atv tow behind rough cutters

[bob is your uncle]

anybody use one of these and how do they compare to a tractor brush cutter. lots of info on the web about tractor mounted cutters and very little on these guys are they a joke/toy or useful?

 

[leonz]

Do not waste your money. "I can say that from my personal experience" as they do not have the power to manage overgrown tall brush AND they will leave plenty of dead grass that will kill sod AND they cannot recut material to a smaller clipping UNLESS AND ONLY IF the brush is tinder dry and even then it will blow it around rather than cut it up to smaller clippings.

 

[tmcj]

I used a Swisher 44" rough cut mower behind my ATV for several years to keep some rather large areas cleaned up, and maintain some ATV sized trails. It got the job done just fine with tall grass, weeds, small saplings, etc. Basically anything I would drive my ATV over or through without worries. I would have to set it on the highest cut and then lower and mow again in the thick stuff sometimes. But for the most part, it did what I needed it to do. The downside is that my Grizzly 700, or any ATV for that matter, isn't really meant to travel at such low speeds required for mowing for hours at a time. I really had to keep an eye on engine temp and give it plenty of breaks to cool down. Due to the Grizzly's design, the gas in the tank would literally boil from the engine heat and had to be vented often to relieve the pressure. The other downside is you are operating another engine, which means carrying extra gas along to keep it going. I would say that if an ATV is your only option, then these cutters are great to have and as long as they are used within their limitations, do a great job. Especially for maintaining small trails that a tractor and brush hog are too large to get through. I have had my tractor for 2 years, and even pulled it behind the tractor several times since it handles the continuous low speeds much better. But this spring I finally purchased a 60" brush hog for the tractor and it is a world of difference. The brush hog by far does more work in less time. I'm sure the 16" cutting difference helps, but it gets through everything so effortlessly compared to the Swisher. There is so much more driving force and HP behind the brush hog that it seems to do twice the cutting in half the time, especially in the heavier stuff where I had to make 2 passes with the Swisher. Basically, the brush hog is absolutely the way to go if you have a tractor to operate it. The only downside to it for me is that it is too big for some of my trails, which I may reconfigure so the tractor and brush hog will fit through. I'm not yet to the point of being willing to sell my Swisher only because of some of my smaller trails, but otherwise, it has become obsolete.

 

[CMV]

Had a Bush Hog GT 42 for a while. This was before I had a tractor of any sort so it was beat the heck out of riding mowers and/or use that behind an ATV. While it worked and would "bush hog", it was very limited like a regular gasoline engine lawn mower. Would easily bog down. Was also an older one with one long fixed blade. No stump jumper or swivel blades - so hitting something solid was very damaging to the blade or would stall it. Luckily I never bent driveshaft or anything too bad but due to design and large # of rocks I have was a lot more blade maintenance than a typical bush hog. So yes, they work, but have to be used within their limitations and expectations have to be reasonable. Do not expect it to work like a PTO drive rotary cutter.

 

[LarJea]

I had a Swisher 60' finish cut I used to tow behind and also push from the front of my Kubota RTV for keeping my trails through the woods clear of grass and light brush. I sold it when I bought a tractor with a mid mount mower. Now I use a flail mower. The tow behind did just as good of a job cutting as the other two.