Highbeam
Super Member
So I went back to the dealer to pick up the Rankin 5 foot brush hog. It was their standard duty hog at about 600#s. I hitched my first 3 pt implement without a "hitch", bad humor there. The telescopic links were great. I tightened up the top link so that it wouldn't drag as I climbed onto my trailer.
Got to the site and unloaded. I parked on a nice level spot and set the hog down and adjusted everything for a 4-6" cut. I then adjusted the stop on the position control so that I could just throw it down and go without looking. Then I shut the engine off and and greased everything up. I also checked the lube level in the hog which was right on.
Ear muffs on and engine warm. I engaged the PTO and let out the clutch. That's a great system. Then raised the rpms to about 2300. Nice and quiet, smooth. The pto shaft doesn't turn all that quickly. The slip clutch I had installed on the hog means I don't need to stop for shear pins.
So I took off across the field of maybe 18" high sparse fescue. Dead from no irrigation and a hot summer. I looked back and everything was short. Great, lets throw it in medium range. A quick stop, clutch, and shift made sure everything stayed spun up.
After about 4 hours of easy field mowing work I went into the semi-forested areas where I ran the dozer through to scrape the larger slash into piles. There are a few stumps that I left tall, fescue, saplingsand, blackberries, and chunks of wood on the uneven ground. I just started into this area in low range, nice and easy around the stumps but through everything else. Now that hog is working. The hog would beat up chunks of wood and level the ground. As I progressed, the area behind me was smooth and low. Lots of dust now, my eyes are burning. This thing is kicking butt.
I heeded warnings that this hog can kick some mean pieces of shrapnel with quite high velocity so after I mowed half of the area I moved the truck/trailer to the mowed area. Holy smokes, it wasn't long after that that I kicked a baseball sized rock several hundred feet out the back. I first heard the bang and then looked to see this thing skipping along in a safe direction. It did not hit the truck but I fully believe that the rock would have gone through the door if I was very close at all. Lesson learned.
I was then gettting into some thick brush that was pokey so I thought I would try backing into it. Worked pretty well so I kept doing this in two ways. Either lift the hog, back up, and lower the hog or just back into the brush. Well eventually I backed into something that resisted moving enough that I bent the steel arm of the hog with the lower link arm. Now the pin isn't straight and the hog doesn't travel right behind me. Doh!, will have to replace that.
Eventually the daylight started to dwindle so I pulled up beside the trailer. I disengaged the PTO and idled the engine to cool it. While idling I walked around cleaning debris from various parts of the tractor and hog so that they wouldn't fly off while on the road. The hog side skirts were pretty beat up and bulging some but no breaks. Then I looked at that stupid low hanging tie rod. Yep, that bugger was bent like a smiley face. I never even felt an impact. It looks like I snagged a stump, rock, or branch that somehow bent it back. Doh!, I'll have to replace that. Maybe I'll buy two since they seem to be a major weakspot. It's one thing if I can learn from a mistake, another if I don't even know how it happened.
So I hope to call the dealer this morning to order some 100$ of parts so that I can keep hogging.
I thank my stars I selected an HST tractor. Slowing suddenly, changing directions, stopping, and ease of use were superior with the HST. Way cool.
All in all, I am very happy with how the tractor ran this implement and with what the implement did to the land. The brush hog/tractor combo is a required clearing tool in my eyes. With the heavy brush type work, the CK30 was working to spin the 5' hog. I wouldn't have wanted a 6 footer.
I hope to be able to work this tractor in the future without spending an equal amount of time fixing it. Operator error is mostly the reason this time.
Got to the site and unloaded. I parked on a nice level spot and set the hog down and adjusted everything for a 4-6" cut. I then adjusted the stop on the position control so that I could just throw it down and go without looking. Then I shut the engine off and and greased everything up. I also checked the lube level in the hog which was right on.
Ear muffs on and engine warm. I engaged the PTO and let out the clutch. That's a great system. Then raised the rpms to about 2300. Nice and quiet, smooth. The pto shaft doesn't turn all that quickly. The slip clutch I had installed on the hog means I don't need to stop for shear pins.
So I took off across the field of maybe 18" high sparse fescue. Dead from no irrigation and a hot summer. I looked back and everything was short. Great, lets throw it in medium range. A quick stop, clutch, and shift made sure everything stayed spun up.
After about 4 hours of easy field mowing work I went into the semi-forested areas where I ran the dozer through to scrape the larger slash into piles. There are a few stumps that I left tall, fescue, saplingsand, blackberries, and chunks of wood on the uneven ground. I just started into this area in low range, nice and easy around the stumps but through everything else. Now that hog is working. The hog would beat up chunks of wood and level the ground. As I progressed, the area behind me was smooth and low. Lots of dust now, my eyes are burning. This thing is kicking butt.
I heeded warnings that this hog can kick some mean pieces of shrapnel with quite high velocity so after I mowed half of the area I moved the truck/trailer to the mowed area. Holy smokes, it wasn't long after that that I kicked a baseball sized rock several hundred feet out the back. I first heard the bang and then looked to see this thing skipping along in a safe direction. It did not hit the truck but I fully believe that the rock would have gone through the door if I was very close at all. Lesson learned.
I was then gettting into some thick brush that was pokey so I thought I would try backing into it. Worked pretty well so I kept doing this in two ways. Either lift the hog, back up, and lower the hog or just back into the brush. Well eventually I backed into something that resisted moving enough that I bent the steel arm of the hog with the lower link arm. Now the pin isn't straight and the hog doesn't travel right behind me. Doh!, will have to replace that.
Eventually the daylight started to dwindle so I pulled up beside the trailer. I disengaged the PTO and idled the engine to cool it. While idling I walked around cleaning debris from various parts of the tractor and hog so that they wouldn't fly off while on the road. The hog side skirts were pretty beat up and bulging some but no breaks. Then I looked at that stupid low hanging tie rod. Yep, that bugger was bent like a smiley face. I never even felt an impact. It looks like I snagged a stump, rock, or branch that somehow bent it back. Doh!, I'll have to replace that. Maybe I'll buy two since they seem to be a major weakspot. It's one thing if I can learn from a mistake, another if I don't even know how it happened.
So I hope to call the dealer this morning to order some 100$ of parts so that I can keep hogging.
I thank my stars I selected an HST tractor. Slowing suddenly, changing directions, stopping, and ease of use were superior with the HST. Way cool.
All in all, I am very happy with how the tractor ran this implement and with what the implement did to the land. The brush hog/tractor combo is a required clearing tool in my eyes. With the heavy brush type work, the CK30 was working to spin the 5' hog. I wouldn't have wanted a 6 footer.
I hope to be able to work this tractor in the future without spending an equal amount of time fixing it. Operator error is mostly the reason this time.
