Finish mower with bush hog blades: Such a thing?

[beppington]

Don't own one, but I've read that pro grade zero turn mowers have pretty thick mower decks.

Just wondering if it would be reasonable for somebody to make a "bush hog blade option" for heavier duty finish mowers? (assuming it's not already available)

The idea would be, when you want to bush hog instead of finish mowing, you'd remove your regular finish cut blades & install maybe a small stump jumper with blades swinging on their own spindles, like typical rotary cutter blades.

Is this already available?

Any reason it couldn't be done?

 

[RickB]

The Woods RM990 comes pretty close with free-swinging blades giving a finish quality cut.

 

[beppington]

The Woods RM990 comes pretty close with free-swinging blades giving a finish quality cut.

I'm talking about doing this on a zero turn or other dedicated mowing machine (riding lawn mower), not on a tractor implement.

 

[RickB]

If you turn a lawn mower into a brush hog, the next transformation will be turning it into scrap.

 

[beppington]

If you turn a lawn mower into a brush hog, the next transformation will be turning it into scrap.

What parts on a big, heavy pro-grade zero turn mower would fail?

 

[RickB]

What parts on a big, heavy pro-grade zero turn mower would fail?

Drive belts, any pneumatic tires, blade spindles, and the deck shell, probably in that order. None of which are designed to handle the loads of cutting stiff, brushy stems or driving over sharp stumps.

 

[Ken45101]

You also don't have the horsepower for brush mowing. Note that a tractor rated for a 4' brush mower will be rated for a 5' finish mower. Take something designed for a finish mower, it won't handle the same size brush mower.

 

[beppington]

You also don't have the horsepower for brush mowing. Note that a tractor rated for a 4' brush mower will be rated for a 5' finish mower. Take something designed for a finish mower, it won't handle the same size brush mower.

The HP-per-foot criteria can actually be met: Kubota's zero-turn ZD221 has 21 HP & is available with a 48" mower.

But ... I had in mind not your typical bruiser style bush hogging, where you jam the bush hog into whatever mess you encounter as long as there doesn't seem to be woody stuff any bigger than what your hog can handle - I had in mind lighter usage, cutting stuff somewhat bigger than what you'd normally cut with a finish mower, but not as big as what a tractor's 3PH bush hog can handle.

 

[Bird]

I don't know of anything like that being available at this time, and I don't know whether it could be made and be practical, but I like the idea. And ideas and dreams are how things get invented.

 

[Ken45101]

The HP-per-foot criteria can actually be met: Kubota's zero-turn ZD221 has 21 HP & is available with a 48" mower.

But ... I had in mind not your typical bruiser style bush hogging, where you jam the bush hog into whatever mess you encounter as long as there doesn't seem to be woody stuff any bigger than what your hog can handle - I had in mind lighter usage, cutting stuff somewhat bigger than what you'd normally cut with a finish mower, but not as big as what a tractor's 3PH bush hog can handle.

Not all of that horsepower on a zero turn goes into cutting.

Realize that something like a ZD221 has three blades across (as do most finish mowers). There isn't enough room front to back for a brush mower bigger than 24" or so unless you go to a multispindle design like a batwing bushhog ($$$$$). Note that bush hog type cutters are always rear mount, I've never seen a mid mount type. I think that has to do with the size and sturdiness required.

If you really do not expect to get into cutting big stuff or running into rocks, then you can do it with a finish mower. As long as you aren't hitting anything that won't give, the big limitation of a finish mower is the discharge area clogging up. Opening up the discharge area would solve that. I've used finish mowers and a ZD221 for mowing pasture paths, the limitation is usually the side discharge clogging up. Yes, I did bog down the ZD221, but then I also bogged down a M9540 (90 hp) with a 15' batwing in the same area!

Ken

 

[RickB]

The HP-per-foot criteria can actually be met: Kubota's zero-turn ZD221 has 21 HP & is available with a 48" mower.

But ... I had in mind not your typical bruiser style bush hogging, where you jam the bush hog into whatever mess you encounter as long as there doesn't seem to be woody stuff any bigger than what your hog can handle - I had in mind lighter usage, cutting stuff somewhat bigger than what you'd normally cut with a finish mower, but not as big as what a tractor's 3PH bush hog can handle.

Go ahead and build it. You have yourself talked into it anyway.

 

[2manyrocks]

I think another weak spot is going to be that the electric clutch on most ZTR's can't handle the load of brush cutting.

 

[passgas55]

The tip speed of the blades will be to fast for a bush hog type of cutting. Like posted before the mower will turn to scrap.

 

[finnegan]

Go ahead and build it. You have yourself talked into it anyway.

We bought a 10-acre repossessed home, that had set empty for 3 and a half years. There was 5-6 feet of overgrowth, both in the yard and in the pastures. Someone told me to rent a commercial grade 60-inch zero turn mower to bush hog it and it work fantastically. I would recommend avoiding saplings when there are a lot of them growing together side by side, and would also avoid stand alone saplings larger than an inch in diameter. Not sure why RickB is so opposed to the idea, as the voice of experience (at least in my case) suggests otherwise.

 

[Ken45101]

A six year old thread came back to life....

As I mentioned years ago, a zero turn may cut most of the heavy vegetation, but a clogged up discharge may limit what you can cut.

The other issue is "what happens when you hit the unexpected object?" A bush hog blade is designed to bounce back and not have any significant damage. A regular finish mower is not.

A few months back I was mowing and hit some rough ground with my small tractor (Kubota B2710) and mmm (mid mount mower). The front weight came off and I hit it. It stalled the tractor immediately. The deck still ran but had a noise in it. $650 damage to the gearbox. A true brush cutter probably would not have had any damage beyond a nicked blade.