Finish mower with bush hog blades: Such a thing?

[RickB]

The HP-per-foot criteria can actually be met: Kubota's zero-turn ZD221 has 21 HP & is available with a 48" mower.

But ... I had in mind not your typical bruiser style bush hogging, where you jam the bush hog into whatever mess you encounter as long as there doesn't seem to be woody stuff any bigger than what your hog can handle - I had in mind lighter usage, cutting stuff somewhat bigger than what you'd normally cut with a finish mower, but not as big as what a tractor's 3PH bush hog can handle.

Go ahead and build it. You have yourself talked into it anyway.

 

[2manyrocks]

I think another weak spot is going to be that the electric clutch on most ZTR's can't handle the load of brush cutting.

 

[passgas55]

The tip speed of the blades will be to fast for a bush hog type of cutting. Like posted before the mower will turn to scrap.

 

[finnegan]

Go ahead and build it. You have yourself talked into it anyway.

We bought a 10-acre repossessed home, that had set empty for 3 and a half years. There was 5-6 feet of overgrowth, both in the yard and in the pastures. Someone told me to rent a commercial grade 60-inch zero turn mower to bush hog it and it work fantastically. I would recommend avoiding saplings when there are a lot of them growing together side by side, and would also avoid stand alone saplings larger than an inch in diameter. Not sure why RickB is so opposed to the idea, as the voice of experience (at least in my case) suggests otherwise.

 

[Ken45101]

A six year old thread came back to life....

As I mentioned years ago, a zero turn may cut most of the heavy vegetation, but a clogged up discharge may limit what you can cut.

The other issue is "what happens when you hit the unexpected object?" A bush hog blade is designed to bounce back and not have any significant damage. A regular finish mower is not.

A few months back I was mowing and hit some rough ground with my small tractor (Kubota B2710) and mmm (mid mount mower). The front weight came off and I hit it. It stalled the tractor immediately. The deck still ran but had a noise in it. $650 damage to the gearbox. A true brush cutter probably would not have had any damage beyond a nicked blade.