Brush mower

[IslandTractor]

wear gloves and long sleeves

That's cheating and unmanly. Next thing you'll be telling us to wear ear plugs and steel tipped shoes. Bah Humbug. If you want toe to toe combat with Mother Nature you must dress like a Greek wrestler and take your lumps. Personal protective equipment is for girly farmers.

 

[Seanachie]

Normally, I'm of the opinion that "If pain is good, extreme pain must be extemely good". And what's a little laceration in the name of landscape dominance? After all, chicks dig scars, right?

I just bought this property last year and the previous owner had let thorned vines grow up in profusion. Some of them are 1 1/2" thick. As the machine pulls the vines out of the ground and rips them out of the trees they're attached to, they tend to shred flesh.

I was planning on being true to my celtic heritage and going into battle wearing only a woad mask and blue war paint but quickly realized that, if I did this and one of those vines shredded the wrong flesh, I would become a girly farmer!

 

[IslandTractor]

I responded as I had precisely the same experience a couple of years ago when I started clearing land covered in vines, brambles, weed trees, old stumps and the worlds largest collection of chiggers. I have the numbskull battlescars to prove it. Although I did end up clearing a good chunk of land using the DR, I finally did give up and bought a tractor. I don't want to interfer with your learning curve but I will say that a bush hog and a small tractor is the way to go if you are doing more than an acre. I still have my DR and think it is a great tool but I use it mostly to get at areas around trees or places I cannot get to with the tractor/bush hog. The other significant use is whenever I want an upper body workout as that thing can pull you all over the place. 8 hours with a DR mower and I sleep real well. I also lend it to neighbors now when they admire all the land clearing I do with the tractor.

By the way, one hard learned lesson: get yourself a pole pruner or a branch trimmer for your weedwacker and cut down the vines before heading in with your DR. I have one of the little chainsaw type attachments for my weedwacker and it did a nice job of clearing overhead obstacles that would otherwise have frustrated attempts to get the DR into jungly areas.

 

[Seanachie]

Thanks for the tips! Anybody else got any pearls of wisdom to share on these beasties?

 

[1bush2hog]

Sometimes those vines are attached to dead tree limbs that tend to drop especially when you are not looking - ie. - widowmakers

And Oh yeah - don't forget the yellowjackets

 

[IslandTractor]

Sometimes those vines are attached to dead tree limbs that tend to drop especially when you are not looking - ie. - widowmakers

And Oh yeah - don't forget the yellowjackets

Yep, that is why it is a good idea to cut the vines above head level rather than trying to pull them out of the tree. It is also why you don't want to brush mow over a vine on the ground that is still attached to the tree.

I was almost able to pull an entire tree over with my tractor by wrapping a thick vine around the grapple and backing up. It was a stupid thing to do. I thought the vine would be stripped off the tree limbs but it almost pulled the tree down on me instead. Those things are tough!

 

[caver]

Dredging this thread up again.
I am looking again at brush cutters to get areas that would tip my little tractor over or just inaccessible. I was at Orscheln Farm Store an hour ago and looked again at the Swisher they have on hand. Seems a bit heavy and unbalanced.

I rented some old beater brush cutter last year and it beat me to a pulp but was lighter and better balanced than the Swisher I just looked at. I also read that it has a safety that won't let you put it in reverse without killing the blade.

I have also been looking a the DR Scout as that is about all I would ever need. I'm wondering if I can put it in reverse without the thing shutting down the blade.
When I had the old beater rental it did not have reverse and made for some difficult situations around a ditch.

Brad

 

[IslandTractor]

I have also been looking a the DR Scout as that is about all I would ever need. I'm wondering if I can put it in reverse without the thing shutting down the blade.

My 11hp DR has no trouble at all in reverse. I've never used a Scout but my neighbor has one and I'll ask her this weekend about the reverse business. Never ever buy a brush mower that does not have reverse unless you want to cut brush and press iron at the same time.

 

[caver]

my neighbor has one and I'll ask her this weekend about the reverse business.

Appreciated.

 

[shane]

Just came across this thread. I rented a Billy Goat brush cutter from HomeCheapo a couple a weeks ago. I used the thing all day in the woods, on banks, very tall grass, small trees, you name it. The thing was unstopable. It hanlded very well. Might be worth a look for you.