Do I have any business trying to use a rotary cutter on this?

[ptsg]

IMO, it can be done easily. As others said, just take your time. Keep an eye for big stuff or hidden surprises.

I've done worse with a 35 hp tractor and a 4 foot mower. However, over here, we use high strength chains in the mowers instead of blades, for this exact purpose. Shown in the second picture. It eat more HP of the tractor, hence the small since mower, but it shreds pretty much everything and won't get hurt if it hits rocks.

I've mowed small trees close to 3" in diameter. Taking it slow so I won't break anything.

 

[joecoin]

...


After I retired I cleared 1-1/3 acre of Florida jungle, at least as heavy with vegetation as your photo, with a Deere 750 tractor without a Loader, one Stihl MS261 pro-grade chainsaw, a Kubota RTV500 utility vehicle and a MUTS two wheel dumping trailer. Working alone, two to four days per week, part time, that clearing project took me three years, ... I am old, retired and PRUDENT.

If it took you that long to clear a measly 1 - 1/3 acres, not only are you PRUDENT, you're also incredibly SLOW.

I've cleared 6 acres of tight brush in 2 years working the same schedule you did, using a puny 25 year old Echo chainsaw, a 30 year old Steiner 420 and a Grillo 107d two wheel tractor with a 28 inch brush mower on it.

 

[oosik]

joecoin - did you miss the part - jeff is retired. Speed is of little concern when retired.

 

[cathy liebchen]

After ten years of clearing;by hand,rented 100 H.P.tractor/bush hog,my own tractors with 5'+6' bush hogs ;I finally hired a contractor with a 95 hp tracked skid-steer with a Fecon head.He did more in four days than we had done in 10 years.Biggest plus is no roots or stumps;best money I ever spent.

We did the same, hired a guy with a skidder and a mulcher head. He cleared several acres in less than a day

 

[joecoin]

joecoin - did you miss the part - jeff is retired. Speed is of little concern when retired.

I am also retired. Time is the only thing I don't have a lot of.

 

[Professor Marvel]

Borrow a neighbor's tractor for a weekend. Add cheap hydraulic fluid when you rip a hose off, straighten the bent clutch rod, fix the radiator with Gunk, ignore the bent loader frame, set BOTH front tires flat so it won't be obvious one has been de-beaded, patch the ripped seat with yellow or black duct tape and try to drain out some of the fuel when you accidentally put gasoline in the tank instead of diesel. Park in on their lawn so they won't notice the engine oil leaking out of the crimp in the oil pan. Tell them thanks and have a nice day. We'll watch (again) for the abuse complaints here made by your unappreciative neighbor. Tell them you didn't need the rotary cutter so you left it behind the barn. Then see it it's still above the swamp water level where you got stuck and had to drop it off. Cover your tracks with lawn clippings.

you must have the same neighbors and friends as i do. then they tell me my stuff is junk. funny it has worked well for me for years.

 

[jeff9366]

If it took you that long to clear a measly 1 - 1/3 acres, not only are you PRUDENT, you're also incredibly SLOW.

I've cleared 6 acres of tight brush in 2 years working the same schedule you did, using a puny 25 year old Echo chainsaw, a 30 year old Steiner 420 and a Grillo 107d two wheel tractor with a 28 inch brush mower on it.

Unless you had the opportunity to personally evaluate my Florida jungle relative to your Ohio "tight brush" this comment is meaningless but pejorative.

I may have removed three times the vegetation weight you did. One third of my time was spent transporting and burning brush. Did you transport and burn your cleared material?

The second half of your post is fine. Better had you not posted the first part.

Don't bother to reply. I am outta here.

 

[shooterdon]

We cleared worse than that using an old 2 cylinder gas JD 40 bulldozer. If not too expensive, try renting a small dozer....or buy a used one and sell it when you are done.

Hiring out the work out is the easiest.

I would not use a small tractor and BH....but I am new to tractors. I cleared a small area of saplings with my BH, and it did ok but nothing over 1 1/2”

BTW, a BH scares me a bit. I have thrown stones a long way. I have more shooting lanes to put in and plan on getting a Piranha bar for my little tractor. Not sure how effective it will be but it has other uses so worth a try for $250. Also plan on adding a Thumb bolt on grapple to move stuff.

 

[Gary Fowler]

5.5 flat acres of this, ignore the logs in the middle as its the only spot on the property with them. Id love to buy / rent a bobcat with a proper forestry cutter but that just so expensive. One day of rental is $800 locally for the bobcat and cutter. If I can get away with a rotary cutter and a 25hp tractor that would be ideal since we'll have the tractor forever and the bobcat would only be for a few months. Largest trees we could find are 2-3 inches and softwood the bulk of the work would be the stupid vines and such.

View attachment 586725

That looks super easy with a bush hog. I wouldn't tackle it with a BX but a B series should work, it will just be really slow. Just lower the FEL to about a foot off the ground and let it push over the vines and saplings. Note I said saplings:1-2" diameter, perhaps 3" in soft wood. Just about anything the FEL can easily push over, a bush hog should shred up easily. The small brush should mow easily. When pushing over the larger stuff, just ease your bush hog blades into the sapling which is already bent over so it will cut easily, but the shredding is what will be a bit harder so let it feed slowly. You may even need to raise up the BH and then lower it gently back on to the brush. Just use the speed of the engine to determine if you need to raise up the BH to keep the engine from lugging down.

I cut trees 4-5" in diameter with my light duty Howse bush hog and my 45 HP tractor. Anything that the tractor could bend over would cut and shred. Sometimes it would just shred the limbs and leave the main trunk but I just let them rot naturally from that point.

The biggest concern is that your tractor doesn't have any delicate items exposed underneath, like oil filters and hoses. My Yanmar didn't have anything exposed so there wasn't any worry.

NEVER back up after you have ridden over any brush going forward as this will really gum up the works underneath the tractor.
You can back into the brush but you could bend the sheet metal back into the BH blades (been there, done that) so be really careful that when backing up that you dont run into something to large for the bush hog to ride over without bending something.

Since you currently dont have a tractor, I would suggest that rather than a 25 engine HP, go with at least a 35HP and 40 HP engine would be even better. It will cost a bit more but you gain a lot more weight and durability in the larger frame tractors than you get in the super light 25 HP frame size.

 

[Diggin It]

Just lower the FEL to about a foot off the ground and let it push over the vines and saplings. Note I said saplings:1-2" diameter, perhaps 3" in soft wood. Just about anything the FEL can easily push over, a bush hog should shred up easily. The small brush should mow easily. When pushing over the larger stuff, just ease your bush hog blades into the sapling which is already bent over so it will cut easily, but the shredding is what will be a bit harder so let it feed slowly.

I wouldn't intentionally drive over anything like that without a full skid plate under the machine to protect hoses, tubing, wires, filters, etc.