Brush Hog mods

[scootr]

In the skid steer mowing thread the topic of rotary chain mowers came up.
I got to looking around and found a couple of videos from guys who had cut their blades back and added chains.
Found an old model 12 BH 5 ft and went at this mod. Nothing pictured here is pretty. We just wanted to experiment with the chains or cables.
We mow rocks at times and it plays heck with the steel blades.
This picture here what we saw in our initial (fact or fiction) search

 

[scootr]

Here is the victim. lol
We cut the blades off (they were welded on!)
Drilled a 1/2 inch hole in each end and attached some chain.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I'm anxious to see how well it processes the material it cuts and overall how big of material it cuts, good job on your test project so far.

 

[ptsg]

What size of chain did you end up going with? Looks small in that mower. Cables won't work very well because they don't really have much weight at all.

For anyone interested, here is one of these cutters working:

Also, how one of these mowers look underneath and on the top:

 

[ptsg]

Taking some bigger trees here:

 

[scootr]

We used a 70 grade 3/8" chain. That is what we had on hand.
We are not cutting anything as big or tough as what you show in the video.
That is some impressive brush hog action.

 

[ptsg]

We used a 70 grade 3/8" chain. That is what we had on hand.
We are not cutting anything as big or tough as what you show in the video.
That is some impressive brush hog action.

Those on the video do require some serious tractor behind it.

I've done 3" of soft mimosas before with my 35hp tractor and do all kinds of 2" stuff regularly.

 

[5030]

Think I'd attach the chains to the stubs with threaded repair links of equal size so when the chains wear out they will be easily replaceable.

 

[scootr]

Think I'd attach the chains to the stubs with threaded repair links of equal size so when the chains wear out they will be easily replaceable.

I ended up with hardened 1/2 bolts so I could change chains easily. I looked at threaded links and U bolts. Both could be used.

 

[2manyrocks]

Could you please post a close up picture of how the chains are attached? It seems like to me that you'd want to sandwich the chain like the housing does in post #4. I start to worry that a bolt head may shear off and the chain go flying.