It looks much like the WeedBadger, which I had never seen nor heard of before. This machine doesn't work as well as that one seems to show in the videos; mine also looks to require less power. The YM2000 will pull it without significant effort. It is tough to drive, at least in my tight quarters, so all the work is done at very low speeds anyway.
The 3 spikes per plate don't do much other than stir the ground, and if the soil is hard enough that the motor may bog, they just kind of skip across it anyway. It certainly doesn't engage the ground to anything like the degree my 5' tiller does, so the power requirements are fairly minimal. I suspect some cutting edged sweeps would work better for shearing off weed and grass stems. I suspect the 186D will pull it fine too; I'll try to get it mounted up this weekend and test it out. I think I'll try running it at the 1000 RPM setting on the PTO for experimental purposes, possibly at a reduced engine setting. The blades spin slowly relative to forward movement unless the tractor is creeping along.
I'm interested in selling it. It doesn't do me much good, I don't think, since I'm not sure I can reach under the lower branches of the bigger trees with it, even on a shorter machine like my 186. I don't see it working on blackberries. The whisker is very sensitive, and even a single dirt clod will set it off. Anything more substantial than grass or small weeds engages the pull-back. I suppose it would be possible to adjust the tension in the cables for sensitivity, though. I think it would beat itself up bashing away on a woody stem, though. Catching the shoots early would work, but I don't see it being effective on plants much larger than that, at least in current form.
