Why 3pt Rotaty (brush) Cutter vs Quick attach on FEL?

[BMRENN]

Can the experienced please educate me on the pros and cons (or even possibility) of mounting a rotary brush cutter on my FEL with aux. hydraulics vs the traditional 3pt pull-behind options?

Running a Kubota MX6000 with open station, I do realize most skidsteer guys that operate a front brush cutter have a cab for protection but...

I'm just assuming you could mount a skid-steer quick attach brush cutter to my FEL with aux hydraulics, but haven't seen it done.

Is anyone is doing this, and why or why not???

Thanks in advance

 

[oldnslo]

With out a separate dedicated pump to run the mower vs loader the mower may slow down everytime you use the loader.

Does your tractor have enough flow to run the mower?

 

[nybirdman]

You probably don't have enough flow to run with spending a lot of money on a power pack;plus now you would be running over everything you just cut.
Takes a high flow SS to run a front cutter.

 

[4570Man]

You need a lot of hydraulic flow to use a hydraulic cutter which a tractor doesn’t have. It’s also hard to carry the cutter on the front. It’s much easier to drag it behind the tractor.

 

[2manyrocks]

There is more opportunity for debris to be thrown at the operator on the tractor if the cutter were on the FEL, and more debris will be generated to fly into the radiator. Probably also have issues of how the smaller front wheels of a tractor handle the weight of the cutter versus having the cutter on the heaviest/stoutest rear wheels.

 

[BMRENN]

That all makes sense, thank you! I was wondering why I hadn't seen this and I'm not sure about flow requirements of any specific unit as this was only a general curiosity but my tractor is only 9.5 gpm so I won't be trying this!

 

[Xfaxman]

The out front 7' brush hog works great on a Toolcat:

The view from the seat:

Limb trimming mode:

 

[STCL01]

As said above, flow is going to be an issue. However, the issue of safety is a big concern. I have and M4700 with a 6' pull behind mower, that has on occasion, at least before I put chains on it, thrown debris past my head. I also run a Kubota SVL 75 with a rotary muncher (think bush hog on steroids), and there is no way I would run that without the cab closed in the CTL. I'm also running a 1/2" thick forestry glass on it that has saved my bacon more times that I want to count. I would have been impaled several times without it, so I would be extremely leery of running something like that off the front of an open station tractor.

 

[ruffdog]

Even if the OP's tractor had hydraulic flow to run a cutter, it doesn't have the ability to sufficiently cool the oil. Using hydraulics to run motors makes lots of heat that demands a serious cooler on board.

 

[nch77]

My T870 is 23 gpm on regular flow, 36 on high flow, and it has very large oil cooler. Since it rides on treads it can handle a mower weighing 2500 lbs. A tractor isn't made that kind of abuse. Also, a PTO is far more efficient in transmitting power than hydraulics.