Which size bush hog?

firetractor · Jun 30, 2009

I was wondering with a John Deere 850...what is the correct size bushhog to use. 4' or 5'. Thanks for you help!

art · Jun 30, 2009

You should be fine with a five foot bush hog.

Gary Fowler · Jul 1, 2009

My brother in law has a 750 JD and pulls a 4 foot shredder clipping pastures in road gear with no stalling of motor. Pulls it in 1H in waist high grass and weeds so you should be able to pull a 5 foot or even a 6 foot with the 850.

scott_vt · Jul 1, 2009

Gary Fowler said:
My brother in law has a 750 JD and pulls a 4 foot shredder clipping pastures in road gear with no stalling of motor. Pulls it in 1H in waist high grass and weeds so you should be able to pull a 5 foot or even a 6 foot with the 850.

Good Mornin Gary,
I think a 6 ft rotary cutter would be a bit much for a 22 PTO HP tractor IMO. Unless its a very light duty mower just the weight alone is going to waggle that JD 850 all over the place. Throw in moderately high grasses or weeds and a slight hill and its all over ! JMO !

Soundguy · Jul 1, 2009

IMHO.. 5' is the happy common ground for a rough cut mower... etc.

soundguy

Midsouth · Jul 1, 2009

5 foot is what i would go with

TerryJ · Jul 1, 2009

Until recently I owned a JD850, had it for about 10 years. Did alot of bushogging with it, a 5' will do just fine.

Jerry/MT · Jul 1, 2009

firetractor said:
I was wondering with a John Deere 850...what is the correct size bushhog to use. 4' or 5'. Thanks for you help!

The conservative rule of thumb I use is 5 pto HP per foot of cutter.

patrick_g · Jul 1, 2009

Jerry/MT said:
The conservative rule of thumb I use is 5 pto HP per foot of cutter.

I pull a 6 ft with a 39 HP hydrostat and have NO difficulty whatsoever even in waist high or worse stuff. In really challenging situations I slow down some and still there is no problem.

I made a round trip to OKC today and the crews were out in force mowing the grass along the highways (Interstate 40 etc.) I was sort of surprised at how slowly they mow sometimes in what looks to be not especially challenging grass.

If I mowed as slow as they do I would be a longtime getting finished and I could pull a much larger mower than 6 ft.

neucam · Jul 1, 2009

A rule of thumb is about 4 PTO hp per foot with a brush hog mower, some say 5hp per foot, it depends if you have slow speed gears to handle the heavy stuff. I have a 51" cut brush hog (55" width) with 16PTO hp and if the brush is too tall I can always drop down a gear, with the old fords N's 1st gear was too high speed is some cases to pull a 5ft. And they were close to 24 PTO HP. I have heard them taking 1/2 swath in heavy grass, ( 2 1/2 FT?)

ihookem · Jul 1, 2009

My Kubota 7510 has 17 or 18 horse pto and a 4' hog runs good until it gets to the thick 2' high alfalfa. Weeds are not a problem.

shinnlinger · Jul 1, 2009

I bough a used 5 foot field mower and have 27 PTO horses. In real heavy stuff I will drop it into low range, but it is rare I need to do that. I wish I had a 6 foot so I could clear the rear wheels making it easier to get close to fence lines and stuff.

I have a six foot flail and that needs the low range more often

scott_vt · Jul 1, 2009

patrick_g said:
I made a round trip to OKC today and the crews were out in force mowing the grass along the highways (Interstate 40 etc.) I was sort of surprised at how slowly they mow sometimes in what looks to be not especially challenging grass.

If I mowed as slow as they do I would be a longtime getting finished and I could pull a much larger mower than 6 ft.

Good Evenin pat,
You gotta remember their trying to pick up some overtime !

Mow slow and they will ask the crew to come in on saturday !

kebo · Jul 1, 2009

For the 850, I would definitely go with a 5ft BH. The 850's are rated for 24 engine hp, so it's about 21 PTO hp. I have owned two 750's (21 engine hp) and used a 4ft behind each of them and I think that was the right size BH for that tractor. I believe that if you got a 4ft BH for your 850, you would not be happy with it.

JohnDeere4300 · Jul 1, 2009

Like others have said, a 5ft. would be fine.

lizardman · Jul 2, 2009

My family has run a 5' JD bush hog behind our 850 for 24+ years. Does great, no problems. If you have the axles spread wide, you will need the 5' width just to cover your tracks anyway.

Rod

firetractor · Jul 2, 2009

Thanks everyone for all the help! I am new to compact tractors. I have a ford 4000 with 6' hog but it is too wide to mow between my pine tree rows, so that is why i purchased JD 850. Dealers say 5' "light duty" rotary mower but i wanted the opinion of those of you who are in the field using it. I noticed that the JD dealer sells frontier in light duty and those rascals are expensive...($1250). Is that normal...whew! What recommendations do you tractorites have. I dont want to be too cheap and get a mower that i am constantly working on or welding but would like to find a mower less expensive!

Soundguy · Jul 3, 2009

Have you set the footprint in on the 4000?

soundguy

Ken45101 · Jul 5, 2009

firetractor said:
I noticed that the JD dealer sells frontier in light duty and those rascals are expensive...($1250). Is that normal...whew!

You think that's bad, look at the price of a John Deere branded cutter! $6000 for an MX-8. See, that should make you feel better,

Actually that price is almost identical to the same level Bush Hog. I did find a Landpride a $1000 less, but carefully comparing the specs, it's not rated as strong as the JD and BH models.

Ten years ago, I got a medium duty 6' Woods. IIRC, it was around $1800.

I don't know how the Frontier line compares. There are "light duty" mower and then there are "very light duty" mowers. I'm sure you can find a cheaper price on a 5', but quality could be quite different.

Also, shop around at different dealers. I've found a $300 difference between different JD dealers on the MX-8.

Of course, you need to buy what's appropriate for YOUR needs. Maybe it's justified to spend more, maybe it's wise to buy an economy model.

Ken

firetractor · Jul 5, 2009

Ken...you did make me feel better! I had purchased a king kutter for my 4000 5 years ago and have been working on it ever since. I really dont like my KK. I also found a cheaper 5 ' bushhog made by lowrey but you can tell the quality is not there. I shopped between JD dealers and one had a new 2008 model frontier that is $100 less so i am getting that one. I like the gearbox and safety chains on it. I just havent purchased farm implements in years so i had to get an IV for sticker shock!!!! Once i got the ringers lactate flowing while reading these posts i realized i had stepped into the big boys world! So it makes you hope the implements will last a lifetime! Thanks for your input. Sound guy....we toyed with the footprint thing but never could get what we needed. my trees were handplanted so that is going to create a challenge even with the JD 850....so big blue gets to sit this one out...but thanks for the advice.