Rotary Cutter Bush Hogｮ SQ84 Multi-Spindle Rotary Cutters

Gale Hawkins · Apr 30, 2018

I saw one last week for the first time but it was scrap due to using it as a heavy brush cutter and I saw this one on Craigslist when I double checked the area postings and saw this one and hauled it home this afternoon. Looking forward to trying it out soon. At this point I see it as a finishing mower without a belt.

Below is the link I read in detail before purchasing.

SQ84T Series Rotary Cutters

The seller showed me his collection of old post twin cylinder era John Deere's. He used a factory produced LPG 4020 to load this cutter on to my trailer. He refills it from his home propane tank.

LD1 · Apr 30, 2018

Yep, if you treat it as a finish mower minus a belt.....you should have no issues.

No issues even up to 1" or so saplings.

The issue with those 7' twins is the short overall length. Causes taller stemmy stuff, like ragweed, goldenrod, saplings, etc......to not cut well on one pass. The vegetation is bent over by the front lip of the cutter. And that front lip continues to hold it down til the top of the "weed" has cleared that front lip. Then it stands up into the cutter blades and gets chopped up. But with a short deck....by the time that happens.....the stem is already 2' out the back of the cutter.....and it promptly stands back up.

All cutters have this issue to an extent....its just more pronounced the shorter the deck is.

Gale Hawkins · Apr 30, 2018

I like the work of our BH 7' finishing mower but sometimes due to rain or life in general stuff would get knee high on me which puts a lot of stress even that heavy belt so I would have to go over it with our 6' bush hog type mower that must weigh about 1500 pounds and requires the 265 MF with front weights to keep the front in on the ground.

It is my hope with the Bush Hog SQ84 Multi-Spindle Rotary Cutter I can just gear down in these heavy spots and not be stressing about stressing the new belt. It is 50 lighter than the Kodiak 6 MD that I would like to have vs my utility line grade 6' cutter plus the guide wheels are not 8' behind the 3PH with the shorter deck which is a plus with the lighter 3000 and 3600 that I now prefer to use in these small and swampy areas.

I like the fields around the church to looked 'mowed' and not bush hogged.

Gale Hawkins · May 7, 2018

Well we hitched to this offset BH SQ84 twin spindle late today and it is awesome as a finish mower but handles the heavy grass and weeks more like a regular cutter. Also found out the 1980 3600 Ford's governor really works well.

Because the gearboxes have cloudy chocolate looking oil we got it sucked out the best we could and refilled with both boxes with diesel oil and ran it two minutes at idle and called it a day since it was 8:30 PM.

Gale Hawkins · May 9, 2018

Well it took a few cycles but we got the gear boxes cleaned out and filled with EP 80W90 oil about sundown but got in about an hour of bush hogging around both churches some. I love the SQ 84" twin spindle. It will shave the ground and finally get the fields prepared for the BH RD 84" finish mower that we got last year. Our heavy duty 6' cutter will not cut grass very low but will cut anything I can ride over with the MF 265. After 1+ hours in heavy stuff the main gear box was 137F degrees and the slave gearbox was 89F which was only about 20F over air temps.

Unlike the finish mower this BH will do fine chopping up small dead limbs that blew out over the winter/spring. The 9" hang over on the right side keeps me talking to myself to remember the 9" so I do not hang something. The big issue with the finish mower that we got it like in Oct of last year and the grass was tough. Both are 7 foot so it makes the job go faster. The four gauge wheels on the finish mower verse the 2 tail wheels on this bush hog takes a lot of thinking out of the process. The finish mower is safer around roads sides.

Gale Hawkins · May 19, 2018

As one can see in the first post the 3PH A Frame was somewhat twisted and welded well it broke. While it can be rewelded the thing is still twisted. BH has revised the A Frame hitch and a complete new one is around $400.

A guy up the road is where I first saw a Bush Hog SQ84 twin spindle rotary cutter but the one he had a lot of patching on the deck due to being used in too heavy of bushes, etc but I remembered he priced it un repaired for $500 so I went back to look at it. At some point in past repairs someone had put the improved hitch on it so I offered $400 for his SQ84 and he took it. It has all four blades on it and all the gear boxes turn freely and was complete with PTO's and slip clutch and both rear wheels are intact and serviceable. While this new style 3PH A Frame was still relative straight I had it beefed up and got it back today. I like my first SQ84 so now I have a complete set of spare parts and a new improved hitch on the good one in the photo.

The down side I have to find out of sight parking spot for it and get it covered to protect the gear boxes.