New 1445

[BEK]

I had my machine on some pretty steep slopes, the seatbelt kept me from sliding out of the seat. I do not know what degree of slope they are but it is very difficult to walk up them. When pushing the brush hog up the slope I sometimes lose traction and have to turn off the draft control and apply some up force on the mower with the lift arms. I also traverse the same slope, I never felt the tractor was unstable although it would crab. I think that I would chicken long before the machine would tip. I did some eyeballing and measuring, and using the weights and measurements of the machine I believe that the center of gravity is about at the top of the tires.
The Deutz three banger weighs close to 475 pounds and it sets really low in the frame, and at almost 4000 pounds total machine weight, there is alot of weight very close to the ground.
I have not run out of power climbing these slopes, the wheel motors are very strong, hot or cold, I just have to go easy on the treadle. I am very pleased with the machines abilities on my slopes.

 

[BEK]

After putting 600 hours on this machine most of them mowing, I am very pleased with the performance. With the majority of the time from mowing I can say that the modifications that I made to the brush mower have performed flawlessly I have had no issues with it. As I am using the 1445 to maintain an equine boarding stable, it has been used for moving round bales, mowing, digging post holes, plowing snow, moving stable waste, and any other chores that come up. It has been very dependable. Last June I used the trencher to dig 2000 feet of trench while installing a ground water heatpump, the trencher was great, I have dug over a mile of trench with only a few broken bolts on the teeth. There are still alot of hours left on the chain and teeth.

 

[MossRoad]

That is good to hear.

 

[smartguyz]

I did have problems with the mower flails ( blades) . The 5/8" mounting bolts and bushings wore out very quickly, I had to replace them twice. The second time I replaced them I installed grease fittings to grease the bolts and bushings this stopped the wear problem as I regreased every few hours. I broke a few 'stop bolts' while cutting brush so I decided to make a few changes.
I removed the old blades and stop bolts and welded 3/4" thick x 2 1/2" reinforcement to the inside of the stumpjumper. Drilling through the stumpjumper and reinforcement I mounted two new 4" x 25" - 2" offset flails
with 1 1/16" bolts. ( This is basically the same setup that was on the Bush Hog mower that I used with the Farmall.) The offset allows one flail to pass over the others mounting bolt with out hitting it. The new flails weigh 15 lbs
each ( about two times the weight of the old ones ) which will allow them to more easily cut through thick tall grass. I have also installed grease fittings on the new flails...just in case. I got the new flails and bolts from Flail Master on the web. I will need to modify the wheel mounts on the mower to raise it about 2" because of the offset on the new flails. I will be trying out the new setup this spring.

Awesome job! I have the exact same problem with my brush mower. Did you actually drill the holes for the zerk fittings? Wow! How did you do that? Drill press? Cobalt bits? Please tell us!

-Rob

 

[BEK]

The flails are not as hard as you may think. I drilled them on a drill press with a regular steel drill bit. I used 3/32" to make the passage then drilled a pocket about 3/8"deep which I tapped 1/4-28 for the grease fitting. Use plenty of oil and go slow.