Poor brush hog performance

[DCS]

I was brush hogging 10 acres the other day with a JD 4310 with a 5' brush hog that has a slip clutch on it. The first 6 acres or so the brush hog worked great however, from that point on it seemed to start getting bogged down more and more. The last part of the pasture was in about the same shape as the first part and I still used the same rpm's and gear settings.

I checked the blades and they didn't look that bad. I thought the slip clutch may need to be adjusted, but it seems to me the whole drive shaft had stopped turning. That makes me think something may have happened to the PTO. Can someone explain to me how a PTO works?

 

[DCS]

I was brush hogging 10 acres the other day with a JD 4310 with a 5' brush hog that has a slip clutch on it. The first 6 acres or so the brush hog worked great however, from that point on it seemed to start getting bogged down more and more. The last part of the pasture was in about the same shape as the first part and I still used the same rpm's and gear settings.

I checked the blades and they didn't look that bad. I thought the slip clutch may need to be adjusted, but it seems to me the whole drive shaft had stopped turning. That makes me think something may have happened to the PTO. Can someone explain to me how a PTO works?

 

[LeadPoison]

Pull your drive shaft off the PTO and engage it. Does it spin? If you give the tractor more throttle does the PTO spin faster?
At PTO RPMs you should be getting nine revolutions per second. I know that is about impossible to count but that will give you an idea.

 

[LeadPoison]

Pull your drive shaft off the PTO and engage it. Does it spin? If you give the tractor more throttle does the PTO spin faster?
At PTO RPMs you should be getting nine revolutions per second. I know that is about impossible to count but that will give you an idea.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

What sort of grass/weeds were you cutting? The reason I ask, some cut better when wet. I mowed weeds saturday morning. What was soaked with the morning dew cut real clean. As the day warmed up and things dried off, the cut wasn't quite as nice. Started over yesterday morning. (Finished in 2 hours) With things wet again, it was cutting clean again. It seems to work better with some moisture in this deep fescue I was cutting.

Also makes some difference with SOME mowers which side you run "in the weeds" and which side you run against the "already cut" side. (My Bush Hog 286 prefers the left side "in the open". Gives much nicer cut, with less tire tracks)

 

[Farmwithjunk]

What sort of grass/weeds were you cutting? The reason I ask, some cut better when wet. I mowed weeds saturday morning. What was soaked with the morning dew cut real clean. As the day warmed up and things dried off, the cut wasn't quite as nice. Started over yesterday morning. (Finished in 2 hours) With things wet again, it was cutting clean again. It seems to work better with some moisture in this deep fescue I was cutting.

Also makes some difference with SOME mowers which side you run "in the weeds" and which side you run against the "already cut" side. (My Bush Hog 286 prefers the left side "in the open". Gives much nicer cut, with less tire tracks)

 

[DCS]

I started the first day in the afternoon and all was well. I started the next day at 6:15 am and finished around 10:30, so could be it didn't like the wetter grass. I was mowing making right hand turns which meant I was throwing grass back into the uncut grass which didn't help the situation. For some reason I find it awkward to turn to the left. Oh yeah, I was mowing a little of everything, grass, Chinese Tallow trees, brush, ect.

 

[DCS]

I started the first day in the afternoon and all was well. I started the next day at 6:15 am and finished around 10:30, so could be it didn't like the wetter grass. I was mowing making right hand turns which meant I was throwing grass back into the uncut grass which didn't help the situation. For some reason I find it awkward to turn to the left. Oh yeah, I was mowing a little of everything, grass, Chinese Tallow trees, brush, ect.

 

[bbse]

Were you mowing or brush cutting? Brush hogs usually do not throw out the side, finish mowers do.

 

[bbse]

Were you mowing or brush cutting? Brush hogs usually do not throw out the side, finish mowers do.