Useful attachments adapted to PT ?

[2manyrocks]

That's basically where my 1445 blades are. They come right to rear edge of the deck. When I first bought the machine, I did consider putting a chain guard spaced out a little, but in the end, I realized that debris doesn't come up and out directly. I still wear a chainsaw helmet, just in case of ricocheting debris, having seen how far the brush mower can hit chunks.

@2manyrocks where is your machine leaking?

All the best,

Peter

I think it helps with the cutting effectiveness, but it's scary how close the blades come to the edge of the deck.

The two main suspects causing the leaks are the hydraulic hose with a 9/16 nut on the left wheel motor and the other is a hydraulic hose with an 11/16 nut coming out of the bottom of the brake actuator.

The issue with tightening these hoses is that there are other hoses in the way along with the bottom and sidewall of the PT tub.

An angled wrench like Xfaxman suggested might work, but it depends on how long the wrench is relative to the space available to turn the wrench.

Started raining here again so no progress on this yet.

 

[MossRoad]

I had a small leak on a fitting on my steering valve under the dash several years ago. In order to get a wrench on the fitting, I had to remove several other fittings to get a wrench in there. Then put them all back on in the reverse order I took them off.

 

[2manyrocks]

PT may assemble these things in a certain order which may mean having to disconnect some hoses to reach others, but I really don't want to mess with the hoses that aren't leaking. But this doesn't excuse what amounts to what I personally consider sloppy assembly at the factory to begin with.

 

[2manyrocks]

Ponytug listed the part nos. for replacement bushings, bolts and washers for his 1445 cutter at a 2010 cost of $37.82. Today, the cost is $64.02 plus tax and shipping to me for a total of $82.65. I suspect I'll find that the OEM bolts or bushings are already wallowed and need replacing.

Thank you for posting this useful information, ponytug.


PT 1445 SQQA mod - brush cutter ?

 

[2manyrocks]

Sun came out today. Used a stubby ratchet and a crows foot wrench to attempt to tighten the leaking hyd. hose fittings. Will see if it worked.

Removed the OEM blades, bolts, and bushings with an impact wrench to find one of the bushings severely wallowed. The McMaster Carr replacements haven't arrived yet.

Noted impact damage on one side of each blade in the same area that must be from the blades hitting the bolts in the hub.

For comparison sake, I included a photo of a new cutter blade for a 6' J-bar and its bolt with the integral bushing. The J-Bar blade and bushing design is much beefier. One odd thing I noticed is that the hole in the PT blade for the mounting bolt and bushing is offset from the center of the blade width instead of being centered.

To my eye, it looks like PT used a soft metal bushing without any grease from the factory, and this is what it looks like at 17 hours.

I don't know how hard these blades are, but they are beat up already.

 

[ponytug]

I think that the mower blades are the same metal that PT uses for the bucket edges, and yes, I agree I think that it is not very hard. I do keep my blades sharp and balanced (one blade to the other, and with the center of mass in the same place +/-). I removed the two bolts that weren't being used. Terry said that the bolts were there to keep the blades from swinging all the way around. Other folks(@woodlandfarms?) have put things like hockey pucks on the bolts. I stick to never starting the mower with engine at anything other than idle, and it hasn't been an issue for me.

I have welded material back into the wallowed holes to bring the hole back to the required ID. That plus the McMaster oiled bushings and regular greasing made welding a one time fix. I think I used 7018, but don't quote me. I have used 7018 to fill in large divots in the blades, and to make up for wear along the outside leading edge.

All the best,

Peter

 

[2manyrocks]

Doing some searching turned up some heavier blades, but the mounting hole is 1.5" which seems more standard for rotary brush cutters. Just wondering if there would be a source for a 5/8ID to 1.5 OD bushing or if there is some other way to safely reduce the mounting hole diameter in a normal brush cutter blade?

 

[ponytug]

Doing some searching turned up some heavier blades, but the mounting hole is 1.5" which seems more standard for rotary brush cutters. Just wondering if there would be a source for a 5/8ID to 1.5 OD bushing or if there is some other way to safely reduce the mounting hole diameter in a normal brush cutter blade?

Well, everybody is different, and we all have different local challenges, so I think that you know best.

I like the design of the Brush Hog gull wing blades and beefy bolts. I looked into switching to a different and more robust system for blades, and for me it was one of those loose thread issues. You start pulling on a thread, it just unravels. I decided that to run beefier blades, I was going to need to beef up the rotor, the bolt mount, the larger nut to hold the bigger bolts, and to take the stresses of the beefier blades, adjust the height of the deck edge, the wheel height, and the mount. My takeaway was that I decided I would wait until the mower blade wallowing and wear was a problem. With the McMaster bolts and bushings, blade wear has not been enough of an issue for me, so I have just left it. Those, plus a bit of welding to touch up the blades have been more than enough. I haven't bought new blades in fourteen or fifteen years.

All the best,

Peter

 

[2manyrocks]

Those are practical considerations.

Taking all of them together, might make more sense just to buy a cutter designed for a CTL and adapt the mount to the PT.

 

[ponytug]

Those are practical considerations.

Taking all of them together, might make more sense just to buy a cutter designed for a CTL and adapt the mount to the PT.

Good thought. I looked at those, as well, and for my uses discarded the idea in favor of modifying the PT mower, but YMMV. I'm just sharing what I thought I was up for.

Just watch the weight of those attachments, and consider that the center of mass is going to be quite a way out, reducing the lift power. I have a 3rd party broom adapted to the PT, which weighs 1200lbs-ish, and that is right at the edge of what the 1445 can lift because the broom has a swivel/angle that puts the broom out 36" or so from the attachment point.

I would say that with the bushings and blades sorted out, I'm happy with the PT brush mower, which works well for me, here.

I do mow wet thistle on slopes using chains on the tires. Slipping crabwise on steep slope never feels comfortable to me as I know that I have lots of ground squirrels and burrows that can the slope pretty quickly, but everyone is different.

All the best,

Peter