Brush Hog suggestion?

   / Brush Hog suggestion? #1  

jaymar421

Bronze Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2011
Messages
68
Location
New England
Tractor
New Holland T1520
We are looking for a 5ft brush hog to do some small jobs here in our area. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to where to go in the northreast area? Best pricing, quality, etc... Thanks!
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #2  
It sounds like you are looking new.

Sorry I cannot offer any suggestions on where to go, but perhaps you should narrow down your search to what model or brand you want. Then you can use the dealer locater on the MFG's websites and cann some around you to get a feel for their pricing.

Bushhog, Rhino, Woods, Landpride, all make excellent cutters.

KK gets mixed reviews, but for light work, you cant beat their prices.

And you may also want to browse places like c-list. You can get older cutters that work great (just look rough) for as little as $100.

And some of the older cutter are rock solid. They dont build em like they used to.
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #3  
If you are contracting brush cutting jobs,
which is what it sounds like to me, there is
no advantage to a rotary cutter simply from a
liability standpoint.

There are a lot of good used flail mowers on
Used Tractors For Sale at TractorHouse.com: John Deere Tractors, used farm tractors and farm equipment, tractors for sale, Case IH, New Holland, Agco, Kubota and Auctions at AuctionTime.com: Farm Equipment Auctions, Heavy Equipment Auctions, Truck Auctions, Trailer Auctions
The folks at Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware have a continuos sale on
the Caroni flailmowers-you have to spend good money to
get quality. the older american made flailmowers are of
high quality construction and parts are still available for them.

Do not expect to nickle and dime a purchase like this in my opinion.
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #4  
We are looking for a 5ft brush hog to do some small jobs here in our area. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to where to go in the northreast area? Best pricing, quality, etc... Thanks!

If you plan on being able to provide your customers with competitive prices, skip the idea of a flail mower. If your customers show a proclivity towards paying double/triple the "going rate" while you SLOWLY perform your job, they may be OK.....and that's assuming you like doing constant repairs and maintenance while your competition is doing your NEXT job....

Otherwise, just about all tractor dealers will offer a choice of models from many of the top brands of rotary cutters.
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
If you plan on being able to provide your customers with competitive prices, skip the idea of a flail mower. If your customers show a proclivity towards paying double/triple the "going rate" while you SLOWLY perform your job, they may be OK.....and that's assuming you like doing constant repairs and maintenance while your competition is doing your NEXT job....

Otherwise, just about all tractor dealers will offer a choice of models from many of the top brands of rotary cutters.

Thanks for your input :) Looks like you are an MF fan.... Just want to say the MF 175 diesel was the best tractor we ever had... too bad they don't make 'em like they used to!:)
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #6  
If you are examing contracting via small mowing jobs
I would very strongly suggest you examine the
"Lets talk flailmowers" thread and the 120 plus pages
AND please thoroughly read Iron Horses account of how he
quickly traded his same day purchase rotary cutter in
the same day for a heavy flailmower due to the fact
that the rotary cutter impacted a bolt that had traveled
a considerable distancce and broke through the exterior
wall of a home and then became imbedded in an interior
wall of the same home.

Like anything else flailmowers require a lttle maintenance
And we have had the ther same flail mower for 30 plus years
and there are many owners of flailmowers on the TBN web site
with the Ford wide cut model 917 and Older Mott and Alamo
Flail mowers.

There are lots of good used flailmowers available or that
come up for sale at auctions and parts are still available
for them. The biggest thing is the better quality of cut
and that always helps in keeping clients for mowing.



________________________________________________________________
Onve you go flail you never go back:thumbsup::licking::drool:
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #7  
If you are contracting brush cutting jobs,
which is what it sounds like to me, there is
no advantage to a rotary cutter simply from a
liability standpoint.

There are a lot of good used flail mowers on
Used Tractors For Sale at TractorHouse.com: John Deere Tractors, used farm tractors and farm equipment, tractors for sale, Case IH, New Holland, Agco, Kubota and Auctions at AuctionTime.com: Farm Equipment Auctions, Heavy Equipment Auctions, Truck Auctions, Trailer Auctions
The folks at Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware have a continuos sale on
the Caroni flailmowers-you have to spend good money to
get quality. the older american made flailmowers are of
high quality construction and parts are still available for them.

Do not expect to nickle and dime a purchase like this in my opinion.


Man you rreally love flails dont you!

I see where they may have their place. But many folks just cant afford or will pay twice the price for a piece of equiptment that will do basically the same task as another.

Im sure everyone can think of a time where a rotary cutter threw something somewhere at something. But i also can think of a person i knew who jumped off a bridge, and this is way less commom. And really i dont know anyone harmed or did anything major with their bushhog as far as damage. I dont know anyone with a flail so i cant say if they had any objects trown or not.
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #8  
The attempt to simply compare flail mowers to a troubled
human being who feels he or she no longer has any hope
or possible avenue for help to turn to, and as result feels
jumping off a bridge is the only way to relieve him or her
of chains of worldly burden in their life is in no way a
legitimate comparison in many ways and is in extremely poor taste.


I simply feel that a flailmower is a better mower
IN MY OPINION for the reasons I have stated
previously.


Having a 34 year backround and work experience involving
surface and underground mining machinery and my past
and present use of farm machinery which I feel allow me
to have an opinion about these types of mowers versus
a rotary cutter in ONLY my comparison of them.


If a person cannot afford to purchase a new or used flailmower
of good engineering and design quality in its construction
they cannot afford one its as simple as that.


Flailmowers are chastised because the owners simply do not
maintain them or forget how to maintain them or try to operate them with too fast ground speed and the flail mower itself suffers the consequences of the owners lack of reasonable care for the flail mower.

The design and building of a rotary cutter is simpler and less costly
only due to its one to one ratio right angle gear box(s) which allow
and its construction where flat steel sheets of various thickness
are used in their construction.

A flail mower uses a single pressed and curved steel sheet to create the hood/shroud over the flail mower rotor of the flail mower, which allows the grass slicers or hammers to create a pressure gradient to lift the material over the rotor and back down to the ground after it is cut.

The two side weldments and shroud are connected in form by a continous weld created a strong single weldment when finished to allow attachment of the drive components being the gear box, driven shaft,open ended bearings,and V belt Pulleys used to finish the contruction of the flail mower

Several manufacturers of european flailmowers have winged units which also use right angle gearboxes and driven PTO shafts on their lines of gang flailmowers which eliminates the need for hydraulic power to operate flailmower heads located on either side of the prime mover used to mow.

The same recommended safe operating rules involving
the reduction of the possibility of impacting an object
that was left in a field or thrown off the road into
a ditch where someone could encounter an object with
a mower OF ANY TYPE while mowing still apply.
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #9  
we are well aware of your high re\guard for flail mowers, and disdain for rotary mowers.

just like the LAST thread this came out in.

many pople don't / can't pax 2x the moey for the mower, or the machine needed for the mower, or afford the loss of time buying a smaller one.

the maint cost for the flails are higher as well, and they don't handle the abuse like an ordinary rotary mower can.. even an economy model.

if there was good money / tradeoff / time usage on flails, every county road department or contract mower in existance would exclusively be using them.. is this what we see? nope.. just the opposite. almost exclusively rotary mower use.. with an occasional rare glimpse of a flail mower...

can't wait to see a re-hash of that last post... :(

here's a link:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/219178-5-cutter-get.html

soundguy
 
   / Brush Hog suggestion? #10  
My point was not to say a flail is as hopless as a person wanting to jump off a bridge. My point is all this flying junk being thrown by rotary mowers is i think blown out of prrportion. I dont know anyone that was hit by a rock or branch from a cutter. That also dosent mean it dosent happen or is not deadly if and when it does. Im just saying you make it sound like we all know of an incident personally. Yea i can look in the papers and see it, like i said im not denying that it dosent happen. I have thrown rocks from my ride-on mower and hit stuff, thank goodnes nothing has broken yet though, BUT nothing from the bushhog. And the point of the guy and the bridege, im not making fun of it, it was an old friend. My point is this is a far less occurance by staticstics yet i do know of one that did this.

Anyway enough of that.

I paid $300 for my new Light-duty rotary cutter. I have close to 100 hours on that mower now, many were cutting sapplings up to 2.5" in diameter. It has dings n dents, where i welded it back up, and have replaced the lower seal, but thats it. I expect hundreds more hours from it. There is nothing to really fail. I will put new blades on it one day, and if the gearbox goes out (really the only moving part, besides drive shaft) i will buy a replacement at Agri-supply for $119 plus shipping. I bet your regularly changed belt is close to half that in cost. And there is not a light duty flail in the world i could have new for $300.
 
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2015 Hyundai Veloster Hatchback (A53424)
2015 Hyundai...
2016 E-Z Beever M12R Towable Brush Chipper (A51691)
2016 E-Z Beever...
48" WIDE WOODEN STAIRCASE W/ METAL RAILING (A54757)
48" WIDE WOODEN...
UNUSED IRANCH 15" EXCAVATOR WOOD GRAPPLE (A54757)
UNUSED IRANCH 15"...
2019 FREIGHTLINER CASCADIA TANDEM AXLE SLEEPER (A54607)
2019 FREIGHTLINER...
2022 MAXXD BD14 Heavy-Duty Dump Trailer with 14K GVWR and Tandem Axles (A55218)
2022 MAXXD BD14...
 
Top