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

[masseyrider]

Once I ran over a grapefruit size-shaped rock in high grass. It launched out the left front of the deck and bounced along for 200ft. Got tired of it clogging and re-cutting, so I cut out part of the left rear of the side of the deck. Now it cuts much free-er and discharges a windrow which works well.

Careful with the side discharge and no shielding.
One time cutting with my GC2300 I picked up a rock about 2+ inches thick and about 6-7 across.
The side shield was up so it wouldn't hay row as much.
I was aboot 20 feet from the side of the house.
The rock flew past the large double garage, 32', hit above the living room window deflected down and hit the brick wall for the part of the house that came out there. Just about waist level another 35' down. So at about 90' +-.
The brick it hit has a good size missing chunk.
The aluminum cladding above the window has a dent and cut about 3' long.
I don't fix those things just as a reminder of how important shielding is.
I have the rock in a flower pot. It could easily have killed someone.

 

[John_Mc]

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.

Then you are probably missing either front chain guards or rubber or steel deflector. My Woods Brush hog came with chain guards on the front, an a solid metal piece on the rear. That solid metal pieces quickly got beat up, so I replaced it with the optional chain guards for the rear.

It's 23 years old now and the whole thing has been pretty much beat to death over the years (mowing rocky trails has been tough on it.) I don't even really think of it has having a "discharge", though occasionally things do escape from it.

 

[acarr1]

I’m in agreement with most everyone else. I’ve never heard of a rotary cutter being described as front discharge. I’m pretty sure they’re all designed to be rear discharge when properly adjusted. Of course we’ve all had those instances where debris was thrown back towards the cab. But this is the exception not the rule. There are plenty of good videos out there describing how to set up a cutter so that it cuts well and is safe. Which will always be discharging to the rear.

 

[K5lwq]

Then you are probably missing either front chain guards or rubber or steel deflector. My Woods Brush hog came with chain guards on the front, an a solid metal piece on the rear. That solid metal pieces quickly got beat up, so I replaced it with the optional chain guards for the rear.

It's 23 years old now and the whole thing has been pretty much beat to death over the years (mowing rocky trails has been tough on it.) I don't even really think of it has having a "discharge", though occasionally things do escape from it.

Bought it new 20 years ago. Never had anything on the front. I agree it should have something but I have not used it in 3 plus years.

The point is it should be open in back and front with chains. It is a poor design in that regard.

 

[dkmc]

Careful with the side discharge and no shielding.
One time cutting with my GC2300 I picked up a rock about 2+ inches thick and about 6-7 across.
The side shield was up so it wouldn't hay row as much.
I was aboot 20 feet from the side of the house.
The rock flew past the large double garage, 32', hit above the living room window deflected down and hit the brick wall for the part of the house that came out there. Just about waist level another 35' down. So at about 90' +-.
The brick it hit has a good size missing chunk.
The aluminum cladding above the window has a dent and cut about 3' long.
I don't fix those things just as a reminder of how important shielding is.
I have the rock in a flower pot. It could easily have killed someone.

Yes, where I BH is away from any buildings, etc. It's been knocked down years ago, no more flying rocks/stones at this point. Grass near buildings gets mowed with a zero turn.

 

[Eddard]

Used a 5ft Bushog brand for years on my JD 1010. The front was open and no other discharge. It acted like a mulching mower. However, I agree with others I was hit in the back when I ran over rocks. On the positive, the open front allowed me to run over small trees, and with the stump jumper, it would gobble up those trees.

 

[Hermio]

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.

My chain guards got destroyed by the rocks and branches I run into in the woods, so I left them off. Luckily, the bush hog is close enough to the tractor that nothing has reached the operator height so far. But I have seen rocks travel more than 100 feet. Eye protection is always advised.

 

[ptsg]

My chain guards got destroyed by the rocks and branches I run into in the woods, so I left them off. Luckily, the bush hog is close enough to the tractor that nothing has reached the operator height so far. But I have seen rocks travel more than 100 feet. Eye protection is always advised.

No issues with mine after 350 hours of all kinds of stuff thrown to it. It does need to be some good sized chain. I often see very thin chains and too much space in between, that won't work very well. Mine uses 5/16" chain.

 

[John0829]

How are those chains for blades working out? They look like they might be 1/2"? I have always been leary of using chain for that.

 

[ptsg]

How are those chains for blades working out? They look like they might be 1/2"? I have always been leary of using chain for that.

That's all we use here in Portugal. I would say, 90% of the cutters have chains. They are sold that way. Very few brands offer blade as option.

Mine uses 1/2" Grade 80 chains. It won't care about rocks, stumps, hidden objects in the middle of the brush, etc. Just keeps on going. These are really great even though it does need some HP to run and it may not leave as nice of finish as blades but it's a brush cutter after all.

I have about 350 hours on this set of chains. At about 250, the link at the end of the chain wore out so thin, it eventually cracked and broke. Both halves of the link landed exactly where it broke. I ended up cutting one link off the other chain and have been running 11 links instead of 12.

Now it's wearing out almost too thin again. Once it breaks, I'll replace with a new set of chains. I bought 2 new sets a couple weeks ago.