FEL Mounted Brush Mower / Trimmer

kthompson · Aug 25, 2019

hillbilly, at least on the tractors have used with rear remotes you, they operate as to control as fel valves do. As has been pointed out you can have different options in the valve such as auto off where the valve kicks back to neutral when you push it fully either way or float or it locks in place when fully pushed either way. May be skipping others but the operation of the rear remotes again you can operate your cylinder either wide open or very slowly and stop any where in you want the cylinder to stop. IF THERE IS REAR REMOTES THAT OPERATE ANY DIFFERENT NOT AWAY OF THEM.

You will not large hoses, 3/8 or even 1/4 inch may be large enough.

lennyzx11 · Aug 25, 2019

With this from Titan, (I did have to modify mine for quick hitch), you could use it on the rear.

goeduck · Aug 25, 2019

lennyzx11 said:
With this from Titan, (I did have to modify mine for quick hitch), you could use it on the rear.
View attachment 618457 View attachment 618456 View attachment 618455

Very creative. Quick hitch, then adapter, then bucket, then clamp on forks!

JWR · Aug 25, 2019

Yeah, it looks like the horiz tubes are much like the Ninja. Just mumbling to myself now with the new pictures (good pics to show the angle adjuster) -- that single vertical tube may tend to get bent if you hit stuff with the cutter. I feel a brace coming on.

goeduck · Aug 25, 2019

JWR said:
Yeah, it looks like the horiz tubes are much like the Ninja. Just mumbling to myself now with the new pictures (good pics to show the angle adjuster) -- that single vertical tube may tend to get bent if you hit stuff with the cutter. I feel a brace coming on.

Me too. Great ingenuity but hitting something unseen is going to bend things. Fantastic work :thumbsup:

Hilbilly · Aug 26, 2019

lennyzx11 said:
With this from Titan, (I did have to modify mine for quick hitch), you could use it on the rear.
View attachment 618457 View attachment 618456 View attachment 618455

Great idea. I already have a 6' 3PTH brush mower, so no need to mount this one on the back. Plus I cut off all the 3PTH stuff to make this lighter. It's odd that I went the opposite route and made an adapter to mount my 3PTH stuff on the front of the tractor.

JWR said:
Yeah, it looks like the horiz tubes are much like the Ninja. Just mumbling to myself now with the new pictures (good pics to show the angle adjuster) -- that single vertical tube may tend to get bent if you hit stuff with the cutter. I feel a brace coming on.

After my first runs with this thing and having the tubes pushed out from the framework by about 18", I could see the flex in the tubes and initially thought I was going to have to remove them and go with a beefier system. However after a little thought I decided this might be a good thing because if/when I hit something solid the tubes will get bent and not something more expensive to repair, like the FEL. Replacing the tubes will be relatively easy and cheap. Time will tell if this is an issue but for now I will use it as is. The only thing I am struggling with is the snappy movement when the mower is in the horizontal position and the hydraulic cylinder is use to lift it. The initial movement is too snappy for my liking. I can see that it's due to the geometry of the cylinder and mower deck pivot locations. I tried to use flow control valves to slow things down but the ones I bought didn't do anything and I will be taking those back.

Hilbilly · Aug 28, 2019

Well I've got about 5hrs of use on this now and here is what I have discovered so far.

1) This thing is great. I can sit in an AC cab and get more work done in an hour than I could in a day with my pole saw and trimmer.
2) The flexible tubing has not been an issue yet and I have hit some small stumps with it. I go slow and can react to it when I see it happen. Well so far anyways.
3) The upturned blades are OK but tend to throw things up. I have decided I will make my own flat blades from spring steel, if I can't find a reasonably priced set elsewhere.
4) When operating this in the vertical position, it would be better to have the blades rotating clockwise. This may not be an issue with flat blades but I can resolve this by running the mower with clockwise rotation (with flat blades) or by mounting it on the other side of the framework.
5) The snappy hydraulic tilt can be reduced by turning the engine rpm's down when making adjustments. I love the hydraulic tilt function and use it a lot.

In the video I posted above, it looks like the mower isn't cutting in some places but it is. I have more videos now that show how well this works and might post a better one if I can figure out how to edit and reduce the file size.

JWR · Aug 28, 2019

Excellent report. You can probably insert a flow limiting orifice in-line of almost any sort that limits flow to your tilt cylinder to minimize the nuisance or inconvenience. May not matter.

My guess is you can buy straight blades that are double-edged and somewhat heavier than the stock Landpride blades without great expense. If you go with homemade spring steel you almost have to heat and unbrittle the end in order to drill a hole, then worry about balance, then figure out sharpening, ... for my 2 cents I'd go with commercial blades.

For all practical purposes you are already home with the project and can tie a ribbon around it.

LouNY · Aug 28, 2019

Nice unit, looks like it is working decent for you.
I have thought about something similar.

As far as using the 3rd function instead of a diverter I have always thought that the diverter would be better as you can control the flow rate using your existing valve and not have full flow slamming things around.

Xfaxman · Aug 28, 2019

Hilbilly said:
Well I've got about 5hrs of use on this now and here is what I have discovered so far.

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3) The upturned blades are OK but tend to throw things up. I have decided I will make my own flat blades from spring steel, if I can't find a reasonably priced set elsewhere.
4) When operating this in the vertical position, it would be better to have the blades rotating clockwise. This may not be an issue with flat blades but I can resolve this by running the mower with clockwise rotation (with flat blades) or by mounting it on the other side of the framework.
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