brush hogging - how high is too high?

[Soundguy]

For brush, grass, stemmy weeds, and green stuff.. not to excede 2" or 1" woody stuff.. You can pretty much mow anything you can get your front axle over, and keep pto rpms at 540.

When I bought my pasture it was 7' of ragweed, and dog fennel, with an underlayer of briar. My 33hp NH 1920 and 5' KK mower ate it up in 2nd range, 2nd gear... engine never bogged down.

Soundguy

 

[JoeL4330]

I've mowed down some pretty big saplings and my mower can handle anything my loader/tractor can knock down ...but, once cut down, some saplings fight back! Had one come up through the radiator ...an expensive lesson ...think "skid plate"

 

[LBrown59]

Premature wear of the PTO shaft U-joints could be the least of your problems...
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What could be some of the other problems <font color="red"> ? </font>

 

[RoyJackson]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Premature wear of the PTO shaft U-joints could be the least of your problems...
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What could be some of the other problems <font color="red"> ? </font> )</font>

Running a mower or cutter off the ground could result in the blades throwing debris that the side skirts (of the mower or cutter) should capture. This could be lethal if debris hit the tractor operator. Or, a blade could come off...

 

[MikePA]

Plus lifting the cutter completely off the ground puts a lot of stress on the lower 3ph arms, particularly when you go over bumps that cause the cutter to 'bounce'.