Homemade powered brushcutter?

[jimy22]

I am building some trails on about 60 acres of hills, woods, creek and brush. These trails will be used for hiking, mountain biking, and ATV access.

My intentions have been to purchase a tow behind, powered brush cutter, probably the Swisher 42" cut. But these weigh upwards of 500 pounds and the trails are steep and rough in places, along with a shallow creek crossing etc. I worry a bit about the safety of towing this around, plus I want to keep the trails fairly narrow.

I am thinking about making something smaller to tow. I have a sulky frame from a 2 wheeled tractor and a nearly new 5 HP Eager vertical shaft engine. I believe a fixed blade will give me trouble with my rough terrain. Seems like I need either a swinging blade or possibly a string attachment. I am hoping for around a 24" cut - certainly a pain for fields, but not a problem for trails. That seems about right for a small engine.

- The engine is from a craftsman leaf blower/vac thing and has a nice heavy chopper/blower/fan thing on the shaft. It looks like a good thing to adapt swinging blades to. Any thoughts on the safety of this? Just cut some lawnmower blades and bolt them on? I wouldn't want it coming apart.

- Any ideas for a string attachment? Or anything similar?

- is the engine rpm correct for either string or a flail blade?

- obviously in either case - I will need to make up a good deck for safety.

- I will be cutting the big stuff by hand as I make the trails. This will be for maintenence - blackberries, goldenrod, grass, etc. But if it were able to cut more, I would make use of that.

thanks for any ideas...

Jim

 

[RonR]

I suggest you look at the DR brush cutters either to purchase outright or to mimick to build. Pulling a 24" unit behind your tractor mashing stuff down doesn't sound too good to me. I think it would be better to get it out front, or go with a walk behind unit.

After fighting by BX2200 on some slopes rough cutting for a guy, I don't plan to do that again--pucker factor was too high. Our local rental place has a type of walk behind brush cutter that I will rent if I run into that again.

If you are going to live there forever and work trails all the time, I think I'd invest in a real walk behind and be done with it.

My 2 cents.
ron

 

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.
Are you into building similar equipment, or is this a first?

Do you have experience with other brushcutters? or is this a first?

Are you familiar with a string trimmer, and what it will cut? or is this a first too?

Some help here will help us put this project in better perspective. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[jimy22]

Thanks for the help so far.

I'm not sure about a walk behind. The ones I have looked at don't seem like the right thing for steep hills. 24 inches is fine for me. The big tow behind units are about 44" so it really doesn't matter if I do one pass with that or two with something smaller. And for the trails which don't loop - I gotta turn around anyways. I have a mile of trail so far and expect more to come.

I am towing with a 4wd ATV - so with as long as I am looking at something light - it should be quite safe to pull. My dad has a BX2200 on the property and I would not be comfortable taking that on most these trails.

I have not made something quite like this before, but I am handy and have a welder, lathe, mill, etc. Clearly, the big safety issues are a proper deck and properly constructed flail blades.

I have used a string trimmer and it would probably deal with a lot of this. I did switch to a blade for the blackberries though. It is slow going and hard work so I am looking for a better solution.

Actually a tow behind version of the walk behind brush cutters would probably be perfect. I much prefer the narrower 24-30 inch cut for my needs. The ATV itself just fits thru the trail (Honda Rancher 350).

Jim

 

[Tractors4u]

Have you considered adding a hitch to a walk behind mower and pulling it with the Honda? It would save a lot of design time, fabrication, and you might even come out ahead on materials.

 

[BigAl]

What about a flail mover ? My next door neighbor just bought a used one that is made to be towed behind and ATV . I would guess it is about 42 " wide and runs on it own gas motor . I think he paid about $200 bucks or so . He has not tried it but it looks like it would work . Big Al

 

[bobodu]

Get hold of an old Gravely walkbehind with the brush hog.Best to get one with a Gravely engine.

 

[jimy22]

Yes, I have given some thought to putting a hitch to a push mower.

I would need more ground clearance than a push mower would have. In addition, I think it would work better to have something with a fixed hitch and just two big wheels in line with the center of the blade - that is how the larger tow behind brush cutters are made. A solid blade would probably be a big problem with all the stuff I might hit - that is why I prefer a flaill blade.

However - I am glad you brought this up because using an old push mower as a starting point may well be the easiest way to go.

thanks,

Jim

 

[RonR]

Years ago, I needed to mow some tall weeds. I took an old non-self propelled rotary mower. About $20 worth of larger plastic wheels and it had a cutting height of 6 inches.

Might look at that.

ron

 

[beenthere]

Sounds like you have the right makins to give this a shot.
I'd like to see how the thing works for blackberries, as my problem with them along the trail is the base of the blackberry cane is a ways back off the trail, and the canes hang down over the trail where it is hard to reach (safely and without getting torn up /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) the stalks to cut them at the ground level. Hope you get something.
The one shown here on a boom looked very interesting, and it would reach off the trail a bit.

 

[cleatus]

Jimy22, How about looking at one of the older fixed height 30" riders, remount rear wheels to neer center of deck and remove steering and extend frame for hitch.

 

[drmiller100]

brush gets too thick, you won't be driving the atv through it. terrain gets too rocky, you are toast.
stihl fs85 with adjustable angle hedge trimmer is the critter to have for brush.
with the hedge trimmer, i can cut buck brush as fast as it trims grass with the grass triimmer attachment.
and it will go anywhere you can walk to.

the dr trimmers are a joke.

 

[have_blue]

I can tell you right off that a handheld string trimmer needs to turn at high RPM... in the 6000-8000 RPM range to be really effective. With the larger string, you may get away with 5000, and most 4 stroke utility engines are rev limited to ~3600 RPM.

 

[Taylortractornut]

You could also make the feet per minute blade/string tip speed larger by adding length to it. Kinda like the work diametrer in a lathe the larger the work piece the slower the rpm needed to turn it. I have a friend that used chains on his bushhog instead of blades. He mounted corner bits off old dozer blades to make the ips harder for cutting the spplings. I think his pto is a 1 to 1.5 ratio. He cant us the standard swinging blades as he has alot of rock outcrops on his land. I think somone in Farmshow did this to. On a self powered rig you could use a smaller chain.

 

[goodoleboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Years ago, I needed to mow some tall weeds. I took an old non-self propelled rotary mower. About $20 worth of larger plastic wheels and it had a cutting height of 6 inches.

Might look at that.

ron )</font>

That seems like a good idea.
Be careful with raising wheels as you could hit an obstacle/rock and it could be throw at you becuase the back Flap that stops debris is no longer long enough.

 

[scollins]

We have been cutting trails through an Illinois hardwood forest full of Honeylocust,Multiflora Rose, downed logs and briars for about 20 years.

A chain saw cuts the heavy stuff, after we get in to it through the MF rose with the brush cutter. In 2001, we bought a Billygoat self-propelled brusher. It goes up the steepest hills and pulls me up with it in low gear.



For larger stems, one of the Stihl brush cutters with the buzz saw blades make nice clean cuts without leaving stobs, but do not chop up the thorn bushes like the rotary brushers do.
I have an old Green Machine Forestry cutter with a Stihl buzz saw blade. ZING!! goes the hawthorns.

Below, are my ND fire trail photos. They are used for hiking, hauling firewood, ATV and snowmobile of the neighbor's, access for spraying weeds, etc.
After the trails are cleaned up, use a broad-leaved brush killer in a 4 gallon sprayer or 25 GL towable sprayer to convert the trails from brush to grass.
This works well to get rid of blackberries on the trail, etc.

In the photo, the fence line was later trimmed out and sprayed with brush killer to widen the fire break / hiking trail.

I locate my trails, if at all possible, where I can keep them mowed with a lawn tractor. The slopes that are too steep get 3-4 passes with the Billygoat brusher.



In areas of thorny vegetation, trails are the only way to enjoy a walk through the woods without a suit of armor.

SC

 

[andser]

Hello Friends

i have a big farm in Thailand around 50 HA , and had many problem with the brush cutter and the people cut the weeds , so i buy brush cutter with a japanese motor Kawasaki very happy but my staff still can not cut the weeds quick so that we can catch the begin without growing ! they say continue on the shoulder around 10kg are heavy hole day ! so now i find the same system of brush cutter with high wheeler ! but i dont have a experiences with such a brush cutter. is anyone there can inform me more about ? Lawn Mowers - Jinhua Teammax Tool Manufacture Co., Ltd.

thanks
andy