Rotary Cutter Say No to Rear Bands on Rotary Cutters, Get Chains!

[searcyfarms]

wow we mow a lot of brush/crp ground with trees/saplings, that looks like it would work great, do they make batwings with chains instead of blades for the cutting part?

 

[ptsg]

Thanks for clarifying; I couldn't get a good notion of the chain size from the pic where it's attached to the mower - lacked perspective.

My bad for not doing it before.

wow we mow a lot of brush/crp ground with trees/saplings, that looks like it would work great, do they make batwings with chains instead of blades for the cutting part?

We don't have bat wing mowers here as we need compact stuff to move around in tight corners. This style of mower go as wide as 2.50 meters ( around 8ft). The wider ones will have two spindles side by side which reduces the length of the mower by a lot, thus making it more maneuverable. Some manufacturers will go as wide as 13 ft but at a much higher cost.

I can't quite remember how the spindle/rotor is set up on your style mower, but I don't think it would be too difficult to retrofit the chains, as long it's used some nice quality and high strength hardware. The thing with mowers and chains is that once you flip the switch to the On position with electric over hydraulic PTOs, the chains slam hard on the top sheet metal making a huge bang. But not a big deal.

 

[npalen]

First, let me clarify that those mowers are never intended to use as finish mowers. They are mowers built for land clearing. They will eat everything in their way.

The reasons we use high strength chains, instead of blades are that chains can handle rocks easier than blades and chains will also shred the brush to pieces. But then again, it's not a finish mower and won't leave a nice finish. The small chain we use is 3/4" high strength chain. It will get bigger size chain with bigger mowers.

We run our brush mowers hard. We use them as true brush mowers instead of a finish mower. Having a tail wheel, would mean that it would be destroyed in a matter of a couple hours. We back these things up close to walls, trees and some hidden stuff that we can't even see. These mowers are built simpler and strong.

Most manufacturers will offer 3 model ranges:

Light duty usually built with 1/4" thick steel.
Medium duty usually built with 5/16" thick steel
And Heavy duty built with 3/8" or more thick steel.

As far as prices, mine is a light duty (which is still really strong) 4.5 ft and cost me about 700$

Most models come with 2 chains, but we can also add another 2 chains making a total of 4. Usually used with higher HP tractors. There are also some manufacturers that make a spindle for 3 chains but it limits you to always use 3 chains. Others also have side shift ability.

Depending on the brush in the land that is being cleared, some people will carry a set of blades and chains. They just select whatever fit the job better.

Chains will eat lots of HP, so we just get the mowers either the width of the tractor or about a foot smaller, depending on the tractor's HP.

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Interesting! Had not seen side shift capability on a "bush hog" type mower. What brand is that?

 

[ptsg]

Interesting! Had not seen side shift capability on a "bush hog" type mower. What brand is that?

All Portuguese brands like Galucho, Joper, Agroramoa, Agriduarte. Just to name a few of the best ones.

 

[Ford850]

Are the chains used to cut grass and weed areas too, or just the heavy thick brush?

 

[ptsg]

Are the chains used to cut grass and weed areas too, or just the heavy thick brush?

Can be used pretty much on everything but it won't leave a nice smooth finish that the blades will do.

This is what I did last year. The grass/weed starts about a foot high on the left side (not including the canes) goes as high as 3 ft on the right side. The right side had lots of cotton type weeds that plugged my radiator screen every 150 ft pass.

 

[Ford850]

That looks pretty good.

 

[searcyfarms]

dang right, i would be more than happy with that kind of cutting in my CRP fields and taking down up to 2inch saplings - our batwing type 15 foot rotary mowers/cutter for the most part have what we call stump jumpers in the middle ( round disk with center shaft from gearbox connected to it ) then two blades that extend from teh stump jumper so the shaft from teh gearbox doesnt come in direct contact with a stump or dirtpile, it rides over it