Stuff you find while mowing tall vegetation

[Greygoose]

Maybe a good idea to set the FEL (if equipped) to float??

 

[Pleease]

Look at the possibilities - maybe we'll finally find Jimmy Hoffa in an overgrown field!

 

[Gord Baker]

While backing up with a Bush Hog I got into a partly buried Spring Tooth cultivator.
Very noisy, very bendy. While scraping in a horse pasture I somehow managed to pull a T post into a big Rear Tire on the 4.57 New Holland. Pricey. I chose the cheapest tire and found that there were 4-5 fewer lugs making it noisy and bumpy on solid ground/roadways.

 

[Tbone07]

Reading other posts about brush mowing with FEL vs. without FEL, got me to thinking of all the stuff that can ruin your day and brush mower.....bowling ball.....what has your mower of FEL found?

Hit a bowling ball earlier this year in one of our CRP fields I was mowing around. I thought for sure nobody had ever hit one of those. Sure made a nice BANG. I laughed my ass off when I saw what I had hit

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I had a lawn service for several years. The most memorable one was several pool balls, from a pool table not the blow up kind. I must have hit 10 over the course of a summer at that house. They had to be doing it on purpose. Luckily there was just a puff of dust and the other half would be sitting right where it was.

 

[vortex00]

Deer antlers poked a hole in my tractor main tire with Beet juice in it.
Cost me $200 to fix it!

 

[DieselBound]

I heard it said if you find a car while mowing your yard, you might be a redneck

I suppose then I'm officially a redneck. I ran across a frontend of an old [small] International PU underneath a bunch of blackberries. I sliced through a car rim in same area. Best was hitting an old VW transaxle right at dusk- it made for quite the light show, sparks shooting out; it was quite the battle between the brush hog and that chunk of steel, it ended in a draw (nothing broke, thankfully).

Final count in cleanup on my property came in at 34 tires/rims.

 

[rmonio]

I've been lucky... not too much in my pasture areas when cutting. But I did do some work at a neighbor's area in grass that was at least 3-4' tall... I found all kinds of things with my FEL. Dead Trees, Dead animals, a barrel, etc... and she SWORE there was nothing in there.

 

[Alan46]

On my first time using a bush-hog on our new property in 14 got wrapped up in old barbed wire. That was an ordeal !

 

[calamitous]

Haha, I feel like a lightweight after reading these stories. I’ve hit rebar, a bundle of barbed wire, and dead horses a couple times.

 

[kohog]

These are eye opening testimonies and most helpful to all us newbies - thanks for sharing.

 

[ch47dpilot]

I heard it said if you find a car while mowing your yard, you might be a redneck

I found the cab to an old Ford pickup. Not sure about year figuring late 50 early 60s. First it was just the steering box I hit. Started digging and pulling and can across complete cab

 

[Smokeydog]

Usually have long bottom root grapple on the FEL. Lower in questionable terrain. People been farming and logging this property for almost 300 years and Cherokee before that. Worst trash comes from subdivision new neighbors.

 

[jstrick]

A pile of nylon twine from square bales. Wrapped around my flail mower with a vengeance. sat there with my pocket knife for 45 minutes cutting 6-12 inch pieces off.

Those things are awful! We had a guy leasing our place for years that left piles and piles of those things and I've run over several with the brush hog. Even when I know where they are they are near impossible to root out of the ground. I've broken most of the rippers off my box blade trying.

 

[jstrick]

Or... bought a house in which the original owner buried a 1950's (?) Plymouth in a low spot then covered it with road berm dirt !

I've got one of those behind an old shed. Apparently they thought the best use for the old car was erosion control.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I heard it said if you find a car while mowing your yard, you might be a redneck

I have caught myself out in the yard weed eating around my riding mower....

 

[Pleease]

Hit a bowling ball earlier this year in one of our CRP fields I was mowing around. I thought for sure nobody had ever hit one of those. Sure made a nice BANG. I laughed my ass off when I saw what I had hit

Was your blade, uh, spared?

 

[Fallon]

The worst one was finding a long stretch of high tension guy wire with the flail mower. Not connected to anything, but it wrapped up fast. Couldn't get an angle on it with a grinder. It was right over the bearing on the end of the rotor so couldn't torch it. It was really hard & strong, but also squished a bit, so my bolt cutters couldn't cut it. Just enough gap in the teeth it would squish & not cut. Finally got different bolt cutters & eventually managed to get things cut. Tore up the new bolt cutters & took forever.

Found numerous hoses, which are annoying but can be removed with a pocket knife & time. Fence wire of various sorts sucks, but you can cut it with side cutters, bolt cutters or what not.

I found my well head... twice. Mangled a few knives & one of the times had to have a well guy replace the cap. I was even watching for it the 2nd time, but had about 3' of visibility in 4' grass. Now have a 6' snow stake on it.

More rocks, concrete chunks, cardboard, Styrofoam or plastic than you can shake a stick at. Rocks would mangle knives on my old beat to hell Ford 917 flail. Rocks loose vs my new Peruzzo Brush Bull. Couple hammers are chipped but aren't suppose to be sharp.

Found many septic tank lids or leach field vent pipes, but thankfully always before I ran them over.

 

[Alan46]

The worst one was finding a long stretch of high tension guy wire with the flail mower. Not connected to anything, but it wrapped up fast. Couldn't get an angle on it with a grinder. It was right over the bearing on the end of the rotor so couldn't torch it. It was really hard & strong, but also squished a bit, so my bolt cutters couldn't cut it. Just enough gap in the teeth it would squish & not cut. Finally got different bolt cutters & eventually managed to get things cut. Tore up the new bolt cutters & took forever.

Found numerous hoses, which are annoying but can be removed with a pocket knife & time. Fence wire of various sorts sucks, but you can cut it with side cutters, bolt cutters or what not.

I found my well head... twice. Mangled a few knives & one of the times had to have a well guy replace the cap. I was even watching for it the 2nd time, but had about 3' of visibility in 4' grass. Now have a 6' snow stake on it.

More rocks, concrete chunks, cardboard, Styrofoam or plastic than you can shake a stick at. Rocks would mangle knives on my old beat to hell Ford 917 flail. Rocks loose vs my new Peruzzo Brush Bull. Couple hammers are chipped but aren't suppose to be sharp.

Found many septic tank lids or leach field vent pipes, but thankfully always before I ran them over.

Have you ever thought about selling?

 

[JerryAllen]

I found a fire hydrant many years ago, thump on the FEL so I stopped to look and wow, what a surprise when the water came through the floorboard on that old JD. Bigger surprise was how much it cost to fix it..... my boss was not amused.