Was almost the perfect day mowing , till it wasn’t.

[Avenger]

oh, the things I have hit with my mower...

I was hired to mow a pasture of tall grass. About 10 acres of fenced in pasture. It was great mowing, until I found the old fence. Wrapped barbwire around the blades in a twisted heap.

A different field I mowed a few years ago, the owner said he put a pile of junk out there and pointed to a corner. He was, of course, wrong on the location. I hit an old steel drum! Didn't break anything.

I've hit large rocks, stumps, a chuck or rail (that one, a partially buried length of rail almost completely vertical. Only about 8 inches poking up above the surface. Owner had no clue it was there.)

Hitting things sucks. Breaking things sucks worse. Nothing like losing profits for the next few jobs because someone planted a railroad.

 

[Mud2Money]

Well, it's a little late now, but I never cut with out having my bucket down or my grapple. Even on fields I've done before. If I can't see the ground I don't trust what's there.

My bucket wouldn’t have saved my. These boulders were laying in the bottom of a v ditch , and combine ruts. %80 of the time I run wi try my grapple on and low.

 

[Mud2Money]

oh, the things I have hit with my mower...

I was hired to mow a pasture of tall grass. About 10 acres of fenced in pasture. It was great mowing, until I found the old fence. Wrapped barbwire around the blades in a twisted heap.

A different field I mowed a few years ago, the owner said he put a pile of junk out there and pointed to a corner. He was, of course, wrong on the location. I hit an old steel drum! Didn't break anything.

I've hit large rocks, stumps, a chuck or rail (that one, a partially buried length of rail almost completely vertical. Only about 8 inches poking up above the surface. Owner had no clue it was there.)

Hitting things sucks. Breaking things sucks worse. Nothing like losing profits for the next few jobs because someone planted a railroad.

Yep I sucked up a buried cyclone fence in my tiller. That sucked.

Since then I carry , bolt cutters , cut off wheels and multiple batteries, pry bars , good fencing pliers, Vice grips , screw driver, and good leather gloves at a minimum.

 

[Robert NC]

Years ago my Dad was bush hogging a pasture. Could see any rocks, tree limbs, etc. He looked back one time and run over a great big cow patty just as he looked back. He got a face full that day.

 

[CPTKILLER]

Hitting rocks was always an issue in Central Texas. The mower blades were always dinged by them.

My biggest frustration was running in fence wire buried in pasture grass. I soon learned to watch for wire in pastures. I carried combination wire cutters with me in the pasture. Cutting the wire out can be done but is a pain in the neck.

The old previous owner with my property left rusted piles of wire around everywhere. I also occasionally ran into it mowing other folk’s land.

 

[Hay Dude]

Ah the joys. Win some , loose some. Job still made money at the end of the day.

Got a job for a 4.2 acre field. First time cutting it. Took it easy. Cut the whole field but left a high area by a bean field. It had combine ruts and a few v ditches.

Went to take a final pass and cut lower by the beans. Well we’ll, looks like someone found some boulders I then found. A average large pumpkin size Boulder lay in a v ditch awaiting.

Soon as I heard the hit I lifted , but apparently so did the Boulder. This son of a gun juggled in my blades till I shut the pto down. Then just plopped down and rolled out the side.

Results , broken blade , tore up deck, profits loss.

New set of blade and a little welding. We will be back to beating this thing up some more.

Everyone thinks field mowing is just sitting in a cab in the AC making easy money.

It’s not.

 

[mllud]

I like brush hogging an overgrown field. The change in appearance can be satisfying.
I tried cutting for hire one summer and decided the risk wasn't worth the pay.
Sometimes all goes well. But when you wrap what's left of a box spring mattress around the blades that's a bad day.
Fence wire makes a mess but that bed spring wire was tempered. I ruined one pair of cable cutters and stopped before I ruined a second pair. I had to go get the cutting torch.
It seems like the last guy that had a burn pile never goes back to remove anything that didn't burn and it's forgotten until your blade finds it.
It's a hazard of the job.
Then there's the hidden erosion.

 

[Yander]

I realize this is an old thread from the OP but it is a good reminder to anyone trying to make extra money or a living from bush hogging to be careful. I did a yard last summer and it was an 8 acre area that they normally mowed with a ZTR. Their ZTR had been broken down all spring and we had a lot of rain last spring. I couldn't get in to mow it until almost june.

So I thought it can't be too bad to bushhog. Well, they had let it get about 3 feet tall before they called me. So even though it had been mowed with a ZTR, it had crap in the the yard that you couldn't see because of how tall the grass was.

I asked them to show me everything that I might have to be careful of. It was a couple of ladies and they showed me all their newly planted trees, where they had buried their dogs, and their flowers they didn't want mowed over.

But they didn't tell me about this... Had I been mowing at night, I may very well have hit it since it was hard to see in the day until I got right up on it.

 

[ultrarunner]

Nothing like you guys but similar on a small scale…

A friend asked if he could use my Honda walk behind pro mower I use for my property management business.

He was getting his grandparents home ready to sell and the residential lot rear yard lawn was 3’ high when I showed up.

I also brought my old rusted out deck craftsman because I’m not clearing with a thousand dollar mower… should have brought my handle bar trimmer.

Anyway, it was slow going on the highest setting and nearly done and then wham!

The mower hit a pitching horseshoe and threw it through the deck bending the crankshaft a making the blade into a pretzel…

After that I have been particularly mindful of what snakes may lie in the grass.

He said I should have told you gramps was always up for a game of hose shoes …

 

[Yander]

Everyone thinks field mowing is just sitting in a cab in the AC making easy money.

It’s not.

View attachment 3258725

Not at all. It can be a very high-risk venture.