Brush cutting and heard a clunk now vibrating

[laurencen]

Today tried a Wolverine brush cutter I purchased a few years ago just never needed it, I cut for a hour with a few rocks and dead brush but hit a good size lump and now its hitting the bolts on the underside of the deck.

when I turned it over I was surprised the two pivoting blades were on a fabricated mount and not a large disc, here are some pictures of the mount with blades, they are bent up but Im guessing not from the use today, it did not cut great right off the start,

anyone have a wolverine brush cutter they can take a few pictures of how this arm should look like

 

[laurencen]

quick note after reviewing the cutting head I see this was cutting on the bar ends and pivot bolt the blades are held on with, if I rotate the blade the blade tip is easily 4 inches above the pivot bolt.

one locknut is close to worn thro and doing most of the work, looks like some time on the hydraulic press tomorrow to straighten it out so the blades cut flat to the ground

 

[arto98607]

It sure would help if you had a photo or drawing showing what it is supposed to look like when new - are all those bends from mowing stumps and rocks?

 

[arto98607]

Here is what JD 413 blade holder looks like.

Item 3. (pan) is sometimes called "stump jumper" and mine came without it originally but I added it later.

In my case it was more so to keep stringy stuff away from the shaft (I try to go around stumps ;-)).

Seems to work OK.

 

[laurencen]

It sure would help if you had a photo or drawing showing what it is supposed to look like when new - are all those bends from mowing stumps and rocks?

my guess is the top face should be close to flat so the ends where blades pivot is 4 inches higher than original, I have no idea its previous life prior to purchasing but assume its from rocks, the way its now the pivot bolts that hold blades is doing all the cutting

 

[ruffdog]

Video of the underside of one:

 

[laurencen]

straightened the main arm best I could using pictures on line and also bent the ends flat to the ground, the bladed I also bent back so the mounting hole was square to the blade base, this now has the blade tracking parallel to the ground and assembled the unit.

after attaching it to the Toolcat the unit has some vibration but I believe less than when I first tried it, next went into some long grass that I know no rocks or stumps are in and it worked well, after half hour cutting took a look at the blades, first thing the ends where the bolts go thro has bent back 30 degrees from where I set them, the cutting blades are now not parallel to the ground higher on the ends, it took no impacts.

my guess is the centrifugal force and weight of the blades caused the bending on the ends to find the medium where its flat across, can see no other reason, maybe I over bent the blades giving a 3 inch drop where all it needed was to clear the bolt heads the blades swing from,

went back into the rough and did hit a few rocks, this time chose to lift the unit up to clear then picking them up later,

This Wolverene rough cut is built light, after seeing this arm fabrication it can not handle cutting even close to my 3pt mower behind the tractor, Im going to cut this area as needed a couple times then sell it for something else more robust.

Did get a hold of the dealer in the USA, they can get a replacement arm with blades and pins for $400.00 US but its ordered from China, 3 to 6 months lead time, did not know it was a off shore unit but now it explains the light construction of the unit

thanks for all the help

 

[Cycledude]

Laurencen How about a picture showing the entire Wolverine Brush Cutter mounted on your tractor or whatever you use to run it ?
Yes those blades and holders look like the cheapest built setup I’ve ever seen for brush cutter

 

[laurencen]

this was done on the weekend, the area around the trees was never cut after moving trees in, with the new road all rocks and crap ended up on the sides in the tall grass, I moved the mower to the S590 for the side motion when close to trees sorry no before shots

 

[laurencen]

here is another shot of the left side, all the trees were moved with a tree spade some 10 years ago, it was the end of the trees in front of the house, there is a parking area in front of the house and then down to the workshop, last fall had nothing going on with Covid so I built the back road, its about 3 feet above the natural area and 40 truck loads of fill to build up and another 5 trucks of base gravel, trees on the right were spaded in March this year, now we have a service road to get to and from the house without turning around, fun project for sure and added value to the house

trees on the left are average 15 to 20 feet, ones on the right were between 10 and 15 feet, still looking for more to fill this area