Hoggin' woes

[theboman]

Hoggin\' woes

Well no bee stings in the past week (whew). However, I heard a loud pop on my bush hog (Agri-Cutter) and noticed the lift pin was no longer connected to the bush hog. The threads stripped and the nut w/lockwasher just backed off into the weeds. I'd tightened everything up last year but didn't think a thing about going over them this year.
I put the tractor up and noticed that one of the spring steel arms from the bushhog's wheel to the 3 pt hitch backet had broken off at the wheel. I guess stress from going over banks and bumping into trees/stumps/saplings in the process of hoggin'.
The dealer order the part and got the lift pin in my truck.
So.... tighten those nuts!

 

[MODiesel]

Re: Hoggin\' woes

Hmm...

That's the first report I've ever found of damage to a Fred Cain Agricutter. I have the 5Ft AC105 model, and have literally beat the heck out of the thing clearing/cleaning up my new property. You name it, that mower has eaten it:

-- 15ac of 6-7ft of thick horse weeds. I parked my F350 in the cuts and couldn't see it over the weeds!

-- About 1ac of willow sapplings up to about 2in in diameter. The 3 and 4in stuff I chainsaw and then drag off, but it eats a whole deck full of 1in sapplings with nothing more than a bunch of noise.

-- One 15in 5-bolt aluminum wheel, hidden in the weeds. This just about killed the tractor before I hit the clutch and turned off the PTO. Sounded like a bomb went off, too! However, when I lifted up the mower and pulled the wheel out, the wheel had clearly lost the battle and resembled more of an oval with some nasty blade cuts in it.

-- About 10 old tires, so far. Previous owner thought tires made great bank erosion control. However, mostly they wash out and get burried under weeds until the mower about chokes on one as the steel belts rip apart and get tangled. Those are fun to dig out of the spindle -- not.

-- Some pretty good banks which I hit backwards sending the mower up the grade first. The tailwheel has done a good job supporting the deck, and my only complaint is it needs to be greased often.

-- A few 12in+ diameter rocks. Most have shattered and put a few dents in the deck, but those are the only dings to speak of.

For all that, I look at the gearbox and swear it's not big enough to take that kind of abuse. Yet, my dealer has never even serviced one, not on any size mower. They're just stout, I guess. Plus, this ugly, X-braced, shoddily painted mower was $100 cheaper than Bush Hog's light duty Squealer cutter. I'll tell you one thing, my future mowers will all be Fred Cain products. The company incorporated in 1957 -- they must be doing something right even if they still don't have a website.

Best Regards,
Jay

 

[theboman]

Re: Hoggin\' woes

I'm back in the saddle again. The brace cost about the same as the shipping for a grand total of under $14. It was just one of those things.
I too have beat my 104 against a few things. I find these old stumps... an occasional downed log and those lovely yellow jackets (ouch).
I've cut down 1-2" sapplings and a few a little bigger ones, a few thumps and it chews them up.
The dealer did kinda wonder what I did to break that brace, well it just happened. Several spots I back the tractor down or up to since a left/right approach is out of the question, and then lift/drop the cutter over bangs, etc.
If I had to do it all over again I'd buy the exact some cutter.