How to brushhog uneven terrain without damaging equipment

[nschneid]

I forgot to mention that the chain attachment also allows you to adjust the ride height of your mower so you don't have to continually readjust it when raising/lowering etc. This is especially important for tractors whose 3 PH don't stay in the same place or leaks down.

Are you talking about a chain limiter?

 

[MESSMAKER]

A good cutter can take a shot from a rock with little ill affect. I would go slow and not worry about it. Most cutters end up with some welds on them if you use them enough.

 

[CADplans]

This is how I got RID of my bush hogging issues,,,,

 

[4570Man]

I use my finish mower as much as I can. Having wheels on all 4 corners and being shorter helps a lot. Also if you can help it don't back across into the ditch. I have had become luck backing down from the top, but this isn't always possible. Even better is running across the hill, but sometimes they are too steep to do safely.

 

[jenkinsph]

Use the mower on the 95% of the field that you can mow without problems. Then fix the problem areas as you have the time. A landscape rake and your fel can help with this for starters. I get off the tractor and look for stumps, rocks and old engine blocks before finding them with a mower.

 

[compact]

As others have suggested, a hydraulic toplink greatly improves handling on uneven/rocky terrain. you can hover the cutter at any height desired, lift the back 2.5 feet to maneuver or hit large trees (smaller higher on the trunk), or drop the cutter down into a ditch. Mowing over rocks with the front lifted and tailwheel down is also effective, all done from the seat of the tractor.

 

[DieselBound]

Use the mower on the 95% of the field that you can mow without problems. Then fix the problem areas as you have the time. A landscape rake and your fel can help with this for starters. I get off the tractor and look for stumps, rocks and old engine blocks before finding them with a mower.

I'll run with my loader bucket edge down for early warning detection. Kind of a pain to run around with the loader while mowing, but I leave it on all that time (I multi-task a lot).

I once hit an old VW axle with my brush hog. REALLY tough stuff! It came out as a tie. Happened right around dusk as I was getting ready to pack it in for the day; turned around to see a great light show -sparks- happening as I started to pull up the mower.

If you raise the front and leave the back down then you're still going to hit stuff as it hits the back end of the mower.

I have an old field mower that doesn't have the float in the top link connection like new ones do. I have found that if I have the top link adjusted so that when I have the mower raised the backend droops then it tends to ride more on the tail wheel and less on the leading edges of the skids (which would otherwise dig in more). The downside of this is that you tend to bunch cut material at the rear of the mower (with tall grasses and brush you'll need to go slower or raise up a bit).