Mowing Bushhog question.... rear or front discharge?

[Green Acres Homestead]

Looking at purchasing a 5 foot bush hog for my L2502 and I'm wondering should I buy a rear or front discharge. Could anybody shed some light on the pros and cons of a rear discharge vs front discharge?

 

[RjCorazza]

The only front discharge brush cutters that I am familiar with are the front mount skid steer type. I would not want material purposely being discharge back at the tractor. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the question.

 

[K5lwq]

My BushHog brand cutter is front discharge and I wish it was rear. Mainly because of the crap that is thrown on you while mowing. But a rear discharge would be much better backing into brush to cut. Mine pushes the brush down and the blades never touch the brush.

 

[workinonit]

I've never seen or heard of a front discharge 3PH bush hog. What an idiotic idea on an open station tractor. I get enough crap discharged out the front of my rear discharge. I can't imagine doing it on purpose.

 

[K5lwq]

 

[Doug Vee]

View attachment 878852

I have been around these rotary cutters since I was around 10 years old. I am pretty sure that would not be characterized as a "front discharge" cutter. My uncle was on the Massey Ferguson 35 with a 6' Bush Hog behind clearing brush from an overgrown pasture back in the late 60's. A rock "discharged" from the front of the cutter and hit the back of his leg. It left a heck of a bad bruise.

Most manufacturers offer optional chain deflectors for the front of the machines nowadays.

Doug

 

[ptsg]

Brush cutters must be open in the front and in the back with a good chain skirt in the front and back. That's the best way to do it and that contains the debris the best. It also needs to be able to cut either going forwards or backwards, otherwise it's pretty worthless.

Never heard of this front discharge/rear discharge thing. Doesn't really make much sense to me either.

 

[K5lwq]

The only opening is in the front. It does cover you and the back of the tractor with grass. It has thrown big rocks 30 plus yards in front of the tractor before. Maybe it is not called front discharge but that is exactly what it does.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

View attachment 878852

That looks like a Bush hog brand Squealer, I have a model 720 which is a 6' and while I bolted a piece of heavy duty conveyor belt to the front of mine for the occasional piece of debris of rock mine is not a front discharge.

 

[TerryR]

The first rotary cutter I ran was in the late 1950's, maybe very early 1960's, cutting corn stalk stubs after harvest. It came with a metal shield around 5 ft. tall and half as wide that bolted on the tractor behind the operator. Worked pretty well, except on our Farmall H it left a gap about a foot long between the bottom of the shield and deck of the tractor. We fixed that by hanging a burlap bag over the gap, but it never lasted long with all the debris that came at it.