DIY poor men's FEL brush cutter

[jmc]

Don't see why it needs an operator, the crane is doing all the work.

Who would turn the steering wheel?

 

[MossRoad]

This is the flow with my design, it has only original pneumatic wheels, they are not pivoting and they are on the side, so, they cannot hold the weight of the FEL and they tend to run off the rims when i turn because it sways too much.

Another point is, on flat ground it would work well, but if there deeps or high point i had to keep a good eye on it not to dig into the ground or not being to bee too high. I already bent the skirt of it.


Too much for pneumatic wheels.

In short, the front mounted cutter is nice to have but it is no way can replace 3 point mounted ones. I can imagine that i would be able to mitigate the problem in a degree by adding solid wheels, but there another question remains, what to do with uneven ground, how to make it follow the profile since it is mounted on the forks and not tilting automatically following the ground dips and high points. I need to think about it more, maybe to use chains

Yes, front mounted pneumatic wheels can be a problem. I have them on my finish mower and they work fine... WITH TUBE!. Without tubes, they would occasionally get pushed at an angle that made them break the seal with the rim. With tubes, they are fine. If they do not caster, they cannot be used effectively in anything but a straight line. Too much side load in turns.

Now with the brush cutter, the pneumatic tires got blown out fairly quickly, tube or no tube, from flying debris and sharp sheared off sapling stumps on the overlapping trips. so I went with solid wheels on the front casters of the brush cutter. Work great. Time for another set, though, as the old ones are now getting chewed up.

Both my finish mower and brush cutters have solid plastic rear wheels.

And I managed to blow one of those to smithereens on the brush cutter when I hit a 4" wide metal tie down strap ratchet hiding in the grass by the highway. BOOM!

 

[MossRoad]

21 year old crummy time-lapse video of me clearing a small field of 5' high brush and weeds. This is why I prefer a front mounted mower/brush cutter.

I need to make some more current (and visible) videos...

 

[2515R Dude]

Yes, front mounted pneumatic wheels can be a problem. I have them on my finish mower and they work fine... WITH TUBE!. Without tubes, they would occasionally get pushed at an angle that made them break the seal with the rim. With tubes, they are fine. If they do not caster, they cannot be used effectively in anything but a straight line. Too much side load in turns.

Now with the brush cutter, the pneumatic tires got blown out fairly quickly, tube or no tube, from flying debris and sharp sheared off sapling stumps on the overlapping trips. so I went with solid wheels on the front casters of the brush cutter. Work great. Time for another set, though, as the old ones are now getting chewed up.

Both my finish mower and brush cutters have solid plastic rear wheels.

And I managed to blow one of those to smithereens on the brush cutter when I hit a 4" wide metal tie down strap ratchet hiding in the grass by the highway. BOOM!

I have tubbed tires. Pumped up to 37PSI they hardly can handle the weight of the loader, and when i turn right or left it is pain to watch
i'd install wheels made for brush cutters if i saw any future in this project. So far for what little needs i have in a front mounted brush cutter, i'm good as is, i already cleaned the heavy brushed places i needed to clean. The edges of my ponds i can clean watching more carefully and keep it a little elevated. In another words, don't waste your money on the front mounted cutter for a tractor as a substitute for a rear mounted one. It might be good as a supplement for specific tasks if you fence to spend north of $3k

Only my opinion from my experience.
Probably ones who have factory built ones have different opinion.

 

[WinterDeere]

This reminds me of "generation 1" of my walnut picker, which used to attach to the front plow bracket of my Deere 855. Same exact issues with pneumatic castor wheel on the front of that, re-tubbed vs. tubeless.

I could push the picker with the FEL bucket held right above it, such that when the picker baskets were full, I could quickly dump them into the loader bucket. Even had a setup where I could dump the loader down a ravine without removing the walnut picker push frame.

Then I sold that tractor and had to adapt the rig to my zero turn. Works nearly as well, now I just park the 3033R with loader in the middle of the area being harvested, and return to it with the zero turn each time the picker baskets are full. Of course, that loader holds a bit more.

 

[Farmerjonathan]

2515R Dude, thank you for the great idea! I have one of those in the shed and now I know how I am going to clean up the square corners of my hayfields. Just wanted to let you know I appreciate you posting this and waking me up to the opportunities instead of moaning about buying it and only using it for a couple of years!​

 

[dstig1]

Moss, that has to be one of the worst resolution videos I have ever seen!

With people talking about hydraulic drive up front, I figured I would link to my build of a front mount broom as I had to handle the drive system similar to what you would need for a brush hog. I added a mid PTO and then used some parts from a Kubota front mount snow blower drive system to drive a hydraulic pump on the front of the tractor. The pump stays with the broom and I bolt it on the front mount when the broom is mounted.

Here is the PTO drive setup for the pump

Sweepster Rotary Broom - rebuild and modification

I refined my CAD model a bit and added the bearings. Actually I have changed it a bit since I took that screen shot, but, meh, close enough. I also made a mock-up out of hardboard and 2x4 blocks to see better how it fits. I can see i will need some relief around the axle so it can pivot and...

www.tractorbynet.com

And if you go nearer to the end of the thread you will see pics of the setup installed.

Here's the thread from beginning with all my ramblings:

Sweepster Rotary Broom - rebuild and modification

I'm going to start this thread a bit ahead of time so I can actually get input along the way rather than just showing finished pics as there are some areas I am less certain of. I have started taking apart bits of it but probably won't get seriously into it until Spring/early summer when it...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, that has to be one of the worst resolution videos I have ever seen!

It was, wan't it!



I think made in 2002. Probably my old Sony camera from 1992. Converting it to usable format to view on a PC was not easily done back then. Then I had to upload it....

 

[lman]

Don't see why it needs an operator, the crane is doing all the work.

They couldn't figure out how to override the seat safety switch, so they needed a dummy on the seat.