Brush Hoggin questions

[woodlandfarms]

As I near the triger pulling on this vehicle, Lots of questions come up. We have 40 hilly acres of blackberry bushes and ugly surprises (Last time it was a 20' 12" thick steel I-beam).

I look at the 1845 and 1430 and do not have a clear idea of how good the brush hog design is. One has a flail mower (which I never hear anyone comment on in the other areas).

Anyway, how good is this part of the gear? I see some blade mods... What else can anyone offer....

 

[tnau664]

I used a flail mower for the first time this year. It's not the type equipment I would use for rough areas. Best insurance is to drive through the area with blades off. This use of time could save wasted time making repairs later.

Almost forgot, cut it slow. Little washed out areas can play havoc with the center of gravity.

T
Piedmont, AL

 

[Phils]

For your blackberry thickets, the brush hog will eradicate them. For the I-beams you'll need something else.

The brush hog I got with the 422 is "flail" type and as such has been mostly trouble-free. I've hit stumps and small boulders and only dulled the cutting edge. And it seems like it cuts fine whether or not the cutting edge is sharp or not. Although I have 40 acres to work with, I've only been concentrating on the center 10. What used to be brush and stump-filled forest is now mown-grass forest.... or as my neighbor said ".... what are you building? a golf course?" ("what" I'm building is a chance to survive a forest fire)

I've had the bolts shear off after severe use but the use of an easy-out helped fix the problem in little time. I've added the second nut to the limit bolts to prevent the blades from riding over them. The blade bolts have "backed out" a couple of times, but I have some lock washers to maybe prevent that from happening as frequently. I'm on my second set of blades and considering all that the first set went through, they hold up well.

Some of the toughest cutting was at a friends house with blackberry thickets 10' high with many nasty rocks hiding.... got 97% done before a boulder bit off one of the blade bolts.

The wheels seem to be the weakest link: others here have had the back solid plastic wheels break and have replaced them with metal. Many have had problems with the inflatable front tires.... I filled them with the "bullet-proof" sealer from Gemplers and have had only one flat (at the above mentioned friend's when a boulder bent the rim.... we hammered it back out and reinflated the tire and it is still holding; that was early last spring).

I've put my flail brush hog through some VERY tough work and been extremely satisfied with the performance.

Phil

 

[MikeOConnor]

I use the brush mower on slopes a fair amount. Here are a few examples of mowing projects -- in most cases you have to scroll down a ways, as these are weekly journal-entries in Marcie's blog

Prairie Haven - News

this one is the source of my avatar photo where I got hung up on a tree as I slid down the hill. The important point here is that although the PT will *go* anywhere, it does slide a bit on hills so you have to pay attention to where you're driving. If you get caught on a tree like I did, you have several options. For a long time I would call Marcie, have her bring out the chainsaw and cut the tree down. Later I realized that if I could work my way around the tree, I could often get on the down-slope side of the tree and then just continue sliding down the hill -- much easier on the tree.

Prairie Haven - Articles - Weekly Journal - Journal November 22, 2004

This second one is mostly about the logging project we were doing, but if you look at the slopes you'll see that I also mowed them out.

I have an 1850 and the mower works fine -- with the exception of the tires. As you've heard from others, you have to do something about the tires or you'll be cranky. I had mine foamed, which makes Power-trac cranky because now the tires are harder and transmit more shock into the mower. They're right -- I'm slowly bending the front forks on the mower, but hey... Talk to AltaVistaLawn about the mower.

Interestingly, the PT doesn't overheat when I do projects like this -- the only time I run into the overheating problem that we've all been talking about is when I'm doing big field-mowing projects. Here's a link to a typical one -- and a picture of the Kubota M6800 that I use to do it;

Prairie Haven - Articles - Weekly Journal - Journal for July 26, 2006

No way I'd take the 'Bota up those hills in the earlier pictures though. PT all the way, and like I said, no overheating problems when I'm doing projects like that.

 

[MossRoad]

For your blackberry thickets, the brush hog will eradicate them. For the I-beams you'll need something else.

The brush hog I got with the 422 is "flail" type and as such has been mostly trouble-free. ....
Phil

I don't think the brush hog for the 400 series is a flail mower. It has two swinging blades attached to a center hub. I think it is classified as a rotary cutter.

A flail mower has a spinning shaft that runs perpendicular to the direction of tractor travel and has many, many blades, or hammers, dangling from the shaft. It can only throw debris forwards or backwards as opposed to a rotary cutter that can throw debris in any direction. Flail mowers work well on grassy stuff, but are not so hot for brush like blackberries.

At least, that is my understanding of the differences between the two types.

 

[MikeOConnor]

Actually, the mower on the Kubota in this picture is a flail -- going through some pretty tall stuff;

http://prairie.haven.com/uploads/img44c672cf80f3e.jpg

It's rated to go through 2-inch trees, i've taken it through 6 and 8-inch stumps by accident with no worries. Big flail mowers is what you see on roadsides when highway folks are mowing. The one I've got is rated for 100hp, the highway folks generally have bigger ones.

 

[MossRoad]

Actually, the mower on the Kubota in this picture is a flail -- going through some pretty tall stuff;

http://prairie.haven.com/uploads/img44c672cf80f3e.jpg

It's rated to go through 2-inch trees, i've taken it through 6 and 8-inch stumps by accident with no worries. Big flail mowers is what you see on roadsides when highway folks are mowing. The one I've got is rated for 100hp, the highway folks generally have bigger ones.

Power Trac does not offer a flail mower for the 400 series tractors, as far as I know. They do not offer one for sale for the 30HP units, either. They do offer them for the 45 and 65HP units. On the bigger units like the original poster is considering, I think a brush cutter will do a better job on brush than a flail mower.

 

[Phils]

Dang, there I go again.... thinking I understand something.

I thought "flail" meant the blades weren't fixed but swing on a hinge.

Whatever the proper terminology, the brush hog that PT sent me works GREAT! I was originally looking to buy a CUT, but the book offered by TBN set me straight. Then I thought I wanted a 4WD mower and looked at the JD offerings.

Because of this site I bought a PT.... got the mower I needed PLUS a backhoe, forklift, loader, brush carrier (grapple bucket), stump grinder and a way to carry it all to another place (ramps).

WAY better than just getting a mower.

Even if I don't know what kind.

Phil

 

[kjm3232]

We have the 1430 and we did purchase the brush mower this past may. we have 3 acres in back of the house that we had a logger come in and cleared 2 years ago but left the stumps there in the ground. The prickers had grown over the some of the fallen branches and logs that were still around after we had the trees taken out. Anyway, the brushmower has taken out most of the prickers and small limbs and trees no problem. We use the stumpgrinder to ground down the stumps, use the bucket to remove the bigger logs and branches laying around and then use the brush mower to clear the area.We than repeat the same process to clear an area. For the most part, the brush mower has done well. We have broken a blade bolt when we hit a large rock in the prickers. Also the front solid rubber wheel had come off when it was hit by another rock. We brought the tire down to a tire place and they put it on. The blades are bent and pitted but i'm not going to replace them until i get the entire 3 acres cleared completely.