Can’t Sell My Bushhog

[Yander]

I've found that offering to deliver helps, listing on marketplace helps and having it priced right. I know, the obvious.

 

[Fixastuff]

Just like when people can’t find employees. Either the conditions are crap or you’re not paying enough.(except in this case asking too much). Or both.

 

[coast40]

I guess it's a generational thing
Chuck Berry
George Thorogood
Shaggy.

I think 'It Wasn't Me' is the only Shaggy song I have ever heard.
This is the Shaggy I know best.

 

[akadave]

I just sold a 48" Woods M4 brush hog this past summer. It's an interesting size, being so much less common than 60" or 72" cutters.

For the guy with a small compact or larger sub-compact, it's the perfect size, and they've been hunting for one on the used market forever without luck. When they find you, they'll be hot to trot.

But as noted, those guys are fewer and farther between than those hunting 60" cutters. So, you're going to wait.

It's not about price, I'm not sure why anyone would think that. You either have a tractor that requires this size, or you don't have a tractor that requires this size. No one who could run 60" or 72" is even looking at 48"... it's not about price.

Wait until spring, and advertise as widely as you can. When the right guy sees it, it will be sold, but until you find that buyer...

I think I was asking $700, and buyer offered $650. Sold. Unit was from the mid-1980's, and had been clearly left outdoors many years (decades?), but I had cleaned it up, welded new skirts onto it, repainted, and redid all the gearbox seals when I bought it a few years ago. So, it actually looked pretty good, and was a solid unit, despite being 40 years old and showing some scarring thru the paint on the top from old rust pitting.

It was the price. It's always the price. The price accounts for all other factors. If the price doesn't matter he should have held out for $2500.

Giving nonsense advice isn't helpful to guys asking legitimate questions. When the guys who actually needed the four footer saw this one listed too high they passed it by without even sending a message. They knew it was too high and would require too much negotiation and possibly hard feelings. Not worth driving over to disagree with someone and leave with an empty trailer. When the price was lowered it sold immediately.

 

[akadave]

Those here who are saying you need 20hp to run a 48" rotary cutter must not have ever run one!

I have an 48" Woods and a tractor with 12-1/2 hp on the PTO and it runs mine quite good. Yes even in fairly thick grass it mows it right down, just not going really fast.

In normal grass/weeds you can move right along, and the little diesel will keep up just fine, my dad used it for keeping the heavy grass and weeds down where he hunted and in his shooting lanes.

Like I said, you guys that are saying you need more HP to run one just need to go out and try one first.

That was me. I've got several hundred hours of bush hogging on my resume over the past 40 years on a variety of tractors and terrain. Five hp (that's engine, PTO is always reduced) per foot has been the general rule for as long as I can recall.

I also said you can get by with less cutting grass, as you are. Of course going slower, as you are, helps too. You could actually do that with any riding lawn mower so it's no big surprise your tractor can handle it. So I guess what you're saying is the guys saying you need 5 hp per foot are wrong as long as you aren't actually bush hogging. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Yander]

A bush hog is a small market. Only interested guys are going to be guys who have un-used land they like to clear once or twice a year. And if that's the case, they're looking for something larger than 4'.

Conversely, the guys who have small enough mowed area to use a 4' mower are looking for a nicer cut, so a finish mower is their choice.

No surprise that unit has been hard to sell. I don't think any dealers here in my area even put those on the lot.

Brush hogs sell well in Ohio. I think it depends on location too.

Price, maker, duty rating, season, condition and location all matter; but all matter differently depending on buyer.

Economy also matters.

I was buying and selling equipment here and there for fun and a little extra cash. Around fall of 2023 it got hard to move anything. People were not spending around here.

Duty rating: landpride has at least three or four different classes of durability. This affects the price and marketability for an educated buyer.

 

[BleedingOrange]

It’s sold guys! Awesome advice as always.

Did you do anything different to your add to get it sold ?????

 

[Sawyer Rob]

That was me. I've got several hundred hours of bush hogging on my resume over the past 40 years on a variety of tractors and terrain. Five hp (that's engine, PTO is always reduced) per foot has been the general rule for as long as I can recall.

I also said you can get by with less cutting grass, as you are. Of course going slower, as you are, helps too. You could actually do that with any riding lawn mower so it's no big surprise your tractor can handle it. So I guess what you're saying is the guys saying you need 5 hp per foot are wrong as long as you aren't actually bush hogging. Thanks for the confirmation.

Dave, between my three rotary cutters I now have in service, I put several hundred hours in brush hogging, in less than TWO years, and I have no idea how many I've accumulated in the last fifty years?

Even with the little one, I hog out whatever is in the way, but you should already know by now, that "thick heavy grass" takes more power than green brush and we do have thick heavy grass here.

So, like I said earlier, those saying a 48" rotary cutter needs 20 HP to run it, don't own one or haven't even run one! Thanks for the confirmation.

SR

 

[WinterDeere]

It was the price. It's always the price. The price accounts for all other factors. If the price doesn't matter he should have held out for $2500.

Giving nonsense advice isn't helpful to guys asking legitimate questions.

That was a really dickish response, Dave. Of course I wasn't implying that he could sell a used 48" mower for more than new. Let's not be stupid.

My point was that used 48" brush hogs are comparatively rare, compared to the ubiquitous 60" and even 72" variants. So, when the shopper who's been on the hunt for one manages to find one for sale, assuming the price isn't absolutely absurd, they're usually not going to fail to make contact, just because the asking price isn't right where they want it.

Remember that the seller was having trouble getting calls, not losing them due to price.

 

[akadave]

Dave, between my three rotary cutters I now have in service, I put several hundred hours in brush hogging, in less than TWO years, and I have no idea how many I've accumulated in the last fifty years?

Even with the little one, I hog out whatever is in the way, but you should already know by now, that "thick heavy grass" takes more power than green brush and we do have thick heavy grass here.

So, like I said earlier, those saying a 48" rotary cutter needs 20 HP to run it, don't own one or haven't even run one! Thanks for the confirmation.

SR

Good for you. Anyone who wants to mow more than grass and doesn't want to be disappointed should stick with the advice I offered. There's a reason every major manufacturer has similar guidelines.

I wasn't claiming to be a professional grass cutter but responding to your comment about people never running one. I like the proper tool for the job. Get in, get it done and get on to something else. If I was mowing grass at a slower clip smaller would work as I've said several times. In fact I do that quite often but with my lawn mower. The rotary cutters are used for rotary cutter jobs. I guess I'm crazy that way.

We're not just answering questions here we're also building a database of knowledge. I'd hate to see a new tractor owner think he can run a bush hog on a tractor that's too small.