Rotary Mower Confusion

[Highbeam]

Highbeam: >>brush hog is a tool of mass destruction<<

LOL. With a description like that, I simply MUST have one.

-------It is a cool machine. You can back it up and over piles of rubbish or old rotten stumps and then lower the blades into them and shred the junk up into little pieces. There's much more to a brush hog than just setting the height and dirving forward in rows. It'll do that too though.

Highbeam: >>The finish mower uses rigid lawn mower type blades while the brush hog uses a pair of 1/2" thick by 4" wide blades that are hinged near the dirve axle.<<

So if I look underneath the machine I am considering and it has a blade that looks like my MMM's, it is a finishing mower? Rougher cut mowers will have the hinged blades? I don't want for the dealer to sell me a "bill of goods" so, excuse my ignorance. I want to make sure what I buy will do what I want.

-------Yes, the blades will be very substantial and are hinged so that if you drive over a huge stump the blades could bounce around the stump while the pto keeps spinning. This provides a weed wacker effect with each wack being given by a huge chunk of steel.

I always wondered how cool it would be to remove a piece of the rear end of the shroud so I could back the blades right into trees. Basicly exposing the blades to full tress just like a weed wacker string is exposed to grass blades. Probably very dangerous.

350 lbs sounds pretty light. My 30 HP tractor lifts nearly a ton. Close to 1750 as I recall at the 3ph.

 

[jinman]

If you want to see what a rotary cutter looks like, go to kingkutter.com and you'll find a wealth of information. The attachment is from their website.

It shows the two blades (12) bolted to what is called a "stump jumper" (14) with two very large bolts that serve as hinge points (13).

Be careful, if you learn too much about rotary cutters, you may know more than the salesman. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

What's the difference between a tractor salesman and a computer salesman?...
...The tractor salesman actually knows when he's lying to you. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[flusher]

I have a KK 48" rotary mower (the yellow one, not the orange one) that I use on my 21HP B7510HST ($675 at TSC last June). It weighs about 420 lb -- no problem for the 3pt hitch since it can lift about 1000 lb @ 24" behind the pins.

With that much acreage to mow, plan on spending a few days for that chore. I have 10 acres and use the brush hog on about 7 acres. Takes me all day with my little Bota.

Recommend safety chains or rubber debris shields to keep flying objects from hurting neighbors or their animals (see attachment).

My KK has a shear pin on the PTO shaft. Some folks like slip clutches better. You can get a suitable slip clutch from TSC for about $100-120.

 

[RonMar]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I always wondered how cool it would be to remove a piece of the rear end of the shroud so I could back the blades right into trees. Basicly exposing the blades to full tress just like a weed wacker string is exposed to grass blades. Probably very dangerous)</font>

Yea, having a blade exposed might be pretty dangerous as if you can see a blade, something it hits and throws could hit you directly. I try not to back up too much as the hitch and mower structure is weakest going that way. I have however pushed down and shredded 3-4" trees with the cutter raised to the full height. I back up against them slowly with the trunk close along side the center wheel and the edge of the deck pushes the tree away and bends it. As the tree trunk starts to go under the rear edge of the deck, the blades start to cut away at it, allowing the top to bend more easilly. The lower portion of the trunk usually tries to stand back up into the blades and is cut down. Once I cut all the way through, I lower the deck slowly and shred the stump down to just a few inches off the ground. If the ground is soft enough, the bashing on the trunk actually uproots the small stump and the blades quickly shred it as it dances around under the deck.

Real cool but definitly something to be done away from people without good chain or flap guards installed. It can throw sharpened splinters of tree trunk or what's left of the root wad quite a distance.

 

[Highbeam]

I love doing that, I call it tree shredding and then follow up by backing over the now severed tree top leaving nothing but shredded wood all over the place. I don't usually go to 4 inchers though, maybe a weak 3 incher. A quick hand on the 3 point lever is needed to keep the brush hog from stalling the tractor doing such maneuvers.

 

[JoeinTX]

@BillyS

There isn't a darn thing wrong with the KK shredders (and they are called "shredders" in my part of the country and a quick trip to the local TSC will result in an impulse buy. I came darn close to owning one myself, but the other low-end competitor (Howse) offered bolt-on chain guards for their unit while KK doesn't and doesn't even provide for the easy installation of one...at least on the front. KK is slightly heavier built though, so it's "6 in one hand, half-a-dozen in the other" here.

@High

( I always wondered how cool it would be to remove a piece of the rear end of the shroud so I could back the blades right into trees. Basicly exposing the blades to full tress just like a weed wacker string is exposed to grass blades. Probably very dangerous)

Dude, that is dangerous. A weed-eater and a rotary cutter are two different animals altogether and the amount of damage that flying debris that each can cause is obviously proportional. I've had conventional shredders throw rocks 50 yards and dent fence posts before....some have had them break windows and dent metal. These aren't tree-saws......appropriate equipment is made for that type of work. A 3" tree is still a **** of a beating on the average small cutter and something will break.

It's all fun until someone gets an eye put out... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[MarkV]

Highbeam, the ‘tree cutter’ you visualize is actually made. It has a hinged cover on the rear so you can back into and cut a tree. It also has a bar to push against the tree to encourage it to fall away from you. I watched a guy with a 100hp tractor cut down some 5 to 8” pines with one. I believe they are made by either Rhino or Brown and require some serious horsepower to operate.

MarkV

 

[Billy_S]

I pulled the trigger and bought the KingKutter XB this weekend. It is even orange. I took that as a sign from God.

Thanks again to everyone for the input.