DAP, jmc, SkogenMe, and NorthGa (and perhaps others) asked me to post some info on my FEL mounted mower.
I mounted a Bush Hog 48" squealer on a Kubota B2400 FEL first and then upgraded to a Kubota L4330 when the B2400 proved too small to fully utilize the mower. The hydraulic motor is a Char-Lynn 4.9 cu in/rev that turns about 600 rpm @ 11gpm flow. It connects directly to the input shaft on the Bush Hog gear box with a chain coupling. I built a platform for the motor right in front of the gearbox and used shims under the motor mount feet to line up the motor and gearbox shafts with a dial indicator.
The pump is a Prince 5.7 cu in/rev unit that puts out 11.2 gpm at 540 pto rpm (about 18 hp before losses). I built a three point hitch platform that holds a 15 gallon baffeled reservoir, return line filter, relief valve, and the Prnce pump. I mounted the pump on the tph platform and drive it with a short driveshaft from the pto to make it easier to hook and unhook than if it hung directly on the pto shaft.
The Bush Hog points toward the front (ie, open end in the direction of cut, just like on the tph) and I replaced the single caster tailwheel with two fixed wheels, one on each side at the rear of the mower.
I use it for clearing heavy brush on about 80 acres of Georgia rolling land. It is most effective on pines up to about 3" dia and hardwood to about 2". I raise the mower up to about 5' off the ground, angled with the curl on the FEL so that the tractor is masked from the blade by the housing, and lower it slowly into the brush. To control the lowering speed I installed a Prince pressure compensated flow control in the FEL lower circuit (base end of the lift cylinders) which is controlled by an additional handle on the FEL control station. If the trees are typical (say 2" pines), I let it drop fairly slowly. If they are 1" and smaller it can drop pretty fast.
I also converted my FEL joystick to a two handle system because, in this particular application, it is easier to control when the raise/lower and curl/dump are on truly separate handles. The flow control in the curl circuit makes it a three handle system that sounds awkward, but it makes the mower much easier to use.
I added two carbide tipped stump grinder teeth to the undersides of each of the two standard Bush Hog blades, one at the very end and another a few inches in. The teeth barely brush the ground when the Bush Hog is resting on the skids/wheels. The stump grinder teeth cut the stumps off clean at ground level, so the surface is absolutely smooth when I am finished. The stump grinder teeth also help break the tree trunks and branches up into very small pieces. Although it is slow, when I finish a spot it is very clean: no limbs, leaves, or stumps. Everything has been turned into wood chips and scattered. That way we can start mowing with a mid-mount mower on the B2400 and keep it clean thereafter.
I ususally mount my Vermeer PTO
chipper on another tractor and keep it close by. Trees larger than the Bush Hog can comfortably handle are cut down and chipped. And the stumps on even the larger trees can be cut to ground level with the
chipper teeth on the Bush Hog.
So, when we finish the ground is clean and level, free of stumps, with just the litter of chips, leaves, etc. It is not as slow as I may have indicated, but it certainly is a far cry from charging through the woods with the Bush Hog out front at the same speed you would mow the pasture. In the same vein, it is also a far cry from cutting that stuff down with a Husqvarna brush cutter, pulling it out of the briars and vines, and hauling it to a
chipper or burning it. And, although there are a few fist sized pieces of wood flying through the air once in a while, I am convinced that I am more likely to cut off a foot with the Husky brush cutter than I am to get brain damage from a wood splinter.
The B2400 would have been adequate if I had made the mower and pump platform lighter. That could easily be done, so I think the mower could be adapted to a 20 hp up tractor if it were built a little differently.
If anyone is interested in the details, I have (somewhere) a written description with part numbers, etc. I put together for a friend is building one. I will be glad to find and post it if anyone wants it.
