I made a $9 brush hog!

[Dapaki]

Heres my baby... well, 35 years later, it dont look so nice any more but it cuts 3" saplings still!

[Conditor22]

Anyone remember these, they were fine machines... ran one often. Talk about safe!
Attachment 265426

Yes I believe it's called a high wheel grass cutter

[Tripplebeards]

Heres my baby... well, 35 years later, it dont look so nice any more but it cuts 3" saplings still!

After I cut my deck open I mowed my yard and accidentally bumped the telephone pole... you should see the chunk it took out of that!

[fcvan]

Love It! I think I will make the cuts, ad hinges and latches so I can open up the beast, or mow the lawn. You can guarantee this is useful. My wife will never know . . .

[Tripplebeards]

Here’s some more show n tell...







I was cutting through brush and weeds higher than my head today. The deer are already using the trails. There’s fresh deer poop all up and down the trails. There are also a family of woodcock that sit and call out in the brush and aren’t even scared by my loud mower either. I did have some grass build up catch fire on the deck by the muffler today so I now make sure to clean off the deck quite often.

[country gent]

You accomplish a couple things removing the lifts from them. With just grass they create an uplift air flow that raise the grass to cut and helps it flow out the exhaust. They also thriw tings a little more. They also make a much wider cut on the edge in heavy stuff. By removing them the blade only cuts the 3/16-1/4" width in heavy things instead of the 1/2" - 3/4" it does when its there.

[Tripplebeards]

I might have to mow a section and throw some clover seeds down for a quick food plot. My dirt is mostly clay so it’s hard as a rock. I don’t know how many horse a 139 cc engine is but like mega said his wasn’t enough horse power. Mine wouldn’t have probably been either if I didn’t rig up a throttle cable to it. I can rev it up and it sounds like a race car.lol. I don’t keep it full throttle for long periods of time but just for thick brush in smaller saplings I want to buzz through quick.

[oneofsix]

I have an old high wheel mower, might see if I can mount it to the front of my lawn tractor and clear some brush...
Knocking off/down the lifts on the blade is a great idea!


I also have a saw blade on a straight shaft weed eater, but it's heavy.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[country gent]

Balancing the blade when you sharpen it will make things last a lot longer.

We had an old gravely rough service mower. Dad had several attachments for it, A blade 3' a reel mower, a heavy rotary and a sickle bar. Was only a 3 or 4 horse motor. But when Dad snagged the antenna cable by the time he got it shut off the reel mower had it 4' off the ground. LOL

[10x]

This is an incredible idea.
The only mod I would do is to replace the solid blade with a small flywheel and have 4 shorter blades that pivot attached to the fly wheel. This would reduce shock to the crankshaft

[Tripplebeards]

As a tip I can tell you the mowing went a way faster where I drove my 4 wheeler through previously as it packed a lot of the brush down already. It’s going to be nice not to get soaked walking to my stand in the morning from the overnight dew and not to mention complete quiet and not having the black cap bush thorns poking through my thin camos. I dragged the mower up through the woods to the top of my ridge yesterday only to find it was to rocky to mow. I don’t don’t own a gas powered weed wacker so I’ll go old school and use my harbor freight machete again like last year.

[10x]

As a tip I can tell you the mowing went a way faster where I drove my 4 wheeler through previously as it packed a lot of the brush down already. It’s going to be nice not to get soaked walking to my stand in the morning from the overnight dew and not to mention complete quiet and not having the black cap bush thorns poking through my thin camos. I dragged the mower up through the woods to the top of my ridge yesterday only to find it was to rocky to mow. I don’t don’t own a gas powered weed wacker so I’ll go old school and use my harbor freight machete again like last year.

A few years back I was in Rundu Namibia. The local government office had 5 guys with extremely sharp machetes mowing lawn in front of their administrative building.
They had a Husqvarna 2 stroke weed trimmer to do the edges. The Husqvarna also served to dispatch black and green mambas that were coming into Rundu because the Okavanga river was in flood due rains in Angola. Green mambas - known as one step snakes and black mambas - known as 2 step snakes- are very aggressive and will chase and bite anything or anyone that annoys them. A weed whacker makes short work of them
I asked a local about the difference between a green and black mamba. His reply "one step".

[Johnch]

I like your idea !!

But after seeing your idea
I have a better one ( Maybe )
I bought a almost free used Walker Zero Turn mower a few weeks ago for parts , as it was the same as the one I already have
It had a area broken off the front of the deck
Someone had repaired the broken area 1 or 2 times .... lots of BAD welds

Wonder if I can cut more of the front of the deck off ?
To make 3 areas to cut tall weeds
I will have to go over areas to get the weeds missed
But I only need paths to walk through the woods
As I use Brush spray and a tractor and 8' bush hog for brush control

John

[FrontSite]

Next time cut a jagged triangular row out of the front instead of a straight cut, fold them down, paint them white, SHARK teeth!!!!

I used triangle cuts of the shiny "furnace" tape. to make teeth for a stage prop bear trap looked great!

[dverna]

I am surprised more people are not hurt with brush hogs. I sold mine after the first year.

[mattw]

Bushhogs... Have you seen the ones that mount on the front of a Bobcat and only have spring loaded bars covering the blades on the front? They will cut down 4-5 inch trees on the go. They are used to mow powerline runs. They do make me worry as the blades are much wider and thicker than a standard bushhog blade, lots of horse power also. I really like a flail mower for this kind of work.

[megasupermagnum]

I am surprised more people are not hurt with brush hogs. I sold mine after the first year.

I've been running them for years for others, but never owned one myself other than my chopped up mower. Used to use one on a farm that went onto a tractor. It isn't happening this year, but in the past I've ran the walk behind Billygoat's clearing trails for OHM single track trails in state forests and other land. The only big threat I see is it is usually rough terrain, and now with little nubs of brush making it easy to fall and hurt yourself. For the unit themselves, I don't see what is so dangerous. The tractor mounted one is no danger. A sickle blade is more dangerous, but is only really for grass. The walk behind Billygoat brand unit, I don't think I've ever had them kick out rocks or anything. The blades aren't turning fast, maybe 1/3rd the speed of your average lawn mower. I wish I could afford a big walk behind like a Billygoat, they run $1500 to $2000. My riding mower works, and other than flipping, I don't see how it is any more dangerous than mowing the lawn.

[jcren]

First, great idea! Second, as far as the safety of brush hogs, I am a country boy and learned to drive a standard on a tractor. When I was 8 or 9 I was assigned to brush hog the pastures with a Ferguson to-30 and a 5 foot brush hog to earn my buscuits during the summer. Not my first time brush hogging mind you, but on one lap under some pecan trees, I was caught by surprise by a low limb and it lifted me off the old style pan seat and dropped me on my back on the top link bar. The good lord was watching over me that day, as a few inches either way would have been under the hog.

[megasupermagnum]

Oh yes, an old school tractor could be bad. No guard on the PTO either I'm sure. The tractor I was in had a full cab, AC, radio. It was like mowing from the living room. I loved that job.

[10x]

Oh yes, an old school tractor could be bad. No guard on the PTO either I'm sure. The tractor I was in had a full cab, AC, radio. It was like mowing from the living room. I loved that job.

The guard on a P.T.O. shaft is a "wonderful concept". Just another annoyance that will try to kill you when something goes wrong with a universal joint.
I have incredible respect for P.T.O shafts, so much so that a guard on the shaft is redundant.
My brother in laws farm with GPS assist. They read books or cruise the internet while babysitting the equipment they are running.