Convert bush hog to finish mower???

[greeneggsandham]

Any one know if I can swap bush hog blades for lighter ones. Its too much momentum for finish cutting around the house. I would not be using these blades for bush work.

 

[LD1]

Any one know if I can swap bush hog blades for lighter ones. Its too much momentum for finish cutting around the house. I would not be using these blades for bush work.

What do you mean by too much momentum around the house?

I cannot see how less momentum/lighter blades are going to make any difference in the quality of cut. All the momentum does is help the bushhog power through heavy stuff better and keep the RPM's up.

But lighter stuff, it is going to turn the SAME rpm do matter how heavy the blades are.

And I also question the use of a bushhog as a finish mower alltogether. The quality isnt going to be any way near what a finish mower is. Unless your lawn is perfectally FLAT, trying to mow it down to "finish mewer" height with a bushhog is probabally going to tear the heck out of your yard.

 

[greeneggsandham]

It was a badly asked question by me. Never mind the momentum business, just can the blades be swapped for lighter ones?

 

[KTurner]

Any one know if I can swap bush hog blades for lighter ones. Its too much momentum for finish cutting around the house. I would not be using these blades for bush work.

Don't take this the wrong way, but its like using an adjustable wrench as a hammer. Good results? No. Would it work in a pinch? Sure.

Rotary cutter blades spin freely and just utterly beat the crap out of anything they come across until it submits to the beating and falls apart. They don't really cut and they don't have a sharp edge. Finishing mowers are made to cut the grass nicely and neatly into small pieces that fall back into the yard.

I've found you can improve the look of rotary cutter cut yard by slowing down and you can put a bit of an edge on the blades. But you're not going to get finish mower quality cut. The large pieces of grass will pile up in a row. You're going to have issues with the rotary cutter body digging into your yard when you take turns because it doesn't have gauge wheels like a finish mower. It's also difficult to get an even cut for the same reason. You can lift the cutter when you need to turn, but then you have to lower it to the same height again.

With all of that said, I use the rotary cutter occasionally if I let the grass get too tall/thick for the finish mower. But, I don't do it near the house due to safety concerns (no safety chains). If I use the rotary, I go over it again soon with the finish mower as it just looks much much better

Keith

 

[mwb]

I think the questions is why lighter blades? If the BH (PTO) is pushing your tractor around then maybe a one way clutch would be what you are looking for. Loosing blade mass would help but if yours has a stump-jumper then that will continue to push you around.

I use a bush hog (rotary cutter actually ) to cut some not-quite-lawn and I think you will find that it won't lift very well (lawn blades have much better lift) and the discharge might not be very good either. Mine tends to leave clumps everywhere. You would probably also want to add double tail wheels and anti-scalp wheels to the front. Maybe a used finishing mower would be a better solution? You can probably sell your current cutter for half the cost of a decent used finishing mower, might be a better investment.

If you decide to sell your cutter let me know the size, model, etc.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dont have a finish mower, however, I think the blade height on them is closer to the bottom of the housing than a bushhog. With a bushhog frame dragging the ground, I think the lowest it will cut is about 4" which is much too high for a yard grass mow. You could put 4 gauge wheels on it like a finish mower and sharpen the blades but you still wont get the quality of cut and due to the weight you would need some hefty gauge wheels to hold it up.

I think the blade tip speed will be much higher on a finish mower than a bush hog also which gives a more crisp cut to the grass. You would end up spending as much modifying your BH as you would to just buy a used finish mower.

 

[LD1]

I think the questions is why lighter blades?

That is exactally what I was getting at.

What do you expect to gain by going to a ligher blade VS a heavy blade.

Because in my experience, a lighter blade is going to do the exact same thing your heavy blades will do.

 

[Soundguy]

if I wanted to 'finish cut' with a hog, I'd simple sharpen the blades like a lawnmowers blades instead of a 1/16 blut edge that a brush mower likes. might also pay attention to the front skids, and build a set of depth limit chains and stabilizer bars so i could mow as close to the ground as possible without dragging the front edge.

BTDT.. works ok.. not as great as a finish mower.. but if you do it correctly and the mower cooperates.. you can get real close to a 2-3 day growth after a rider mower..

soundguy

 

[greeneggsandham]

I think I'll just get a mower when I can afford one. I find the hog cut grass just fine ( not fussy about perfect lawn , just need it cut) but requires too much time to engage and disengage due to the momentum of the massive blades plus my tractor has an old fashioned clutch. I have alot of tight spaces and require alot of backing up starting and stopping and can do the job almost as fast with a push mower.

 

[GPintheMitten]

It sounds like you don't have an overrunning clutch on your pto. When you step on the clutch, does your tractor keep moving? If so, that is very dangerous and you should get the overruning clutch. Last time I bought one, they were around $65.
Available at TSC.

Then, with Sharp blades and chains and stablizers like soundguy mentioned, you can get by with the hog.