I've never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

[zkubota]

I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

take the place of the top link on a bush-hog. Dad says that is how he pulls his behind his Bota. Of all the farmers around us I've never seen anyone using this method. Has my father lost his mind?
I have a new L4400 with an ol' 5' cutter right now, but will be getting a new 6' soon, and want to be operating it correctly.

Any input?

Thanks

 

[KubotaSteve]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

I've used the chains before, but I really didn't like them so I am back to the regular top link. There really wasn't anything in particular, I just didn't like the idea of chains there instead of a top link and it seemed like the cutter could fluctuate too much.

 

[Moon]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

I switched to a chain. A co worker tipped me off on the idea. My problem was when I'd get to the bottom of one particular hill, and traverse the creek, the top link would be forced / pushed into the bush-hog. Bent the support brackets on it. I could not adjust the top link enough to make it work both cutting and crossing the creek. Switching to a chain fixed that, plus now I can back over the areas and the bush-hog is allowed to go down and cut rather then be held up by the top link. Big advantage if you have hilly property. On level ground I don't think it would be much of an advantage.

 

[beenthere]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

I used the chain for the toplink on my old 'hog' but now just replaced the braces with chain (that run from the toplink connection to the rear of the 'hog') and those chain take up any slack, but are tight to carry the 'hog' around. Chain works great. When there is a swail or backing up a bank, something has to get shorter. Chain will, steel links won't.

 

[bbse]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

After I broke my third pin at the bottom of one of my hills I decided chain might be a better choice for brush cutting. I made my own top link chain by using galvanized 5/16 and 2 stainless threaded u-bolts from Lowes. Cheap and effective. Very adjustable. One other thing I did to my brush cutter that made it work better was I added a second set of pins about 12" below the original ones. I have a KK brand cutter and I had a hard time leveling it properly with the pins so high. They don't seem to set these up for CUTs. Works great now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[_RaT_]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

<font color="blue">When there is a swail or backing up a bank, something has to get shorter. Chain will, steel links won't </font>

Depends on the design. I use a hydraulic top link and both my finish mower and my old brush mower were designed with pivoting top connections. I can see by this post that not all manufactuers design it this way. Where I live, its a must to allow that connection to pivot. I also like being able to back over a bank using the hydraulic top link to lower it over the other side.

 

[beenthere]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

And my RC has the typical 6" pivot linkage, but it isn't enough to keep the steel braces going to the rear of the deck from bending. A hyd top link, if it will pull up short enough, will work fine, I am sure, and is the best of both worlds when reaching down over banks.

 

[joecdeere]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

I understand the use of the chain, but please remember two things about this setup. If you go down a hill and start up the other side you can end up with the cutter at such an angle that the u-joint in the drive shaft fails, which leaves you with a broken shaft turning 540 rpm ( I've seen the results of this, it isn't cheap, and could hurt or kill you) and if it's unknown land and it's too steep as above the mower can come all the way over on you. Don't mean to put a damper on the idea, as it has been around for years. Remember, it is a bush hog, it wasn't designed to mow like a lawnmower, it will tend to leave things, dig in the ground, and mow crooked, scalp places, etc. Finish mowers are for the "finished" look.
Enough preaching

think, walk & look, mow, come home alive

 

[Theowegian]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

I have used a chain instead of a toplink and bracket before but wasn't happy with it. It will probably work for you, tho, and especially, it does work in a pinch.

There were a couple of reasons I like a toplink and a swiveling bracket better.

1. The finer adjustment is better with a toplink.
2. It looked goofy and rattled a LOT
3. If the mower was designed for use with a pin that seems the way a fella should maybe operate it.

As I mentioned before, I owned a BMB mower for a while. It was a primitive mower and it had a solid toplink (no moveable piece) and it had really bent up toplink supports because of the solid braces.

Eventually, I removed the chain and replaced it with a homemade U bracket - just a few hour's worth of work. (I copied the dimensions from a new mower at an implement dealer....heeheheh...)

Summary:
Just remember, with a limp length of chain from your tractor to the bush hog, if you hit a stump or immovable object with the front of your bush hog, the rear could pivot forward and could possibly bonk you on the head, breaking your PTO u joints and maybe your neck, too. . . the solid toplink made me think I was safer...probably wasnt, but still made me think so....

you might like to read this: Using your bush hog mower

Ive attached a picture of the old mower (long gone now) of how I converted this from a chain to an modern style with a moveable toplink bracket... maybe this will help you. As you notice, the moveable part moved above the original toplink instead of the below it, like the new mowers use.

dwight

 

[beenthere]

Re: I\'ve never heard of using a piece of chain to.....

"".......the mower can come all the way over on you""

NOT