Anyone use a compact boom or side mount mower?

[Sysop]

I've been on the search for a mower that could be offset to the side of my tractor to make some minor roadside, creekside, and treeline maintenance a safer and less time consuming task versus a rear mount brush hog/rotary cutter and string trimmers. I came across this:

Compact Boom Mower for tractors 35HP and up by Brewt Power

Seems right up my alley, but I don't want to spend gobs on shipping it across the country from the left coast.

My questions are:
Has anyone any experience with these units?
Does anyone know of any east coast dealers where shipping might not be so bad? (I've not inquired as to pricing and shipping costs yet, still keeping an eye on other threads on here with similar goals and investigating options and am sure the shipping charges would be frightening from CA to WV for such a thing.)
Does anyone know of anything else that might suit my needs? I'm not stuck on it being a full fledged boom mower, just so long as it can mow five to six feet out from the side of my tractor and articulate up or down as needed for the various areas needed. I'm not too keen on sickle bar mowers.

 

[leonz]

I've been on the search for a mower that could be offset to the side of my tractor to make some minor roadside, creekside, and treeline maintenance a safer and less time consuming task versus a rear mount brush hog/rotary cutter and string trimmers. I came across this:

Compact Boom Mower for tractors 35HP and up by Brewt Power

Seems right up my alley, but I don't want to spend gobs on shipping it across the country from the left coast.

My questions are:
Has anyone any experience with these units?
Does anyone know of any east coast dealers where shipping might not be so bad? (I've not inquired as to pricing and shipping costs yet, still keeping an eye on other threads on here with similar goals and investigating options and am sure the shipping charges would be frightening from CA to WV for such a thing.)
Does anyone know of anything else that might suit my needs? I'm not stuck on it being a full fledged boom mower, just so long as it can mow five to six feet out from the side of my tractor and articulate up or down as needed for the various areas needed. I'm not too keen on sickle bar mowers.

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This will solve your mowing needs.


WeedBadger

 

[Recoveryhill]

I've not inquired as to pricing and shipping costs yet, still keeping an eye on other threads on here with similar goals and investigating options and am sure the shipping charges would be frightening from CA to WV for such a thing.

Looks like a flail head and also looks like a fine unit. My guess is that shipping cost will be the least of your problems, if cost is an issue. You have offset, counterbalance and elevation like a backhoe arm. My guess is that this is going to come in North of 7K.

The WeedBadger posted by Leonz looks like a good offset mower but I imagine that too is pricy. I'd love to have one as I mow a lot of cliffside meadow and road and won't get the tires but so close to eternity. Every month or so (all year round) I need to back the bush hog over the edge to keep it clean, six feet at a whack. Beats my heavy duty string trimmer, but not by much. It doesn't look like the WeedBadger is counterbalanced although it does look fairly light. Some of my edges are already on a downhill slope and I'd be leery of extending much weight too far out to one side without counterbalance.

 

[Ken45101]

I suspect shipping will be the small part of the cost. It looks expensive and when they don't list their prices..... I also wonder how well it works on less than flat ground. Is there a counter balance?

I'd love to have something like that...at an affordable price.

 

[Sysop]

Yes, I was figuring it would be basically the cost of a backhoe arm and flail head, which is fine, I just didn't want to get into an extra grand for shipping. I've seen several manufacturers that make similar units and I was wondering if maybe some rebranding was going on or maybe just some reseller or other distribution point a little closer to home. So far that's been the closest I've found, most are in other countries.

As for working it on less than flat ground, it appears the unit has a pretty decent counterbalance ballast built onto the left side of the mainframe as compared to a backhoe mainframe. Working with it uphill from the tractor should provide improved side slope balance and grip depending on how much counterbalance it has built in. If I were designing such a thing I'd have it ballasted equal with the arm at half extension, full extension would then make it heavy at the cutter and fully retracted would be heavy toward the ballast. Only way to know how it balances out would be to request info or strap it on and try it out. I'm leaning more toward the latter and aiming for a springtime delivery. That should give me plenty of time to continue researching the purchase and maybe change the idea around some. As stated before, I don't have my heart set on a boom mower, just something that will reach a few feet off the side of the tractor. Right now this seems to be the best option going.

That weedbadger mower seems like a good product for large orchards and long fence rows. The path it cuts is a little too narrow for my needs from what it appears.

 

[leonz]

They have several models of weed badgers,
I do not remember what the widest cut is for the larger units but
it swath of work is shown in the videos on the home page.

They also work on slopes too if that helps any.

 

[Sysop]

I'll inquire with them as to their widest cut. They only had one video of the mower working a line of trees and it didn't appear to be a large cut. Maybe 2 feet by the appearances in the video.

Ideally I'd like something that would cut a 4 to 6 foot path along side the tractor in a single pass. If it were smaller than 4 feet I'd need something like a boom that could reach away from the tractor.

I currently have a 44" rough cut swisher mower I can offset and do parts of most of what I need to do, but not nearly all I want to do. The two main limitations of it are I don't run it on any of the harsh slopes because I like to keep the oil properly flowing in the motor and my Foreman 500 isn't quite heavy enough to take it everywhere I need it. The other problem is at 44" it doesn't reach as far as I need it to and due to the slope and lack of weight on my Foreman I don't go all the way into where I need to be. I could hook it to the tractor for the weight and traction to get it farther over the slope to where it needs to be, but then I'd just be wearing the Swisher's motor and destroying a nice piece of equipment I can use on many other acres for many other tasks.

 

[Piston]

I wonder what the cutting capacity of that Brewt mower is.

 

[Sysop]

I've got an email off to them requesting all the info, specs, and pricing they have on the unit. Happy to share once I know

 

[Sysop]

Well, that's a no-go. They responded, said the product is discontinued.