Largest Bush Hog

[dtmarion]

Hello all,

I have a B7500 and was wondering what is the largest/ most heavy duty Bush(Brush?) Hog that the B7500 would support? I don't know anything about them but a coworker is considering buying a tractor and was asking me questions about it. Any input would be great.

Thanks

Dan

 

[Bird]

Dan, it depends to a great extent on what you intend to cut with it. Naturally you don't want one so heavy your 3-point hitch can't pick it up and/or so heavy that when you do pick it up, the tractor's front wheels come off the ground. And the thicker the stuff you intend to cut, the heavier duty mower you want, but the narrower width you want. For a personal opinion, if you only intend to mow grass and weeds, I might try a light duty as big as a 5' mower, realizing that might be pushing the envelope a bit. For anything else, I'd probably stay with a light to medium duty 4' mower.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I found this info in the Yanmar forum:

Generally speaking, you should have about 5 pto hp per foot of rotary cutter, and try to keep the cutter within the width of your rear wheels if they are reversed.

and

That 5 hp per foot is not a bad general guideline, but certainly not an absolute. It depends on how heavy duty a rotary cutter you want to use, how tough (or large) is the stuff you want to cut, flat level ground or hilly, how fast you want to go, etc. The smallest PTO powered rotary cutter for tractors that I've personally know of is 42" and the smallest I've actually seen was 48", but my little B7100 handled that 48" Bush Hog just fine (and it was only 13 PTO hp).

It came from this <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=yanmar&Number=219520&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1/>thread</A>

 

[Stonewall]

For grass and weeds on flat open ground you could probably pull a 5' rotary cutter (bush hog) without a whole lot of strain but you would need to go slow. For more general use, use a 4' unit that you can get almost anywhere. You will find that most MFRs only offer the 4' in "light" or "standard" duty ratings. If you want to go the other way (smaller), Land Pride and Rhino offer 42" units and King Kutter has a 40" unit. These are all rated as light duty. Woods has a 40" Medium duty unit that it sells to the grove and orchard markets for cutting in the groves and mulching the prunings off the trees. I have a 1215 Massey w/ 15 PTO HP and I am looking at the King Kutter 4' rotary cutter and a Land Pride 5' "Patriot" rear discharge finish mower (side discharge would cut it down to 4').

 

[FamilyFarm]

I have a medium duty Fred Cain 48" cutter for use with the BX22 (17 pto hp). It is a very appropriate size in my opinion. For really heavy cutting, you need a larger tractor and cutter. For average use, this setup is fine. I did mow a few acres of Bahia grass about 4 ft tall once and I had to go slow. Bahia is a tough, thick grass to cut and I should have cut it higher the first round. I had too much hay clogging the cutter before being discharged.

Terry

 

[dtmarion]

Another question, What does one cut with a light duty cutter?

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>What does one cut with a light duty cutter? </font color=blue>
What a cutter is capable of is usually listed on the manufacturer's web site and the Owner's Manual. A light duty cutter is usually designed to handle grasses, weeds and light brush (up to an inch in diameter).

 

[Bird]

My Howse 500 rotary cutter manual only mentioned "grass"; nothing in the manual even mentioned brush, saplings, etc. However, I mowed down Johnson grass that was over 6' tall, lots of small mesquite up to an inch or so in diameter, and even ran over and chopped up one pile of 2 x 4s that I didn't seen in the tall grass and never had a problem with the mower.

Personally, I sorta consider light duty = up to 1", medium duty = up to 2", and heavy duty = up to 3" and over 3" is time for the chain saw/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif, but if you look at some of the manufacturers' specs, it varies. I've noticed on Bush Hog's web site that some light duty say up to 1", but at least one of their medium duty says up to 3", and a 6' heavy duty up to 4".

In other words, there are no exact numbers.

 

[Stonewall]

After I spoke yesterday I researched a little more and found that Howse makes medium duty 4' cutters as well as light duty 4'ers. If you want a good laugh about what you can "cut" with your bush hog do a search on "worst thing ever run over with a bush hog" (or something like that). We had a good time laying our cards on the table with that one. I think the original thread was under related topics. When I was a kid my Dad cut up a concrete elecrical service box with ours!

 

[looch]

My Bush Hog SQ480 manual says, as Bird indicated, brush up to one inch think.

Using some common sense, I do go over this limit. For example, what's the difference in hardness between a 3/4" diameter mesquite branch and the same diameter Basswood? I take down 2" - 3" D spruce trees. When approaching a larger tree, I ease into it and "nibble" it away.

I am not advising on how to operate a brush cutter - just saying how I use mine. YMMV.

 

[patrickg]

Hard to add much after Bird gives a response but I would mention that the 5HP/ft can only be an approximation in a certain limited size range as the HP requirement, I think, goes up at the square of the blade length. A six ft cut would require about 2.25 times the HP of a 4 ft cut in the same material, same forward speed, etc.

I have 39 PTO HP to a 6 ft mower and routinely cut brush/saplings over 2 inches. For big stuff, I back over it to avoid damage to the tender underbelly (need skid pan). For insane attempts at cutting trees, I raise the cutter way up, back over the tree, and lower the cutter down, eating the tree like over enthusiastic pencil sharpening. Every so often I stall the motor when I let the speed drop and lose hydraulic power to raise the cutter to avoid the stall. If I am really quick and have the presence of mind, I can kick in the clutch and disengage the PTO.

I recently impaled the engine compartment with a 4 ft length of 1 1/2 inch diameter branch. I ididn't notice until I stopped the engine (to remove debris from the screens in front of the radiator) and it woudln't crank back up. Wouldn't spin the starter. Used a come along to remove the stick. Broke a rope, doubled it and broke that, changed rope and pulled the stick out. It has wedged near the starter and touched the clutch linkage. I thought maybe the clutch "safety lockout" was stopping my start attempts but not so. I ran my finigers around where the stick had been and felt a loose wire. It "snapped" back into place on the side of the starter (like a snap on a western shirt) and she cranked right up.

Moral of the story... BE CAREFUL when brush hogging!

Patrick

 

[Loges1]

The rule of thumb that I learned from my dad years a go is "If the tractor will mash it down the mower will chop it up. Just ease into it". You would be amazed at what a 4630JD w/dualls could mash down. That 15' batwing never missed a beat though. But now that I pay the bills I don't mash down near as much.

 

[utahmule]

How's this for a Brush Hog?

 

[Stonewall]

THAT will keep the weeds down! (Trees and shrubs too). There's another HD peice of equipment that is mounted behind a bull dozer and is used to chip/mulch dead trees in burn areas. They were using one in the Hayman burn area here in Colorado after the fire was out and they were trying to build some of the soil back so it would not errode into Cheesman resevoir - Denvers' major source of drinking water!

 

[bobnewjersey]

Hi Dan...........a good friend recently bought an 8' bush hog. After 4 months he hates it. Too big. I have a 6' medium duty and it's good for most work. Unless your cutting along roads all the time I'd stick with something in the 5 to 6 foot range.

 

[utahmule]

This one will eat standing dead, live, downed trees of ridiculous size. We use it here in Utah for fire rehab and fuels reduction. It's an awesome site underway. You can just chew up the trees or mulch them in to the soil.

Good stuff