Tires Bush Hog Rubbing Rear Tires

[jinman]

Right you are, John. No single setup is good for every situation and/or every person. Just this last weekend, I ran over some barbed wire hidden in the grass. I knew it was there, but for some reason I thought I would clear it. I didn't; it's now around my stump jumper. ...Guess I should have used that 4th part of a 3pt hitch, the BRAINLINK./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

JimI

 

[jinman]

The picture of the toplink chain and constant-height chains are attached, CBD. The tractor is a Ford Jubilee, so the geometry is surely different from today's compact tractors, but the theory is still the same. On the right-side chain, I put the attachment on the inside threaded portion of the three point hinge-pin and then put the nut & washer on. That left me enough room to but the stabilizer bar on so when I lift the cutter and the chains get loose, the mower doesn't flop from side to side. On my NH (and I suspect on your JD too) the stabilizer is an integral part of the lift arm, so you would not have to do this. Also, my Ford has a toplink positioner on the tractor that has three holes for pins. I used one hole for the toplink chain attacment and another for the constant level chains. If I had three hands, I could put them all on one pin./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif This setup works good for me. It's not meant to be the do-all end-all fix, but it just might help someone else struggling with the same difficulty. Remember, if you are going along pretty fast and hit something buried with the front of the mower (rock, old post, etc.) there is nothing to keep the rear of the mower from kicking up except the pto drive shaft. I've never had this happen, but in theory it is possible. Hope this helps.

JimI

 

[djradz]

Jim, is that just extra chain hanging down from where you connect the constant-level chains to the tractor, or another part making it more stable? Seems if it was just extra you'd want to cut it off before it got rapped around something. I rigged mine up on my brush hog based on what came on my Woods mower and what I'd seen on their older brush hogs. Did you purchase a kit? If so, was it designed for this purpose? What is used as the attachement to the tractor top link? Again, someone could rig something up, but if there's a kit, it could make if much easier.

Boy, that looks like quite a view behind the tractor. Is it really as hilly as it looks? Where are you at? If it's really that rolling, I can see why the floating setup would be indispensible. I'm a little confused however, as to why you used the chain top link since you've got what looks like the toggle top on the mower. Did you have the same problem with wheels hitting? ... Duane

 

[jinman]

Duane, I've sketched out the cutter leveling chain attachment I purchased at Tractor Supply for around $15.00. It is shown in the attachment. If you have the tools and time, you could make one yourself, but for $15.00 it's hardly worth the effort. The kit comes in four pieces: two toplink attachments/chain length adjusters and tow bottom links with the chain welded to each of them. I've shown the one on the right from a side view with the toplink pin through the hole. This setup works very well on my rough terrain and allows me to lift the mower while maintaining a constant "lowest height" adjustment for level mowing. I'd say the attachment is worth the money.

Because of my rolling property, the King Kutter toplink float was constantly getting jammed, so I replaced the toplink with a piece of chain. The problem was that the toplink toggle would rotate forward-level-down-back and jam in the lower position as I went over rough terrain. I happened to be at a TSC in Denton, TX two weekends ago and caught the King Kutter trainer/representative there. I gave him an earfull of my problems and told him about SPD163s problems with the cutter hitting the tires. He said that sometimes people put the mower together incorrectly and that leads to the tire rub, but he didn't have any solution to my problem better than the chain. On smooth ground (or relatively smooth ground) I'd recommend using the toggle float because that's more stable than the chain. ...and does my chain hanging down cause problems? YES! When I forget to tie it up, the chain destroys the grease zerk fitting in my overrun clutch. I had to replace it yesterday. You have a sharp eye there Duane! /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

JimI

 

[djradz]

Wow, quite a sketch. What program did you use to do that?

Why not just cut most of the extra chain off, leaving a few extra links? Even if you use it on a different tractor I'll bet it would change by more than one or two links.

I think the King Kutter rep you spoke with is wrong. My dad had the same problem with the wheels hitting his King Kutter on a big old Ford 981, but fortuneately it was just the cutter frame hitting. I also had a similar problem on my Woods, M5-Dixie Cutter, but that had a second set of lower 3-pt mounting holes, so I just moved the pins down, and voila - no more problem. I think that is half the problem with King Kutter, the lower pins are too high.

 

[jinman]

Duane, I use CorelDraw to sketch with because it is a vector illustration program instead of bitmap. When I finish my sketch, I export to a JPEG (.jpg) bitmap since it uses compression and adjustable levels of quality.

You are correct, sir. I just need to take off two or three links of chain so there is nothing it can catch on. ...it's the getta round tuit thing /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

I forgot to say that the King Kutter rep. had no idea of what I was discussing as to the reason his cutter dragged the rear wheels and that I certainly disagreed with his assessment. I think if I had a severe problem. I might just do exactly as you stated and drill an extra hole. The problem there is you would have to get a couple extra bolts because the holes for the pins are also used for the short stabilizer bars between the upright structure and the deck. It's certainly do-able, but I don't have that problem on my Ford Jubilee. Now if I could only get that toplink swivel to work properly....sigh....

JimI

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...the King Kutter rep. had no idea of what I was discussing ...</font color=blue>

In all fairness, I don't believe the "salesman" will give you the same feedback a KK engineer will give you.

Granted, they should know the product they sell...but you know how that goes...

If they had "two" sets of lower lift arm points to choose from, that may actually solve most of the problems...

If they had the pins mounted lower, it would work great on my JD, but on the Massey's they would be way too high.../w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[jinman]

John, you may be right; this may have been a salesman, but he was taking the store's salespeople (both male and female) one at a time and giving them instructions on how the products worked. I got the idea he was a semi-trainer, but he probably works for KK marketing rather than engineering. What turned me off mostly was the assumption that if the cutter was rubbing the wheels, it must have been assembled wrong. He even said the assembly instructions were pretty poor. (DUH! I got none with mine and had to download the .pdf fiile from the KK website.) He said previously there was no swivel and that they had added the swivel only recently. I asked him if he had ever heard of this website and he gave me a blank stare. He just didn't seem too interested. Oh well, my neighbor needed a cutter and we bought one anyway. I assembled it for her and she is really happy with it. I got to show off to a very pretty, very single neighbor, so I'm not really complaining. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JimI

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Jim:
Do you remember what the Tractor Supply people called the kit that you have in your picture? Our setup is much cruder, and often isn't assembled right during hitchup. I have a couple of Tractor Supply stores, each 50 miles from me. Neither recognizes my description of the kit. If I can identify the kit, I probably can invent enough other needs to make the drive worthwhile.
Thanks


Charlie Iliff

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Try "Stay chain assembly", p/n 13888-063 @ Central Tractor/Quality Farm & Country/Fleet etc.