Brush hogg limits.

[farmlifeusa]

Hi, i have a massy 40 horse tractor with a 6ft brush hogg/mower with stump guard. I use it to clear brush i/e briars, weeds, oak & ceders 3 in round max. I have not had any trouble but am i abusing my equipment or is this what is made for????

[DaleK]

Depends who built it. It SHOULD be built well enough to handle it but not all are.

[siberian]

40 hp and 6 ft brush, and this is only an opinion, should be handled over precut or just maintaince feilds. I prefer a 5 foot on the same size tractor. Ifs working for you, then I wouldnt worry. I just look back over the years and see 8n and 9n tractors with buckets on the front and the front end was all twisted up. It worked at the tijme ,but there was a price to pay. Unless I had a huge amount to do and a little bigger tractor I like a smaller sized hog. That being said, a good deal of my eequipment was older, this could be a huge difference.

[Sawmill Jim]

A Bush Hog is tough a rotary more some not so tough

[Bearfootfarm]

YOu should be able to look up the specs from the manufacturer

They generally have 3 ratings, Light, Medium, and Heavy, and that will determine how large a cut it can make.

Other factors are the HP rating of the gearbox, and whether it has a shear pin or a slip clutch

3" diameter would be considered "Medium" duty for most brands

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by Sawmill Jim

A Bush Hog is tough

Go look at a BH Squealer, then tell me how tough they are. Had elderly friend that bought 5ft one cause of BH name (he was replacing an excellent Woods cutter that had finally worn out) and a more annoying piece of light duty junk, I've never used. Thats light duty generic farm store quality but just with BH name on it and big price tag.

Now I have an old 5ft BH with monster size super heavy duty gear box and a 50hp tractor. That thing would grind up Squealers for breakfast. It will last me rest of my life mostly cause I dont abuse it and err on side of caution. An occasional 3 inch sapling isnt going to do any injury, but I wouldnt even consider cutting whole field of them, hard on tractor and on brush hog. Need to either chain saw bigger stuff or you need one of those hydraulicly driven things county and power companies have to trim back heavy brush. Power company every few years hires those even heavier duty juggernaught monster machines that chew and grind boulders, stumps, whatever they encounter.

[Ramblin Wreck]

I've used a six foot mower on a 40 HP tractor for pasture mowing with no problems. Cutting trees/brush much bigger than one inch with a tractor and mower is not something I would do.

[Sawmill Jim]

Hermit the old ones were what i was referring to those things were built

[KMA1]

I do it with my rig, 75 hp John Deer and no fabricatrd 7 foot mower and have for 15 years.

[am1too]

Originally Posted by HermitJohn

Go look at a BH Squealer, then tell me how tough they are. Had elderly friend that bought 5ft one cause of BH name (he was replacing an excellent Woods cutter that had finally worn out) and a more annoying piece of light duty junk, I've never used. Thats light duty generic farm store quality but just with BH name on it and big price tag.

Now I have an old 5ft BH with monster size super heavy duty gear box and a 50hp tractor. That thing would grind up Squealers for breakfast. It will last me rest of my life mostly cause I dont abuse it and err on side of caution. An occasional 3 inch sapling isnt going to do any injury, but I wouldnt even consider cutting whole field of them, hard on tractor and on brush hog. Need to either chain saw bigger stuff or you need one of those hydraulicly driven things county and power companies have to trim back heavy brush. Power company every few years hires those even heavier duty juggernaught monster machines that chew and grind boulders, stumps, whatever they encounter.

Yeah I teased them just a little when they came through and said everybody needs a lawn mower like that. I could use one for a couple days at least.

[oneokie]

Originally Posted by farmlifeusa

Hi, i have a massy 40 horse tractor with a 6ft brush hogg/mower with stump guard. I use it to clear brush i/e briars, weeds, oak & ceders 3 in round max. I have not had any trouble but am i abusing my equipment or is this what is made for????

A lot depends on your technique/method of operation when cutting the big stuff. Using the tractor or BH to push the tree in question over and slowly advancing the BH into the cut can enable one to cut the big stuff without doing a lot of damage to the equipment.

[ace admirer]

i think you will end up breaking your tractors pto drive line internals.

[haypoint]

Are you going through a weedy field that has a few clumps of brush and a few 3 inch cedars or are you going through the woods taking down one tree after the next?

I had a field that was very brushy and some brush that had 3 inch trunks. A guy with a Hydro-Axe mounted on a front end loader wanted $1000 a day to clear the property. I bought a 6 foot brush hog and cleared it myself. Nearly ruined the brush hog, but I got it for $400, used. Hate to abuse equipment, but figured if I ruined it, I'd still be money ahead.

[Jolly]

Rather have a five foot on a tractor that size.

Last bushhogging I did was with a 3910 Ford with a five footer...broke 11 shear pins on the cutter that day...well, if you can ride it down with the tractor, you ought to be able to cut it, ok?...

[farmlifeusa]

For the most part brush. But a few (3 in) trees. Maybe 10 per acre. I push them down with the front end loader. Then drive over them, then the brush hogg hits them. Nothing left. I hit them high first then hit them again at about 8 in level.

[Goldeneye]

I beat the heck out of mine doing what you are doing, no permanent damage though.

[ace admirer]

be prepaired to purchase drive line bearings and gears for your tractor.....perhaps an internal splined shaft. if you do the work yourself about $800 or so.

[wy_white_wolf]

Originally Posted by farmlifeusa

...am i abusing my equipment or is this what is made for????

The equipment should be able to handle that but the abusing part would depend on how fast you try running. Gearing down for heavier stuff would make it easier on the equipment.

[houndlover]

My husband was doing the same with our Fergie and a 6' older JD - busted the shaft off inside the PTO. It was a mess to fix. However, this was after using the set up for several years.

[texican]

Originally Posted by Wind in Her Hair

I have been known to push/exceed the limitations of every piece of heavy equipment I have ever used - bush hogs especially.

You'll know you've over done it when the clutch discs on the bush hog starts slipping and smoking.

grinding on a 12" stump will do that

There you go...
If you aren't pushing it past it's limits, you ain't working hard enough.

I keep a handful of shear pins in the tractor toolbox, when bushhoggin... unless I'm just 'mowin' the orchard, odds are I'm gonna run over a stump that magically appeared out of nowhere, find a small boulder, a fire ant mcmansion, or whatever, and it's going to grind the engine down or shear a bolt. If it ain't smoking or shearing pins, it really didn't need bushhoggin in the first place!