Rotary Cutter Let's get to bottom of this! Brush hogging in reverse..

[bigbull338]

the only time you back into any area to shredd is because you cant go there farwards.an if you dont like the look or feel you get in your gut check the area 1st.i use the loader to push brush over.an if its to big i wont try it.you have to use commen sense when shredding.

 

[aczlan]

I will back over small trees (under 3") and multiflora rose, or into spots I don't want to drive over (like hedgerows).
I have a mower that has a chain going from the deck to the top of the 3pt arch (as seen here) so, if I back up a bank, it doesn't try to lift the tractor.

Aaron Z

 

[TripleR]

My tractor cost close to 50k and my mower about 8k, guess which one I worry more about tearing up...

 

[Car Doc]

Backing into places is just part of it its either do it with the tractor or bring something smaller also and mow those spots you cant turn around in.

As far as backing over something long I just went over forward like a small tree no way do I do that just asking for trouble of some kind jmho.

Now when I bush hog mulched my corn a few weeks ago I went forwards and backwards but that isn't as strong as a tree.

 

[mooseracing]

My tractor cost close to 50k and my mower about 8k, guess which one I worry more about tearing up...

I'd be afraid to use either :laughing:

 

[dawoodwa]

I have been bush hogging for close to 50 years and I mow forwards and backwards depending on the material and terrain. I have never torn a bush hog up nor run a stob through a tire...yet.

As mentioned, you may need to slow down etc. I have backed up ten feet then lowered the cutter to about as low as it will go then driven forward back over the stobs then repeated the process.

When mowing slopes, I will often mow backwards and forwards.

I may be doing it wrong, but so far it has worked for me.

I have been doing the same for about 35 years and I haven't torn a mower up yet. Now that I have the L5030HTC it is even better, can really ease that mower into a lot of heavy growth. No way will I use my tractor to run over things to protect the mower. Mower parts are a lot cheaper than tractor parts. I have a cousin that is in the equipment repair business and I see a lot of examples of how using the tractor to "size" things for the mower that don't turn out too good for the tractor. Only way I would run over it first is using tractors like a friend has for mowing right of ways. He has full skid plates and cages on his tractors and even then he sometimes has issues because things get up in the engine compartment.

 

[beppington]

With my year old L3940, now at ~270 hours, I've bush hogged small trees many, many times in reverse, but I always watch to see how well they've been cut as they pass between the bush hog & tractor. If they're completely cut off, all is good. But if they've been bent over but not cut off, I make sure I continue back up until my loader is past the bent tree so I can make the loader push the bent over tree forward, so it can't get all jammed up below the tractor. 100% success so far (knocks on wood)

 

[buck12]

When clearing briar thickets I use reverse a lot to protect myself. I have bent the tail wheel fork backing. I tore the transmission filter housing from under the tractor going forward in a thicket. My point is one can do damage forward or backward when using a tractor in the place of a bulldozer

 

[RSKY]

Most of our bush hogging is done on the farm in the Clarks River bottom in Western Kentucky. The largest field borders on the river. It floods several feet deep about every third year. You don't have any idea what is hidden in the grass when you mow. I have found stumps, fence post, 55-gal barrels, you name it and it will be there. Next to the river is some of richest soil there is in KY. The remainder of the farm is on a hill with gulleys from springs on the hillside. Grass and weeds so high in one part that on the first pass I have stopped and stood on the hood of the tractor to make sure I wasn't going into the river, which is about a ten foot vertical drop. North part tends to stay wet in all but the dryest part of the year so you get stuck easily. Other parts nearly bare.

It can make for an interesting day on the tractor.

The absolute worse problem I have ever seen on a bushhog was back in the early seventies when my father, in high grass, found a couple of fence posts with I don't know how much barbed wire still attached. By the time he got the tractor stopped all three or four strands were wrapped around the blade. I remember seeing it all twisted up under the flipped upside down mower but I have no idea how he got it off. I do know he never used that mower again.

What I am trying to say is if you use your bush hog as it is suppossed to be used you will probably never tear it up. If you use it like I have had to use one for the past thirty something years you will break something. It all depends on how much you want to spend for quality equipment and how much time you have. But mowing backwards puts added strain on a mower. Everybody has to do it at some time or another. Just do it as little as possible.

 

[RDrancher]

I brush hog as a sideline to my business. On a new property I never know what I'm going to hit, so I leave my bucket attached to "feel out" areas that I'm going to have to back into. Folks love to stack junk in corners and under trees. I've torn up a couple of blades, but they usually last quite a long time. I have torn the wheel off twice, hitting immovable objects. I'd still rather tear up the mower than the tractor.

Even being careful...I've seen rocks the size of basketballs shoot out from under the mower and go bouncing across fields and over fences. I've hit old tires that stopped the engine cold and once hooked an entire roll of barbed wire still attached to a few posts that almost tipped me over into the fence. That was real fun to cut out of the mower. Not to mention the chiggers!

The scariest object I've ever hit was a partially-full acetylene tank. Luckily the blades rode over the tank and I saw it before I hit the business end.