What size brush hog do I need?

[jjrennie]

Hello all. I am a city boy who moved to the country and bought some acreage because I discovered I love country living. I am trying to figure out what size of a brush hog I need. I bought an 85 hp Kubota tractor. Some folks have told me I need a brush hog with a gear box that can handle at least 85 hp. Others have said I could use a 60 hp gear box six-footer with a slip clutch on the pto shaft.

I sure would appreciate any guidance you could provide, and also where should I look for such a piece of equipment?

Thanks in advance.

 

[LoneCowboy]

15' batwing would run nicely behind 85hp

 

[jbrumberg]

jjrennie:

Welcome to TBN ! There are much more experienced members (Soundguy Lone Cowboy, 3RRL, etc.) with your size tractor and mowing. But I would think you need a gearbox that could handle more than 60HP with your PTO HP in addition to a slip clutch. You also want a rotary cutter that is wider than your wheel width. Jay

 

[jbrumberg]

LoneCowboy- You beat me to the "punch" Jay

 

[flusher]

Hello all. I am a city boy who moved to the country and bought some acreage because I discovered I love country living. I am trying to figure out what size of a brush hog I need. I bought an 85 hp Kubota tractor. Some folks have told me I need a brush hog with a gear box that can handle at least 85 hp. Others have said I could use a 60 hp gear box six-footer with a slip clutch on the pto shaft.

I sure would appreciate any guidance you could provide, and also where should I look for such a piece of equipment?

Thanks in advance.

Which model Kubota? 85 hp on the engine or on the pto?
Hawkline makes a 7-ft BH with a 75hp gearbox that might be a good match for your Bota

Rotary Cutters 2 Page

I have a 6-ft Hawkline model RC72HD50 (50 hp gearbox) that I run on my Mahindra 5525 (54hp engine, 45 hp pto). Cost: $1150 new.

 

[JoeinTX]

Yeah, jj, lots of questions in response to your question.

How much acreage are you planning to cut? Open field or tighter wooded areas? Flat or hilly? As already noted above you could run anything between a medium 7' mounted shredder up to a full-on 15' drag mower with the tractor you have.....it'll all depend on what you want to do with it.

As for gearbox hp, if you know the ground well, aren't looking to mow a lot of dense brush or undergrowth, and just need to cut pasture grass then you could use something with a smaller rating. If you don't know the land that well yet or may well be running through brush or onto some little "surprises" that you haven't discovered yet or are trying to take back some overgrown areas then you'd be better off getting something equal in rating to the hp of your tractor.

Off the top of my head, an 8' mounted cutter with appropriate gearbox rating would be my first guess but it all depends on what you need to do.

 

[Lunk]

85 hp is a lot of tractor (for most folks). I wouldn't waste it by undersizing your attachments. The extra dollars to size-up would be money well spent in lieu of having to replace a gear-box on a lesser unit.

Go for an 8-footer if it's not to big for maneuvering on your property. If it's all wide open space and sizable in nature, do as the others have suggested and pick yourself up a bat-wing.

I have a 5' cutter, and could easily spin a 6 footer, but I already had the 5 footer in my possession (possession is 9/10ths of the law, after all - just ask my wife ). Sometimes when I'm in really light stuff, I wish for the extra foot, or even two. However, I shouldn't ever have to worry about "the tail waggin' the dog" no matter what I'm cutting...

Good luck with your pick, and welcome to TBN!

Lunk

 

[Bird]

A friend and neighbor who, many years ago, bought a 7' (used) brush hog to use behind his old Farmall M. He later bought an 80 hp Oliver tractor and mentioned on a couple of occasions that, even with the old Farmall, he wished that he had found a 10' brush hog.

I guess if you have a small enough acreage, 6' brush hog would do, and actually the only big deal with using one with a gear box rated for less than the tractor's horsepower is that IF you break the gearbox, and the dealer knows what size tractor you had it on, it will not be covered by warranty. Most people (myself included) prefer a gearbox rated for a little more horsepower than the tractor has.

And unless you have a small place, or don't mind spending a lot of time mowing, then, as the other guys said, get a bigger brush hog, right on up to the 15' batwing.

The biggest problem for some of us (myself included) would be the higher price of those big brush hogs.

 

[jimmysisson]

You WILL mind spending a lot of extra time mowing when you could mow faster with a bigger unit.
Jim

 

[john_bud]

I would not want to buy a hog with a lower hp rated gear box than the tractor can put out! In fact, you typically want much more than the tractor can put out for reliabity. An 85 pto hp tractor can bugger up a 60 hp gear box pretty quick!

I would get an 8'. Either a Woods brushbull 840 or 8400 or the equivalent bushog brand. If you can find a decent used bat wing in the 10-15' that would be good for mowing and small brush. New, they are a lot of $$.

 

[RobJ]

as big as you can afford!

but how many acres you are mowing would be a help to know.

Rob

 

[hotchkiss]

First, we do really need to know how many acres you will be mowing and the topography of the terrain you will be mowing. A 15 foot batwing will not do you any good if you are mowing several small fields where overall width is a concern. I have a 90 hp New Holland. I use to use a six foot medium duty Woods with my 57 hp and it worked just fine. It also worked fine with the New Holland. However, with the larger tractor, I decided to sell the Woods and bought a 8 foot double spindle Bushhog. I did so simply to save time, but understand that saving time comes at a cost. The 8 foot Bushhog is a much better mower, but it also cost a little more.

Most importantly, if you are not use to operating equipment - - - take your time and be safe. Bigger is often better when it comes to mowers, but it isn't always safer.

 

[AndyMA]

I would not want to buy a hog with a lower hp rated gear box than the tractor can put out! In fact, you typically want much more than the tractor can put out for reliabity. An 85 pto hp tractor can bugger up a 60 hp gear box pretty quick!

.

Do not run an underrated gear box unless you do not mind changing it out often when you blow it's gears, bearings or pto up. A slip clutch will not protect it unless you just happen to set it right. Something with out a dino I'm not sure you could do. It is just not the way to force an incorrect attachment to work. I'd go at least 7 if not 8, 9, or 10 or the batwing with a 100 hp gearbox min.

Andy

 

[have_blue]

My only advice: Keep in mind that every additional foot of mower width speeds up mowing a great deal.

Going from a 5 footer to a 6 footer sped up my mowing from ~7 hours to ~5 hours on only 7 acres. Scale that up to 10, 15, 20 acres, and the time savings could be huge.

 

[TerryJ]

If I was you, I'd be looking for a 3pt. hitch 10' rotary. You have more than enough tractor to run a 10' and the 3pt hitch would make it very easy to get around with. Just my opinion.

 

[rbargeron]

If you spend a little time looking at the Rotary Cutter Section of the Woods website, you'll notice that the gearbox HP ratings go up with duty rating more than with size. For example a lighter duty 7' rotary may have a 90 hp gearbox where the heavy duty 7' has a 200 hp box. Gearbox power rating is all about ruggedness and design margin - which translates to machine life and survivabilty of the occasional insult (read large rock). If your place is machine-friendly then a light duty will be ok. If it has more hazards you'll want more beef.

 

[bill in ny]

jjrennie, i also have a 85hp kubota and i just bought a landpride rcr25 8' twin spindle rotary cutter. it has a 120hp main gearbox and two 60hp outboard gearboxes. it is a perfect match for that tractor. my tractor has 4x4 and i put front weights on. i bought the one that goes on the 3pth.

 

[JoeinTX]

"jjrennie, i also have a 85hp kubota and i just bought a landpride rcr25 8' twin spindle rotary cutter. it has a 120hp main gearbox and two 60hp outboard gearboxes. it is a perfect match for that tractor. my tractor has 4x4 and i put front weights on. i bought the one that goes on the 3pth."

Refer to my previous post and while not knowing all of your particulars this is just about where you should be.


An 85hp PTO tractor can run a lot of shredders along the sides of the highways but what are you going to ultimately do with it? In MANY cases you won't want more than an 8'er behind it as your sawing through vines and shrub/tree overgrowth.


A 40hp tractor can lug a 15' bat-wing cutting highways but can't handle a 6' mounted rig slashing through serious pasture growth or young Mesquites overtaking an old field.

It's all experience..

 

[Soundguy]

I agree with the others.. I'd like my hogs gearbox to be rated at or above my pto hp.. preferably much above.

my 10' mower has 120 hp main box.. and 90hp side boxes. Not sure of the setup on my jd batwing.. but believe it is similar setup.. HD divider box and slightly less rated blade boxes.

Also as stated.. that's alot of tractor.. what implement you get should match your land. if you are cutting super HD stuff.. you might actually stick to 10'.. though you have plenty of hp to drive 12' and 15' under decent conditions.

If you have sloped or hilly/uneven land.. do consider a folding, flex, or v-wing mower deck vs a fixed deck.. otherwise you can scalp some areas.

Many of these larger mowers will come with a torque limiting clutch.. make sure you buy a unit that matches your pto speed... some of the larger mowers want 1000 rpm pto's.. etc. ( some tractors have selectable pto speed.. or swapable shafts too! )

soundguy

 

[bill in ny]

the eight footer also covers my tracks.