Which size bush hog?

[firetractor]

I was wondering with a John Deere 850...what is the correct size bushhog to use. 4' or 5'. Thanks for you help!

 

[art]

You should be fine with a five foot bush hog.

 

[Gary Fowler]

My brother in law has a 750 JD and pulls a 4 foot shredder clipping pastures in road gear with no stalling of motor. Pulls it in 1H in waist high grass and weeds so you should be able to pull a 5 foot or even a 6 foot with the 850.

 

[scott_vt]

My brother in law has a 750 JD and pulls a 4 foot shredder clipping pastures in road gear with no stalling of motor. Pulls it in 1H in waist high grass and weeds so you should be able to pull a 5 foot or even a 6 foot with the 850.

Good Mornin Gary,
I think a 6 ft rotary cutter would be a bit much for a 22 PTO HP tractor IMO. Unless its a very light duty mower just the weight alone is going to waggle that JD 850 all over the place. Throw in moderately high grasses or weeds and a slight hill and its all over ! JMO !

 

[Soundguy]

IMHO.. 5' is the happy common ground for a rough cut mower... etc.

soundguy

 

[Midsouth]

5 foot is what i would go with

 

[TerryJ]

Until recently I owned a JD850, had it for about 10 years. Did alot of bushogging with it, a 5' will do just fine.

 

[Jerry/MT]

I was wondering with a John Deere 850...what is the correct size bushhog to use. 4' or 5'. Thanks for you help!

The conservative rule of thumb I use is 5 pto HP per foot of cutter.

 

[patrick_g]

The conservative rule of thumb I use is 5 pto HP per foot of cutter.

I pull a 6 ft with a 39 HP hydrostat and have NO difficulty whatsoever even in waist high or worse stuff. In really challenging situations I slow down some and still there is no problem.

I made a round trip to OKC today and the crews were out in force mowing the grass along the highways (Interstate 40 etc.) I was sort of surprised at how slowly they mow sometimes in what looks to be not especially challenging grass.

If I mowed as slow as they do I would be a longtime getting finished and I could pull a much larger mower than 6 ft.

 

[neucam]

A rule of thumb is about 4 PTO hp per foot with a brush hog mower, some say 5hp per foot, it depends if you have slow speed gears to handle the heavy stuff. I have a 51" cut brush hog (55" width) with 16PTO hp and if the brush is too tall I can always drop down a gear, with the old fords N's 1st gear was too high speed is some cases to pull a 5ft. And they were close to 24 PTO HP. I have heard them taking 1/2 swath in heavy grass, ( 2 1/2 FT?)