Rotary Cutter bush hog not cutting

[way0utwest]

I hooked up my bush hog for the 2nd season, leveled it, and ran around the yard, but it didn't cut. The grass wasn't wet, and the blades didn't seem that dull.

any suggestions for a newbie? When I got it from the dealer, it cut fine last season.

 

[Willl]

Somebody steal the blades ?

 

[carasel]

are the blades turning? check to make sure you've not sheared the shear bolts.
they will be located in front of the gear box. at the end of pto shaft.

 

[LD1]

1. Make sure the blades turn
2. Sharpen the blades anyway
3. Make sure it is low enough to cut the grass,weeds and you don't have it raised too high
4. Make sure you are not going too fast

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm with carasel. Make sure that the blades are actually turning. It's pretty easy to break a sheer pin and not know it.

If the blades are turning, but not cutting, then they are either on backwards, or we have different versions of what cutting means.

Does anything happen when you engage the mower? Air movement from under it?

Eddie

 

[kthompson]

Eddie hits my thought on air movement. So you did connect the PTO shaft and then engaged the PTO, correct? You did run the engine to get correct PTO shaft speed (probably 540 PTO rpms). Sometimes the pto shaft is hard to see if it connects on the tractor, be sure it did.

 

[RWolf]

With a shedder (rotary cutter) I haven't heard one "not" make any noise that was operating properly. Mine make a quite noticable rumble when I start it up and my neighbors sounds like all **** is breaking loose.

 

[way0utwest]

OK, thanks for the advice. It was cutting last year, now when I run it over weeds/grass that is 1-2ft, it doesn't appear to be cutting. I've had it as low as possible, even had the front edges dragging on the ground.

The blades are on it (should have checked first) and appear to be tight. The PTO shaft rotates by hand, and rotates the blades. The are somewhat dull, but I didn't think they need to be sharp. I can touch them up with an angle grinder and see what happens there.

The sheer bolt is in place, and doesn't appear to be broken. When I run it up to 540rpm on the tractor (PTO reading, about 2200 engine RPM), it appears to be rumbling and turning, but no cutting.

I'll sharpen tonight and see if that helps.

 

[jinman]

It's possible that your blades are in a collapsed position and frozen/rusted in place with rust due to setting up all winter. Make sure each blade is free to rotate on its pivot attached to the stump jumper. Normally, when this happens the cutter really shakes due to being out of balance, but if your blades are collapsed equally and frozen, then you might not notice.

 

[cowboy357]

I,d Look Underneath Without it Running ,& Make Sure The Blades Aren,t Being Held Together From Something Rapped Around the Blades thereselves or Just Stuck . Just a Thought .

I,ve Never Sharpened the Blades on My Bush Hog & They,ll Cut Through Much thicker stuff then Your Talking about , Only Thing That keeps It From Cutting is A Log, Rock Or a Couple of Hundred feet of Barbwire fence Rapped up in Above Or around the Blades . Best Of Luck Getting it Figured out , Bob