1st time at my new property & 1st time ever brush-hogging - some lessons learned

[Santa Craig Cringle]

Saturday I went out to my newly acquired 34 completely raw undeveloped acres and attempted to do some brush hogging. I currently own a relatively newer Kioti CX2510HST 25 hp tractor/loader/backhoe. I have not used it for anything up until this point for doing anything other than some light gardening work at my current house. I realize my tractor is under sized for that type of acreage but it's what I have to work with at the moment.

I bought a 5 foot rotary cutter used last weekend, with a stump jumper. I also realize that 5 foot may be slightly oversized for my tractor, but I opted to go to the 5-foot over the 4-foot and take smaller bites.

For my first attempt, I attempted to clear some area in the woods and quickly discovered that rotary cutters are not meant for uneven terrain. Besides just the shear difficulty of maneuvering with it, I experienced a lot of issues with binding my top link. Only after I got home and watched some more brush hog videos, did I discover going on uneven terrain was kind of a no-no, especially going in and out of valleys/dips/etc.

Other issues I had is that my hydraulic top link quick connect kept popping loose. Not sure why that was happening.
And the other fittings on my top link kept loosening, causing me to loose hydraulic power. I'm assuming all this was because of the binding. I guess I'm pretty lucky I didn't do any major damage to the PTO but it didn't bind up. But you live and learn. Kind of a tractor rookie here. Have some seat time, but not at doing anything more than a little light gardening work for years.

Another problem I had was that the previous owner had put a rubber no flat tire on the rotary cutter wheel. The tire was not a perfect fit and kept slipping off, and I had to fight to get it back on the wheel only to have it pop off again, 3 or 4 times. By the end of the day the wheel was pretty bent up and the fork was kind of leaning within the rear bracket, so I'm going to have to replace the whole assembly, I think.

With all this fighting of the equipment, I underestimated the need for hydration as well. I was working in 90 degree temps - I have not done any significant amount of work in those temperatures in at least 5 years. By 1pm I was rationing my water. By 4pm I think I was in the early stages of heat stroke or something similar. Lesson learned, bring a lot more water than you think you need. Since the AC in my truck doesn't work, bring my 18V cordless fans and plenty of batteries too.

I ended the day brush cutting in a largely level field with about 4 foot of weed growth. Went slow, kept my loader bucket down and curled back. Found several large tree stumps that I thankfully spotted by keeping the bucket low. When the bucket would start to slide up the stump, I was going slow enough that I could back up and change course.

It was a good day, but kind of a rough first day out.
Re-thinking a lot of my preconceived ideas of how I was going to go about building a home here now that I've actually spent a few hours on the ground. We're not building for awhile, so I'm going to continue to get to know my property over the next year or two before breaking any serious ground.

After struggling with mounting the brush hog, I think I'm going to buy a Speeco Quick E-Hitch also. And seriously looking at a PTO Link (quick connect). When it's hot, I really don't want to be struggling with those.

 

[Dftodd]

I've been doing similar with my property.

I purchased 6 acres of oaks, scrubs, vines, stickers, and poison ivy

My lots fairly flat, just over grown.

In my case, I've been brush hogging what I can and then going after the larger stuff with the chain saw, and then using a set of pallet forks to move the brush and trees to a burn pile.

 

[2manyrocks]

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A stout 5 or 6/foot pry bar also makes it easy to shift rear implements back and forth as needed to line them up to mount.

 

[nyone]

Once initial woody growth is knocked down it may be quicker to use something like a zero turn mower...unless your only mowing 3x a year.

 

[zzvyb6]

Never use a solid or hydraulic top link on a machine with a long wheelbase attachment. Supporting the tractor by the tailwheel and the front wheels (as in crossing a gulley) will eventually lead to some serious breakage (like tractor transmission case cracking, toplink mount broken, etc) . You should understand the mechanics of the inability of 3 supports unable to conform to local terrain. Use a chain or a rocker link assembly. This puts some slack in the 3 axle constraint (front wheels, rear wheels, tailwheel). Rear tractor axle weight usually wins. What are you you willing to sacrifice ?

 

[Santa Craig Cringle]

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A stout 5 or 6/foot pry bar also makes it easy to shift rear implements back and forth as needed to line them up to mount.

I found a tire iron useful in removing the PTO shaft from the tractor when it was not wanting to come off.

 

[Santa Craig Cringle]

Never use a solid or hydraulic top link on a machine with a long wheelbase attachment. ... Use a chain or a rocker link assembly. This puts some slack in the 3 axle constraint (front wheels, rear wheels, tailwheel). Rear tractor axle weight usually wins. What are you you willing to sacrifice ?

I’m new. What is a chain or rocker link assembly and how does it work?

 

[2manyrocks]

Be careful with that. The pto should slide off easily by hand once the locking pin is depressed.

 

[bcp]

Be sure your cutter is configured correctly. It should be functionally similar to one of these



"Standard hitch" articulates in front of the A-frame.

"Quick hitch" articulates behind the A-frame.

Chain: Instead of using Part 3, some people replace Parts 3 and 6 with chain to get the needed articulation. Others replace the top link with chain.

Bruce

 

[Santa Craig Cringle]

Be careful with that. The pto should slide off easily by hand once the locking pin is depressed.

I think it just needed a little more grease in spots. My first time using the PTO on this tractor. The connector slid off to a certain point and got stuck. And I wasn't strong enough to get it the rest of the way off. A gentle pry with the tire iron got it past the sticky point and it slid right off the rest of the way. Just going to add more lubricant next time. Although the PTO Link looks really nice as I get older.

 

[jyoutz]

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A stout 5 or 6/foot pry bar also makes it easy to shift rear implements back and forth as needed to line them up to mount.

I use a digging bar

 

[2manyrocks]

If you have a lot of smaller brush to clear, sometimes it saves time and money to hire a forestry mulcher to grind it up and be done with it.

 

[5030]

Keep your PTO stub well lubricated and when not in use cover it. Most of not all new tractors will come with a plastic pto stub cover. Put some grease in the cover prior to sliding it on. That keeps the stub lubricated for easier fitment of the driven shaft and keep the coupler on the driven shaft lubricated as well. I use spray motorcycle chain lube on mine. Never had a hydraulic top link and don't want one either and they are no good when using any slasher / brush hog, because the brush hog has to articulate when mowing uneven ground. Finally, if I were you, I'd be looking at a larger tractor. Bigger tractor = more power = quicker mow times = more leisure time.

 

[5030]

I might add that Agri-Supply www.agrisupply.com carries not only brush hogs, tiller, plows and all sorts of farm related stuff, they also carry replacement tail wheels and pivot assemblies for slashers / brush hogs in solid, segmented and tube type tires. Myself, I use the segmented never go flat type. Good prices, fast reasonable shipping and nice folks to deal with as well. Not like Messicks where you get screwed on shipping costs....lol

 

[California]

Another vote for a chain between the top of the mower, and (in my case) the Quick Hitch.

Down in the back of my orchard, the rows are terraces. Cross-mowing requires climbing or descending substantial grades between rows. A chain replacing the pivoting top connector on the mower, allows the slack needed to maintain full weight on the tractor's rear tires.

As noted above a change in grade with a too-tight link can leave the tractor hanging from only the front tires and the mower tailwheel. I first noted this with the 2wd YM240, when I slid downhill uncontrollably, partly sideways, for a couple of feet. The tractor rear tires with brakes didn't have enough weight for traction.

The chain is needed only for lifting the mower at tight turns. It's slack nearly all the time.

Careful adjustment of the 3-point lowering limit will limit scalping. I figure anything that gets scalped needed to be made more level anyway.

The chain is barely visible in this photo. It is looped over the top of the QH.

Santa for your rough ground I recommend this solution.

 

[akadave]

Using a short piece of chain rather than a fixed top link helps considerably when mowing uneven areas.

Congrats on the property. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

While I don't have many uneven places like your describing, I do in a few places. Never thought about a chain for the top link idea.

 

[ptsg]

Manufacturers should just use chains instead of those flimsy bars from the A frame to the rear of the cutter. It's better in every way and even cheaper for them.

This way, you get to keep the top link in place. If it's hydraulic, it still allows you to use it and change the angle of the cutter as needed and have it going higher to handle taller brush.

 

[deezler]

Never use a solid or hydraulic top link on a machine with a long wheelbase attachment.

I don't agree here, I frickin LOVE having my hydraulic top link installed for brush hogging.

My woods 5' cutter has it's own flexible top link linkage. But the hydraulic top link on my tractor allows me to instantly pull the cutter way up to adjust to big dips or gullies, etc. And when backing into a bush, it's so nice to be able to have a very high cutting height and attack angle before lowering down for the final pass.

 

[5030]

The other issue that is largely unseen or considered is, when you 'wad' up the mower, IOW like California's picture shows, you severely shorten the distance the driveline has between the mower gearbox and ther tractor PTO and if it's excessively tight (in other words the PTO shaft is jammed tight against the universal joints, something has to give and it's usually the back end of the tractor where the pto stub comes out. That is usually either cast aluminum or cast iron / steel and pushing on it with a pto shaft that has no room to get shorter will cause immediate failure of the PTO shaft and casting as well as internal parts that are all very expensive to repair or replace. You don't ever want to do that and not have adequate pto shaft clearance between the male and female shaft sections.