Brush Cutter rear guard?

[spechols]

I am thinking about a 48 Brush Cutter for my PT425.
I have seen a homemade guard mounted on the back which seems like a VERY GOOD idea!
So, I have two questions:
1 - What has been the groups experience with things shooting out the back of the bush cutter?
And
2 - Have you mounted a rear guard/deflector on the Brush Cutter?
Thanks

 

[agjones]

I use mine a lot, great tool. Throws a lot of debris on the front of the pt. Instead of a guard on the mower, I built protection for the hoses on the pt. I've done it for the 425 and 1850. Pics in the pt specific mods thread.

 

[Tinhack]

My rotary cutter has chain links in the front but nothing in the rear. The rear is wide open. The front is about 50% lower with the chain links hanging down from that. A single rod retains all the chain sections of about 4 links each. Works most of the time. I also have an expanded metal guard between my ROPS. That guard has taken some hard hits. I've never been hit by anything except dust. I really don't care what comes out the back end. :confused3:

 

[RegL]

I once threw a baseball sized rock out the back while I was articulated and it bounced off the back tire and hit me in the ankle. I wasn’t injured but it hurt like ****. I made a guard on one brush hog from a piece of thick rubber conveyor belt.

 

[m5040]

On my PT180 I often raise the deck up 4' and come down on trees and brush, I just used the tilt to adjust the angle of the discharge away from my vital parts. Never had anything bad. Like already said, rocks are the worse and typically don't hit the operator.

One negative is in dry dusty conditions, be careful not to have the cooling system get blocked up with chaff.

 

[RalphVa]

My Frontier R-2048 has chains hanging in both front and rear. The old LX4 had no chains on the rear and flung stuff out back there. Very dangerous.

Once had what looked like a 50 caliber bullet hole put in the driver's door of our Mercedes when crossing Florida west to east. Whatever it was was flung from a couple of bush hog doing the center medium. I stopped and got the machines stopped. Highway patrol came and inspected the machines. Chains missing in places; one hog had a hole in the top of it. They were sent back to the shop. They paid for a complete repaint job. Sold the car. New owner called it still "pristine" when they sold it about 5 years later.

Ralph

 

[MossRoad]

My rotary cutter has chain links in the front but nothing in the rear. The rear is wide open. The front is about 50% lower with the chain links hanging down from that. A single rod retains all the chain sections of about 4 links each. Works most of the time. I also have an expanded metal guard between my ROPS. That guard has taken some hard hits. I've never been hit by anything except dust. I really don't care what comes out the back end. :confused3:

Tinhack,
These are front mounted brush cutters on PowerTrac machines. They are mounted on the FEL arms.

 

[MossRoad]

I am thinking about a 48 Brush Cutter for my PT425.
I have seen a homemade guard mounted on the back which seems like a VERY GOOD idea!
So, I have two questions:
1 - What has been the groups experience with things shooting out the back of the bush cutter?
And
2 - Have you mounted a rear guard/deflector on the Brush Cutter?
Thanks

Most large debris shoots back out the front, in my experience. I've shot softball sized rocks an easy 50 yards with force. Large pieces of wood, too. If you keep the deck down on the ground, on the wheels, what mostly comes out the rear is clippings and sticks. Lots of sticks. It'll pack up the front of the tractor, get behind the FEL lift rams, down the center tunnel where the hoses feed through, and into the wheel motor boxes, the left side more than the right side due to rotation of the blades.

I don't see a need for a guard on the rear of the deck and I would most likely damage it. A rubber shield over the hoses on the front of the machine to keep the debris off the hoses and out of the tunnel would be most useful.

As for lifting the deck up high and dropping it down onto brush, yes, I do it. But it seems extremely dangerous. More times than not, I'll shut off the deck, and then just use it's weight to crush down bushes and shrubs, then back away, lower the deck to a safer height, fire it back up and destroy Destroy DESTROY!!!! :laughing:

 

[spechols]

I once threw a baseball sized rock out the back while I was articulated and it bounced off the back tire and hit me in the ankle. I wasn’t injured but it hurt like ****. I made a guard on one brush hog from a piece of thick rubber conveyor belt.

I have seen your guard and reinforcement. I think they are both good ideas that I may just do when the brush-cutter is new. Or if I can get one used.

 

[AVIVIII]

The rear of all my decks have a thick rubber mud flap sweep. They are all the same, sort sure if they came that way or the previous owner made them all.