Bush hog blades not cutting

[gsganzer]

I'm with you Bird. I have a Rhino SE4 and find that it cuts better going clockwise. It actually seems to discharge the cuttings to the left side beneath the deck, leaving a row of cut grass clumps to the left side of the cut swath. If I go CCW, then I'm trying to re-cut the discharged clumps when I overlap my swath. Anyone else find this?

 

[Freds]

All this talk about cutting direction.....

I don't think I have a predetermined cutting direction. If I'm cutting a section of field, I make about three loops around the outside (clock or counter determined by the direction I entered the field), then I start bisecting the field using this outside path to turn the tractor and head back the other way. I'll make a couple row cuts and start widening them, sometimes having the cut path on the right and sometimes on the left. Eventually I'll start a fresh path and keep working the field from one side to the other.

I'm still thinking it's the extra weight of the tractor and the lousy touchup on the blades I'm sure I gave it. There just didn't seem any easy and safe way to brace those blades and stop them from turning, so I one handed the 4-1/2" grinder the best I could and even with one end of the brush hog held up with a couple chains on the FEL and some 4x4s as a couple deadmans.... I wasn't going to crawl under it /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[have_blue]

Hey Freds, The driveway leading inside my tractor shed is on an incline, and I use it to help get my bush hog higher up in the air when I sharpen my blades. I back the tractor outside, turn it around, then back it part way back inside the shed. When the rear tires are just up on the slab, I set the parking brake and raise the bush hog up. It's amazing how high it goes with the tractor's front wheels a foot or so lower than the rear wheels. A pair of 4x4's with notches chain sawed in the ends make excellent braces. I sit on an old lawn chair and grind the blades, but it's tight. I need a milking stool! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm going to build a 3' high dirt ramp out back of my shed to make it even easier. I will back the tractor up, wheels on top of the ramp. Bush hog raised up and braced. I am thinking I can sharpen the blades and clean the deck in relative safety, WHILE STANDING. My back will throw a party!

 

[Bird]

And if you have the hydraulic top link, you can really tilt it up high.

 

[Slippy]

I finished mowing last year with my 10' pull behind rotary cutter last year and it did fine. This year I started cutting and I thought there was something wrong with the cutter. Every pass I would leave a stream of pushed over grass that did not get cut. I tried every direction, every speed, and nothing helped. I looked at my blades and they looked good, and deck was very clean. Because of the 10' cut, every pass all four tires are in uncut grass. So as I paid closer attention, I observed that the tires were pushing the grass down, and it was not springing back up. Because there is absolutely no difference in my equipment since last fall when I was cutting to this spring, I came to the conclusion it must be the conditions. In thinking about last year, we got a lot of rain and I usually cut grass when it was a little wet or damp. This year it is bone dry. Even water holes, low places are dry this year that I have never seen dry before. So, I concluded it was the dryness of the grass. To test my theory, I am going to cut the next chance I get when the grass is damp and see if this makes a difference. It is very frustrating because it turns my 10' cutter into a 5' cutter becasue I have to overlap next time around. With 250 acres to mow (if I don't cut any hay) thats not good.