New guy here...Some brushhog questions

[IslandTractor]

Another question - what kind/type of oil do you put in the gearbox? I'm sure this hasn't been done in many years.

For a rotary cutter gearbox one would usually use a 90W oil although there are also some multiweight oils like 85-120 or something like that that would be appropriate. Some folks even just fill the gearbox with grease if there is a significant leak so I imagine there is some flexibility there.

 

[Grrrr]

I appreciate the help, Spiveyman. Our set-ups look pretty much the same, so I'll pretend I have a Ford until I get my manual.

Is my monitor blurry, or does your dashboard show 4000 hours? Wow, that's what I call getting your money's worth out of a machine. I was feeling bad about putting 10 hours on mine already, kicking it up to 613 hours.

Thanks again.

Nah, thats nothing.

We had a Massey that came to us a few years ago with 9999 hours on the clock! It had got stuck there.

It has a new clock now with about 600 hourse from 3 years use.

Lots of farm tractors clock up thousands of hours, our local contractor who I have been helping a bit recently puts 100+ hours on his tractors a week during harvest and busy times, tractors working all day and then most of the night.

 

[atgreene]

Really nothing to do with the poster's issues as you're simply feeling your way out and rightly so, but, I've never sheared a shear pin in my life.


Shredding.......digging post holes......spreading......etc......never. I've used a variety implements and units ranging from the 8N Ford to the 120hp MF to the old Corsicana 5ft shredder and 10' Mohawk cutter.....never a blip. Digging through our dry hard clay and rock down to 3-4' or using the 5' Howse to pulverize brush and roots and 2" overgrown growth......never a shear pin replaced in 20 years.


I'm envious of the process.............what are you guys doing doing to split pins at such a regular rate??? I need to know.

I don't know about anyone else, but I've been running tractors since I was 5 or 6 (30 years) and could build a bridge if I were to have saved the broken shear bolts and melted them down. In Maine we have rocks, and when I say rocks, I mean rocks. Between snowblowers picking up a rock or piece of wood and post hole diggers hitting roots alone, US Steel loves me.

ericinoc, I definitely think you must be missing something on the 3 pth lift arms. Stop at your local dealer and look at what they have and ask them how to adjust it.

There are no stupid questions, this is all about being safe, and asking a question may save you some serious injury or major damage. Tractors aren't toys, they will kill you if you do something they are not designed to do.

As far as oil, try to run 80/90 weight as long as possible. If it's leaking and you don't feel like pulling the stump jumper and T bar out from under the mower to get to the seal, drain all the oil out of the box and put a high quality grease in there. An Amsoil or other synthetic would be best. I've had my B106 Woods for 10 years now and replaced 3-4 seals. Everything has been neverseized so that it comes apart easy, though.

As far as checking the blades, I change mine once per year, minimum. I have broken 2 blades over the years. They are 1/4" thick, 4" wide and 30" long +-. The blade tips are spinning at 120 miles per hour. A piece of steel that big coming out from under a mower at 120 mph will KILL anything in it's path. The first time it happened I was in the middle of a large field mowing junipers. I swapped into my spare blades, walked and mowed the rest of the field and NEVER found the blade. Maybe someone with a physics major could do the math, but the blade wasn't with a 100 yard area.

When you're mowing, keep everyone back, my mower will split 18" granite rocks like they aren't even there.

Be carefall, and good luck.

 

[Spiveyman]

I appreciate the help, Spiveyman. Our set-ups look pretty much the same, so I'll pretend I have a Ford until I get my manual.

Is my monitor blurry, or does your dashboard show 4000 hours? Wow, that's what I call getting your money's worth out of a machine. I was feeling bad about putting 10 hours on mine already, kicking it up to 613 hours.

Thanks again.

HA! Yep, it's 4070 hrs in that picture. However.... I didn't put those hrs on it. I had that much when I bought it. Today it reads 4077. I've barely had enough seat time to change gears without reading the chart on the dash. It's a 1991, and if you figure 10 miles/hr, that's like buying a 1991 car with 40K miles on it. That was a no brainer. These things are good for many thousands of miles. That's the beauty of buying a good used tractor that was made solid like these Ford 6600 series.

Really nothing to do with the poster's issues as you're simply feeling your way out and rightly so, but, I've never sheared a shear pin in my life.

Well, congrats, you're either really good, or you have a slip clutch perhaps? I've just broken the one pin so far, but figure I'll do it again soon. Just hopfully not before I'm actually mowing with the thing. I have stumps and things in the fields and I'm not that familiar with the land yet, so I'm sure I'll use a few up getting to know my land.

 

[sandman2234]

Using the wrong bolts could lead to never having sheared a shear bolt. My bush hog and stumpjumper make me friends with the local bolt people. I prefer knowing them over meeting the parts guy at the tractor place.
Hours on Ag tractors and hours on Cuts or SCUTs are a world of difference. I have a friend who is was around a couple dozen tractors at a time, and most of them had over 8K hours. Well maintained, they will last forever, but sometimes the tax advantages require they be replaced. So they sell them off and buy new ones. One guy bought one with 12K hours on it and he uses it almost every day, loading dirt for delivery around his neighborhood. I think it is a 2355 JD. Great tractor for him and it runs great!
David from jax

 

[horse7]

While we are here asking questions, how about this one:

when the bush hog is engaged and one wants to reverse direction, what methods do you use, particularly with respect to engine RPMs (and from that, the PTO RPM)?

I don't have an HST so maybe HSTs keep the PTO speed constant. The Massey (gear, 9:3 or something) has a dual stage clutch but I generally didn't reverse with the bush hog running (to change forward speeds, the engine RPM was lowered so the dry engine clutch would last longer).

With EHSS[1] 16x16 I sometimes lower the RPMs to maybe preserve the wet clutches a bit, sometimes don't (works either way). Just seems to take a lot of power to spin the bush hog back up after reversing if the engine RPMs are lowered and the PTO is left engaged-- but maybe this is what everyone does? Cutter is Bush Hog 278.

[1] EHSS is electro hydraulic shuttle shift, the computer (or some mechanism) uses hydraulic control of wet clutches to reverse tractor direction when the operator flips a lever (no clutch pedal use is needed). Dealer service pretty strongly recommended not getting manual reversing clutch FWIW.

 

[djradz]

I would try using check chains. Not those shown in the pics from the manuals but like these shown in the attached file. These allow you to leave the tractor alone and simply lower the lower arms all the way down.

Although the picture shows the chains on my rear mower deck, I have the exact same setup on my brush hog. The chains will keep the deck at a constant height as well as minimizing any side-to-side motion.

 

[3RRL]

While we are here asking questions, how about this one:

when the bush hog is engaged and one wants to reverse direction, what methods do you use, particularly with respect to engine RPMs (and from that, the PTO RPM)?

I don't have an HST so maybe HSTs keep the PTO speed constant. The Massey (gear, 9:3 or something) has a dual stage clutch but I generally didn't reverse with the bush hog running (to change forward speeds, the engine RPM was lowered so the dry engine clutch would last longer).

With EHSS[1] 16x16 I sometimes lower the RPMs to maybe preserve the wet clutches a bit, sometimes don't (works either way). Just seems to take a lot of power to spin the bush hog back up after reversing if the engine RPMs are lowered and the PTO is left engaged-- but maybe this is what everyone does? Cutter is Bush Hog 278.

[1] EHSS is electro hydraulic shuttle shift, the computer (or some mechanism) uses hydraulic control of wet clutches to reverse tractor direction when the operator flips a lever (no clutch pedal use is needed). Dealer service pretty strongly recommended not getting manual reversing clutch FWIW.

I have a gear driven tractor with two stage clutch too. I simply leave the engine rpm where it is and shuttle shift into reverse and whatever gear I want. Just don't push the clutch pedal all the way in (to the second stage) and the mower never slows down that way. Then you start cutting backing up. Same thing to go back to mowing forward.

 

[madpogue]

Another question - what kind/type of oil do you put in the gearbox? I'm sure this hasn't been done in many years.

A neighbor clued me into a new product from Farm Oyl called "Fluid Gear Grease". It comes in the same kind of bottle as 80w90 or the like, but it's grease. A little more fluid, as the name implies, than typical GL-2 grease-gun grease, though. He said it heats up with the gearbox and lubricates just fine, but isn't as likely to seep through a case cover gasket as 80wXX.

 

[jbrumberg]

I would try using check chains. Not those shown in the pics from the manuals but like these shown in the attached file. These allow you to leave the tractor alone and simply lower the lower arms all the way down.

Although the picture shows the chains on my rear mower deck, I have the exact same setup on my brush hog. The chains will keep the deck at a constant height as well as minimizing any side-to-side motion.

Djradz:

I used check chains religiously on my old Ford, I have tham for my NH, but did not use them last year . They do take strain off the 3PH hydraulics and do keep the rotary cutter deck at a constant height. I use my lower link arms to minimize side sway, but the check chains provide additional support. Jay