What have you hit with your mower lately?

[friendlywithbears]

Yesterday after a day of mowing some pretty gnarly trails with the brush hog, I noticed a spot on the way home that I had missed. No problem, popped the PTO on and backed into it. I immediately caught something so big it stopped the tractor dead. Thankfully I had just slipped my clutch the day before, or I can't imagine...

The culprit was a big fat wad of old rusty logging winch cable hiding so well I couldn't see it when walking around. New set of blades are pretty wrecked from it, I'm still cursing today!

 

[Alien]

I have just repaired my flail mower after it hit a low stump and bent the main shaft. Normally the hammers would jump the stump but I had just sharpened them and 1 hammer dug into the stump like an axe. A new shaft cost me about $1100 so it was a costly lesson. The mower is only about 4 years old. After that I drove around the paddocks and put a stake in beside every stump I could find. I knew the stump was there but forgot about it as it was under the long grass. I also replaced the bearings and got a new set of hammers to have on hand so all up it was close to $1800.

 

[Liquidsilver]

I feel your pain but I can't best it.

I'm still doing my summer brush hogging and I turn dozens of big rocks hiding in the brush into smaller rocks in the process.

The blades on my 10-footer hold up better than I expect, but I do have to replace them when they get bent.

I'm almost finished until my fall cutting.

 

[RjCorazza]

I just trashed a blade on my 72" zero turn. Clipped some decorative river rocks... twice.
Not that big of a deal, but I'm very particular about keeping my blades neatly sharpened.

 

[friendlywithbears]

I feel your pain but I can't best it.

I'm still doing my summer brush hogging and I turn dozens of big rocks hiding in the brush into smaller rocks in the process.

The blades on my 10-footer hold up better than I expect, but I do have to replace them when they get bent.

I'm almost finished until my fall cutting.

Sometimes I feel like what I'm mowing is more rock than grass...

 

[scaredychicken]

grass ... repeatedly

 

[RandyT]

Ran over a half rotten opossum with my finish mower about an hour ago.

 

[ptsg]

Have hit small rocks, big rocks, huge rocks, old house ruins, stumps, big logs, old steel bed frames, thick rebar, concrete blocks, random pieces of steel, stoves, fencing net. The list goes on and on beyond what I can remember.

Popped a couple shear pins with some of the hardest hits, but I typically just wear them out with all the beating it takes.

Still rocking the original "blades" that came with the mower and didn't even got bent once.

 

[kf4uda]

Have hit small rocks, big rocks, huge rocks, old house ruins, stumps, big logs, old steel bed frames, thick rebar, concrete blocks, random pieces of steel, stoves, fencing net. The list goes on and on beyond what I can remember.

Popped a couple shear pins with some of the hardest hits, but I typically just wear them out with all the beating it takes.

Still rocking the original "blades" that came with the mower and didn't even got bent once.

View attachment 755797

That is an interesting brush cutter. I can’t recall ever seeing one that cut with chain. What brand is it?

 

[friendlywithbears]

Have hit small rocks, big rocks, huge rocks, old house ruins, stumps, big logs, old steel bed frames, thick rebar, concrete blocks, random pieces of steel, stoves, fencing net. The list goes on and on beyond what I can remember.

Popped a couple shear pins with some of the hardest hits, but I typically just wear them out with all the beating it takes.

Still rocking the original "blades" that came with the mower and didn't even got bent once.

View attachment 755797

Was going to ask if you sharpen them ever, but then did the double take

 

[friendlywithbears]

Ran over a half rotten opossum with my finish mower about an hour ago.

Winner right here...

 

[ruffdog]

When mowing the ditch I picked up a ratchet strap. Banging around was noisy and it also wraps up around a spindle.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I walked an area that had not been mowed for over 20 years looking for obstacles, moved some rocks and a couple limbs.
Ran into a steel tie down for an old powerline. Made quite the racket, pushed in the clutch to cut the PTO as fast as I could react. I had to replace 3 "Y" cutters on the flail mower.

After replacement I went out and finished mowing the path I was making for the concrete truck to access a concrete pour and hit Elk antlers that were partially buried. Didn't do any damage on that one, but scared me pretty good as it was an odd noise.

 

[spitter]

At least 1 black racer per year. Moles and shrews here and there. Small plethora of lacrosse balls.

 

[ptsg]

That is an interesting brush cutter. I can’t recall ever seeing one that cut with chain. What brand is it?

Portuguese brand. Works awesome, takes an absolute beating and it's about the only thing that works on our brush here filled with surprises, like rocks, trash people throw, etc.

Some people, albeit not many, will still use blades as these brush mowers can be set up both ways but they only use it pretty much on pastures that they know are clean and debris free.

 

[5030]

We are almost rock free. My big nemesis is stray pieces of poly bailer twine in the fields I run on shares. The poly has a real bad habit of getting between the spindles and the seals and destroying the seals and melting in the bearings and destroying them as well.

 

[5030]

When mowing the ditch I picked up a ratchet strap. Banging around was noisy and it also wraps up around a spindle.

Issue with ditch mowing is people discard all kinds of stuff in ditches, called littering, I call it dumping junk. I do a couple fields with drainage ditches (deep) on their borders. The roadside ones are particularly suspect. Everything from old tires to bed springs to garbage bags full of garbage tossed in the ditch. People are lazy pigs.

 

[showcattle]

I have pasture that borders a subdivision. The county installed sewers 10 years ago, and the line runs inside our pasture. The Land Pride brushhog sucked the lid off a manhole and threw it 10 feet. The blades look no worse for wear.

 

[MossRoad]

Turkey carcass by the highway.

 

[oosik]

About once - every other month - I mow the grass on the edges of the driveway. No problem with rocks - I've already found them with the mower and moved them. Ages ago.

It looks so nice I decide to mow the center of the road. Out and beyond my inner gate.

So I'm happy in the morning sun and mowing down the center for about 200 yards.

All of a sudden - WHUP, WHUP, WHUP - and this God awful stink.

The biggest, smelliest pile of cow poop I've ever seen. And the mower "fogged" this big pile and it completely encased the mower and ME.

Have you ever TASTED fogged cow poop. Well, I have.