alberta? Canada?? Correct?? I am just south of you a few miles. I think you may be a little wrong on the thistles blooming already |I had snow here up until last week.. Perhaps you mean crocuses?? small purple and yellow stamened flowers that are the first ones up in the spring? Thistle normally don't bloom here until late July August. Good luck with your venture, It sounds like you had a pretty normal day...... Welcome to the rat race, trick is to not let the rats win!! Make sure you are all insured up!!

Cheers

Roger

Just north of innisfail (between innisfail and penhold just off the hi-way on the east side.) that's probably what they are (purple flower with a yellow stem.) I thought they would have been thistles cause I do know the pasture is over run with them and I have to clean them off of the tractor and mower deck as I mow.

I'll agree with others that you have way too much tractor for that mower. I'm betting that you'll burn the PTO clutch on the mower up next, you're just putting too much power into it. I'm surprised the dealer sols you that mower. If you want a mower that can handle that amount of tractor power you should be looking at a 709 (if you want to stay at 7') or go up to a 10' twin spindle or 15' batwing.

I would like to go bigger, might try my neighbors 15' batwing next time.

 

[KennedyDiesel]

My question is why not have the dealer investigate and address the codes when he was out with the tire project?

The key to diagnosing anything on these machines begins with these codes. Otherwise consult your manual for a description of the system that is giving the error.