Strange Bush Hog???

[JD3130]

Saw this Bush Hog on eBay a Minutes ago. I never seen any thing like it before. Can anyone tell me anything about it. Why the big pulley? Seems like the user would be replacing belts every 30 minutes? Could it be an old golf course mower?

 

[beenthere]

To me, looks like an old belly mower converted to a 3pt. It didn't come with a gear box, and the 'inventor' made do with what he could dream up. It now is what we call a 3pt. finish mower, of sorts. Big pulley would give the mower blades lots of spin, and was probably the intention, as the PTO spins at 540 rpm, and mid mounts usually spin at 2000 rpm. Just a guess on my part though.

 

[GEB]

The guy just up the road from me has a store bought
finish mower set up the same way.
I do know he bought it new in 1976, still uses it.
Gene

 

[nomad]

From the picture (dia. ratio of pulleys), I guess the speed of this mower is about 1000-1500 RPM. So, this can not be a finish mower. I think a try of increasing the speed of bush hog by a bush hog mfg. Probably a few were produced and disappeared in the market. Can be a good collectable item.

 

[Egon]

Think you've got the right answer Beenthere.

I have a midmount mower that I've been considering on converting to rear mount but not being a welder makes it kinda hard or expensive.

Egon

Egon

 

[djradz]

I disagree. The size of the pulleys appear to be almost identical to those on my Woods RM306 finish mower. I think this was probably a belly-mount mower that someone converted to a 3-pt mount. I don't see any way this could be considered a brush hog/rotary cutter as it has 3 blade spindles, like a finish mower.

 

[Villengineer]

Somebody mis-described it b/c it's definitely a old finish mower. Woods made lots of finish mowers with similar pulley set-ups and I'm sure there are many old "knock-offs" running around. I've also seen lots of old Woods that have been "reinforced" to extend their usefull life. If it was a converted belly deck somebody did a pretty good job. The guage wheels even look like a Woods design and the location would coincide with a lot of old Woods RFMs.

I don't know how you can determine the speed based on that picture. At least half the belt system is covered by guards and we don't know what pto speed the unit was intended to operate.

 

[ns_in_tex]

That looks like my old Woods rear finish mower model RM306. Bought it new in 1981 and used it for about 10 years. The belt is one piece and I remember replacing it one time. It was working fine when I just had to have a new Bush Hog finish mower ( to get 4 caster wheels instead of 2).

The belt drive was much quieter operating than the gear box drive on the Bush Hog which had 2 belts to the outer blades.

I have since converted it into a Tim Taylor driveway blower and still use it regularly.

Tim Taylor driveway blower

 

[djradz]

What happened that you gave up on it as a mower? Mine was made in '76 and I bought it in '84. I've replaced the bearings in the spindles twice and just finally put a new belt on it this last summer - figured almost 30 years was long enough for the first belt.

 

[ns_in_tex]

It was working fine when I bought the new bush hog. As stated I just wanted the 4 wheel, thinking it would scalp less on rough areas.

I only used each of these about 10 years, then decided I must have a new orange, 7' rear discharge to go on my new orange tractor. I then sold the bush hog. Also sold one of the 3 tractors I owned when I just had to have the new orange tractor.

I guess I must be the only one that likes to upgrade, Although from your picture, I wonder if your tractor is newer than your mower. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

There is not a thing wrong with your mower and you can tell, you keep it up much better than I do.
Happy tractoring.