my first 3pt attachment for B7800

[z0lt3c]

Hey Guys-
Reading through craigslist last night I came across a local individual selling a 5' Woods Cadet 60 rotary mower for $200. I thought this was a pretty good price, so I went to take a look at it today. It had alot of rust, in some places the shell was rusted through, but the blades and gear box were in good shape and the mower operated and cut well.

Seeing as this is my first 3pt attachment for my B7800, I just want to make sure this Woods 5' brush hog is a good fit for my tractor (too big? too small?) I will be using it mostly to cut down about 2-3 acres of fields which I let grow to about chest height before cutting down. I do this about 3-4 times a year. Previous to buying this mower, I had a guy w/ a skid steer come in an do it and he charged me $250 a visit so this mower could potentially save me a good amount of cash. Is the Woods Cadet a good mower to use for this purpose?


The mower looks alot like this one;


Thanks,
Z

[Dr. Bob]

It looks similar to my Woods Brushbull 60 that I bought with my B7800 from a dealer 4 years ago. It works fine! I don't think the older one your bought should weigh substantially more than mine.
The fun part of owning a brush hog is getting the blades off for sharpening. Once you do it the first time be sure to put "never sieze" on the bold threads so that future blade removal is easy. I bent a 1/2 drive breaker bar trying to get them off the first time. I now own a 3/4 drive ratchet and that makes short work of it.
If you don't sharpen the blades regularly, the cutting get very poor (as you would expect).

[Timber]

I have a 5 foot landpride for mine and it works great

[z0lt3c]

Well I took delivery of the mower a day or two ago and today I went to hook it up to the 3 pt. I got the sidelinks and toplinks connected, my B7800 lifts the Woods Cadet 60 deck no problem. I believe I got the PTO shaft hooked up correctly. One side of it threads through a notched shaft on the mower gearbox, the other side has a u joint which connects to the my PTO shaft on the tractor. There is a little button of the side of the u joint which seems to lock it into place on the tractor shaft.

However, as soon as I engage the rear PTO handle, the tractor immediately stalls. I've tried it at full throttle and it still stalls and in low and med gears. I don't see anything binding, but I can't seem to move the shaft freely (by hand) when it's attached to the rear PTO but PTO not engaged... should it turn freely? Does my PTO spin clockwise or counter clockwise? The shaft I am using came with the mower.

My assumption is the PTO is unable to turn over the mower gear and is stalling out before it can get going? Any suggestions?

[Ductape]

If its stalling your tractor at full throttle, i'm guessing the gearbox on the brush hog she's locked up. Perhaps this is why it was relatively cheap?

I'm gonna recommend you stop trying to engage the PTO...... ESPECIALLY at full throttle ( ), till you figure out why the mower doesn't turn.

[z0lt3c]

I saw it run on his old Ford tractor before I bought it. gearbox turned fine. either his tractor PTO turned the other way or he had alot more HP to turn it. I would think my 22hp PTO could turn a 60" brush hog easily. I was trying to run it full lifted... would this matter?

In regards to the full throttle bit... it's a Kubota under warranty, I figure I got 2 years to do stupid things.

[Ductape]

I understand you are trying to get it going. Not sure what you have going on there, but you should be able to turn the PTO by hand (with it disconnected from your tractor), at worst by putting a wrench or something on the end for a little leverage. I've seen alot of brush mowers so worn out that the blades have worn big slices through the housing, but i haven't come across one that was locked up tight. Not sure what you have going n there, but its not that your tractor doesn't have enugh power to run that sized mower.

[Rockyridge]

Are you in the - chest high - grass when you are trying to start the mower up? Try getting the blade spinning up to speed before going in to the high grass instead if you are trying to start in the high stuff.

Good luck

[TomC]

Uh, are you seating in the seat when you engage the PTO? If not, push the seat forward. Safety switch???? First time I used my PHD, I forgot...duh.

[Dan239]

Make sure you are not bottoming out your drive shaft in any position.