Chain for toplink while bushhogging

[papachaz]

The chain is loose while mowing. At it's full length the front is two-three foot off the ground before the wheel on the back comes up. I can back up and keep lowering the lift and get pretty far down in a ditch. Imagine taking the top link completely off while mowing and backing up a bank or into a ditch. I usually run with it shortened so the front is only a foot or foot and a half when the back comes up. The only thing that worries me is backing up a levee and hitting something that would make the mower flip over onto the tractor. Don't think that is possible but I'm sure not going to experiment to find out. This is on my Kioti which is a very small compact tractor. I'm going to do the same thing with the bigger Ford tractor next year.

Several years ago my mother was mowing with the Ford 4600 which is a 60-hp, 6000 pound tractor and a nut came off the left three point pin on the mower just as she stood on the left brake to swing the tractor around. When I got there the mower was sitting on top of the left fender and tire. The blade went thru the tire three times before she got it stopped. Sitting in the seat I could touch the blade. All the links on the tractor were bent including the very thick top link.

Be safe out there.

RSKY

this is why I put a spot weld on the threads, those nuts on the pins are NOT coming off, and if for any reason I need to remove them, I an grind it off with an angle grinder. One time coming loose will make a believer out of a person, that's for sure

 

[Lowcountry Rebel]

can you post a pic showing the chain installed on the bushog ?

 

[ptsg]

Over here the brush mowers use chains on the hitch. I have a hydraulic top link, so I just extend it to the max and let the mower float. We also use high strength chains for the cutter instead of blades.

Some people will just disconnet the top link ant let it move however it wants. But if you forget about it and lift the 3 pt hitch too high, it can damage the PTO shaft as it can hit the mower base.



Here is a quick timelapse where the floating acting is visible.

 

[Lowcountry Rebel]

Thanks

 

[jpm1]

I am 64 years old and have been running a tractor with mower since I was about 14. But I learned a new trick, at least to me, this year. Very simply I took my top link off the 3-point and bought a three foot length of chain to replace it while using my mower. With the chain out to it's full 3 foot length I can back up and the mower rear end would drop down in a ditch or on a levee on a pond bank. And speaking of pond levees. I was able to back up onto the levees with the wheel on the back of the mower raising it up once to an angle nearly 45 degrees.

In other words it made a tool a lot more useful.

Why didn't I think of that fifty years ago. Why didn't I do this the first time I read it on TBN.

RSKY

All of my rotary mowers were converted like that. My 3pt finish mower from K Kutter came that way. With a swivel hitch and chain top link it’s a new dimension in mowing. A whole lot earlier on the machine and it’s operator