Sorry this is long winded, but I thought it was worth taking the time to type up if someone might benefit from it.
I just did my first and probably last brush hog job of the season today. This evening I went out and mowed a small area near a couple of houses and got the scare of my life. The area I was mowing was mostly blackberry vines and small trees and I didn't notice anything on a walk through prior to mowing.
As luck would have it, I hit something while mowing and I thought my mower (72" woods) was going to come unglued at the seams. When I felt it hit, I immediately shut off the pto and the tractor to see if I damaged anything. The only thing I found, was a small chunk missing out of the end of the blade. After checking things out, I started looking around to see what I hit. Once I dug around a bit, I found a leaf spring from a car buried in the grass and figured I'd hit it. About that time, a couple of folks that heard the commotion came over to see what happened. While walking across the driveway, they found a piece of steel (1/2" plate about 5"x18") laying in the driveway.
We figured out the plate was what I hit and it landed in the driveway. When I hit it, it actually flew about thirty feet, hit the concrete driveway (leaving a pretty big chip in the concrete) and bounced up and hit the garage door (leaving three big gouges) and then landed on the driveway. The total distance was easily 75' from contact to resting place. I KNOW, that there was enough energy in the steel to easily kill someone if it had hit them.
Now here's what I learned today and would like to pass along to fellow tractor owners. 1. Brush hogging can be extremely dangerous! 2. Never brush hog closer than several hundred feet to a building or people on unfamiliar ground. 3. If you take money from someone for brush hogging, make sure you're licensed and insured. And last, but not least. I'm a licensed contractor with general liability insurance for $1,000,000, and I doubt I'll ever brush hog again for hire (unless it's a farm field). There's no way $50/hour is worth risking my liability insurance. If it weren't for someone upstairs watching out for me, this easily could've turned into an evening never to be forgotten.
I bought the brush hog for my business, now I'm really wishing I would've bought a flail mower. Since I tend to work in the urban/rural interface areas, it probably would've been a safer to go with the flail. Three hours later, I still get goose bumps as I type this up /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I just did my first and probably last brush hog job of the season today. This evening I went out and mowed a small area near a couple of houses and got the scare of my life. The area I was mowing was mostly blackberry vines and small trees and I didn't notice anything on a walk through prior to mowing.
As luck would have it, I hit something while mowing and I thought my mower (72" woods) was going to come unglued at the seams. When I felt it hit, I immediately shut off the pto and the tractor to see if I damaged anything. The only thing I found, was a small chunk missing out of the end of the blade. After checking things out, I started looking around to see what I hit. Once I dug around a bit, I found a leaf spring from a car buried in the grass and figured I'd hit it. About that time, a couple of folks that heard the commotion came over to see what happened. While walking across the driveway, they found a piece of steel (1/2" plate about 5"x18") laying in the driveway.
We figured out the plate was what I hit and it landed in the driveway. When I hit it, it actually flew about thirty feet, hit the concrete driveway (leaving a pretty big chip in the concrete) and bounced up and hit the garage door (leaving three big gouges) and then landed on the driveway. The total distance was easily 75' from contact to resting place. I KNOW, that there was enough energy in the steel to easily kill someone if it had hit them.
Now here's what I learned today and would like to pass along to fellow tractor owners. 1. Brush hogging can be extremely dangerous! 2. Never brush hog closer than several hundred feet to a building or people on unfamiliar ground. 3. If you take money from someone for brush hogging, make sure you're licensed and insured. And last, but not least. I'm a licensed contractor with general liability insurance for $1,000,000, and I doubt I'll ever brush hog again for hire (unless it's a farm field). There's no way $50/hour is worth risking my liability insurance. If it weren't for someone upstairs watching out for me, this easily could've turned into an evening never to be forgotten.
I bought the brush hog for my business, now I'm really wishing I would've bought a flail mower. Since I tend to work in the urban/rural interface areas, it probably would've been a safer to go with the flail. Three hours later, I still get goose bumps as I type this up /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
