Automatic height adjustment brush hog

[Deleted member 367166]

What if: you could rig little wheels in front of the skids on your bush hog, spring mounted, that could ride up and down with the ground, and send back data to the height adjustment of your hydraulic arms to automatically chnge the height of your hog? Has this been done? Could it be sone with servos, etc?

And no, I haven't been smoking any funny-weed.

 

[stumblinhorse]

I think something utilizing the draft control or design a new draft control mechanism on the tractor would be a winner. I have often wondered, sitting there mowing for countless hours, if draft control can be used with brush cutting implements and how to maybe do it.

 

[rScotty]

Might work. The way brush hogs are set up now all scalp or miscut if they hit too much of a bump or depression. I set mine up pretty normally I guess. Set it up so the "skids" never touch the ground - the 3pt arms hold them a few inches above the ground and stay there. That way the "cut" is never less than about 4 inches grass length. Which is fine for field work but it can still scalp when running over something.

So your idea sure sounds like an improvement. Lots of room for innovation on tractor implements. They are still very basic.
You may not even need servos. Most tractors used to run a hog over a field already have draft control with automatic return to height. You just need to trigger that system somehow. As it is, draft control is triggered by changes in the resistance to pulling. Shouldn't be too hard to add changes in height to the trigger mech.
Go for it,
rScotty

 

[Xfaxman]

What are you mowing that you need to do that?

 

[rScotty]

I'm mowing a 20 acre town common area used for sports & events. Native grass & no sprinklers so it is sometimes weedy. Plus gopher holes, golf balls, garbage, and the occasional fence post.
rScotty

 

[ruffdog]

Links:

Rotary Cutter - Scalping problem 72 bush hog, can i add front wheels?
Mowing - Adding front wheels to rotary mower
bolting caster wheels on front of bush hog
Add extra wheels to brushhog???

 

[ptsg]

Or simply ditch the rear wheel and let the skids ride on the ground and follow whatever contours it has to follow. Nice and simple. It's all we do over here.

 

[LD1]

Bushhogs are rough cut mowers, Not finish mowers.

The front of the bushhog is close enough to the rear tires of the tractor, that the tractor itself basically acts like the front wheels on the bushhog. If the tractor goes up, the front of the cutter goes up. If the rear tires of the tractor go down, so does the front of the cutter.

I guess in all of my mowing I have never once wished for front gauge wheels on a cutter. Just another point of potential problems

 

[mikester]

What if: you could rig little wheels in front of the skids on your bush hog, spring mounted, that could ride up and down with the ground, and send back data to the height adjustment of your hydraulic arms to automatically chnge the height of your hog? Has this been done? Could it be sone with servos, etc?

And no, I haven't been smoking any funny-weed.

My RFM rides on it's own 4 wheels two front and two on the back. I set my top link so that raising the 3PH a little causes the front RFM mower wheels to raise off the ground to go over obstacles - basically a form of height control.

If I'm cutting really tall stuff I do a pass in the raised position, then drop the 3PH to let the RFM float and cut at the pre-set height. This prevents the blades from bogging down with too much grass.

My ZD326 has a height adjustment knob if I want to set grass heights on the fly. I've never needed that feature while bush hogging.

 

[ruffdog]

Or simply ditch the rear wheel and let the skids ride on the ground and follow whatever contours it has to follow. Nice and simple. It's all we do over here.

That would work great if the skids were well rounded front/back AND on the sides. Many cutters will lop off huge amounts of sod while turning a corner.