Bad day brush hogging... need FEL advice

[smithdenny]

So, now that the loader problem has been fixed, shall we move on to the bush hog problem?
David from jax

The brush hog is a old, tired, pretty well beat up Land Pride RCR 1272 due to all of the abuse I have given it over the years.. Still I cut about 30 acres with it monthly. I have been known to level dirt and gravel piles and to pull small stumps with it. I did say abused didn't I? I was cutting an area my neighbor later called 'The bog'. "I didn't mean for you to cut there!" he now tells me. And I should have known myself to not cut that area. The area was very soft dirt/sand with 'potholes', pulled stumps, limbs and other debris hiding in the weeds. One blade dug into the soft dirt when I fell into a 'pothole' shutting down the tractor. After turning off the PTO, restarting the tractor, raising the brush hog and driving past the pothole I tried to restart the PTO. Very heavy vibration. I assumed the blades had crossed and bound against each other. Shutting everything off I crawled under the raised brush hog to find there was only one blade! After searching the area for awhile I found the missing blade buried in the soft dirt with only about 2 inches of it sticking up. Next to the blade was the tip of it broken off at the mounting bolt hole. I now have the blades, bolts, nuts, washers and dishpan on order from www.germanbliss.com at a cost of $376 including shipping. Obviously I need to learn a little more patience using the brush hog instead of plowing with it. I might also should consider a frail mower instead...

 

[DieselBound]

If you keep the stumpjumper castle nut loose enough then BOTH Blades (and the stump jumper) will eject and you won't have that horrible imbalance! Well, ahem, someone mentioned that to me. BTW - A stump jumper plus blades ejecting from a 6' RC doesn't travel as far as one might think (though mine went far enough into brush that it was a hunt to find it- my trusty "bloodhound" found it)

Here's when a curl cylinder really goes wrong (cost me $700 to produce this picture!):

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[sandman2234]

The brush hog is a old, tired, pretty well beat up Land Pride RCR 1272 due to all of the abuse I have given it over the years.. Still I cut about 30 acres with it monthly. I have been known to level dirt and gravel piles and to pull small stumps with it. I did say abused didn't I? I was cutting an area my neighbor later called 'The bog'. "I didn't mean for you to cut there!" he now tells me. And I should have known myself to not cut that area. The area was very soft dirt/sand with 'potholes', pulled stumps, limbs and other debris hiding in the weeds. One blade dug into the soft dirt when I fell into a 'pothole' shutting down the tractor. After turning off the PTO, restarting the tractor, raising the brush hog and driving past the pothole I tried to restart the PTO. Very heavy vibration. I assumed the blades had crossed and bound against each other. Shutting everything off I crawled under the raised brush hog to find there was only one blade! After searching the area for awhile I found the missing blade buried in the soft dirt with only about 2 inches of it sticking up. Next to the blade was the tip of it broken off at the mounting bolt hole. I now have the blades, bolts, nuts, washers and dishpan on order from www.germanbliss.com at a cost of $376 including shipping. Obviously I need to learn a little more patience using the brush hog instead of plowing with it. I might also should consider a frail mower instead...

$376...OUCH!!! A little more then I was expecting! I hope that including shipping! I don't think my Bush hog blades cost that much!!
Messing with you, but when you said you you might also should consider a frail mower instead... I thought...hmmm, he already has a frail mower, maybe he means a flail mower?
David from jax

 

[DieselBound]

If you're killing RCs then don't even consider a flail! I've got both. I was lucky that I didn't kill my (7') flail when it sucked up a chunk of cedar root and locked everything up solid (first time I'd ever had the Kioti's engine stop dead). RCs will clip, bump, jump and toss things. Flails work by sucking things up into their cavities and tossing them out back; there's plenty of ways in which to break and wrap stuff up inside them; and then there's belts and stuff that can get shredded (bearings to fail because they require a lot more attention- greasing).

When you're looking at higher dollar amounts for parts it's a good idea to see if there's any used equipment around that you can grab for parts. RC blades are cheap and ubiquitous. The pan is a little less so: and it's a chunk of change to ship.

I have the same Landpride RC. I got it totally used/abused. Blades were worn down to toothpicks: I just replaced the PTO shaft, which had been amply abused. I ran an even lighter-duty 5' Rankin for many years, ran it through total heck, and the blades were still really good when I sold it (had bought a set of blades for it but never needed to replace). My property isn't full of rocks, not toward the surface that is, so that's why blades last for me.

 

[ptsg]

The brush hog is a old, tired, pretty well beat up Land Pride RCR 1272 due to all of the abuse I have given it over the years.. Still I cut about 30 acres with it monthly. I have been known to level dirt and gravel piles and to pull small stumps with it. I did say abused didn't I? I was cutting an area my neighbor later called 'The bog'. "I didn't mean for you to cut there!" he now tells me. And I should have known myself to not cut that area. The area was very soft dirt/sand with 'potholes', pulled stumps, limbs and other debris hiding in the weeds. One blade dug into the soft dirt when I fell into a 'pothole' shutting down the tractor. After turning off the PTO, restarting the tractor, raising the brush hog and driving past the pothole I tried to restart the PTO. Very heavy vibration. I assumed the blades had crossed and bound against each other. Shutting everything off I crawled under the raised brush hog to find there was only one blade! After searching the area for awhile I found the missing blade buried in the soft dirt with only about 2 inches of it sticking up. Next to the blade was the tip of it broken off at the mounting bolt hole. I now have the blades, bolts, nuts, washers and dishpan on order from www.germanbliss.com at a cost of $376 including shipping. Obviously I need to learn a little more patience using the brush hog instead of plowing with it. I might also should consider a frail mower instead...

Looks like you could use one of our brush mowers we use around here. These things will just plow through everything and just won't care as the chains will just skip over it. Yeah, it might slip the clutch or snap the shear pin on harder hits but that's about it.

We mow brush with these mowers with 40 or 50 HP tractors that most people in the US would only dare to use a skidsteer and mulching head in those conditions.

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As far as using the loader technic, I also do it but only on land that I know and have mowed before. Mostly just to knock the tall brush down to prevent scratching the hood or something.

f I'm mowing for someone else on land I don't know and the brush is taller that 2 or 3 ft, I simply go in the reverse and let the mower take the hits. After all it's cheaper to fix a brush mower than something internal or external on the tractor. If the brush is taller than 5 or 6 ft, I usually go in reverse with the mower about a foot off the ground till I can't go anymore, then just go forward with the mower all the way down.

 

[LD1]

Sounds like you need a bit heavier duty mower than a landpride 12 series

 

[smithdenny]

If you keep the stumpjumper castle nut loose enough then BOTH Blades (and the stump jumper) will eject and you won't have that horrible imbalance! Well, ahem, someone mentioned that to me. BTW - A stump jumper plus blades ejecting from a 6' RC doesn't travel as far as one might think (though mine went far enough into brush that it was a hunt to find it- my trusty "bloodhound" found it)

Here's when a curl cylinder really goes wrong (cost me $700 to produce this picture!):

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  BrokenTiltCylinder.jpg

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Yikes! Now that's a bad day! What happened?

 

[smithdenny]

$376...OUCH!!! A little more then I was expecting! I hope that including shipping! I don't think my Bush hog blades cost that much!!
Messing with you, but when you said you you might also should consider a frail mower instead... I thought...hmmm, he already has a frail mower, maybe he means a flail mower?
David from jax

It definitely is a frail mower! LOL. Good catch!
On pricing the blades are about $100 a set, the dishpan a little north of $200. I hope the seller ships them soon and not get caught up in the 'supply chain' problems...

 

[smithdenny]

Sounds like you need a bit heavier duty mower than a landpride 12 series

I certainly did need something heavier duty when I first started clearing my property which is when most of my wear and tear damage occurred. Now the property is pretty well cleared and I'm cutting grass only (well, mostly... grin). So hopefully a repaired RC will suffice. If only I stay out of unknown fields! But he is a good neighbor and I'm glad to lend a helping hand to him. I just need to learn to stay out of his 'bog'! grin

 

[RancherGuy]

If you keep the stumpjumper castle nut loose enough then BOTH Blades (and the stump jumper) will eject and you won't have that horrible imbalance! Well, ahem, someone mentioned that to me. BTW - A stump jumper plus blades ejecting from a 6' RC doesn't travel as far as one might think (though mine went far enough into brush that it was a hunt to find it- my trusty "bloodhound" found it)
...

Loose castle nut? You are kidding, right? I had a castle nut come off on me because debris took out the cotter pin, then the nut came off and the stump jumper fell to the ground. Here are the threads on the $400 shaft.

I ended up spending a few hours removing the shaft and putting it on my lathe and cleaning up (re-cutting) the threads. Not fun, but the Mrs would not understand that kind of expense.

To make matters worse, this was the center cutter on my 3-cutter batwing. The two outside blade sets did a beat-down on that center stump jumper. I can't find a picture of it, but the 1/8" steel pan was mangled.