I made a $9 brush hog!

[lksmith]

I was more referring to to the safety of the operator. I think anything with spinning blades has the potential to sling things towards someone down range. I'm not aware of any adjustment, although it does seem like the walk behind units have some form of clutch to stop hard hits..

on a tractor mounted unit, the front is usually adjusted to angle downward a little so that anything thrown will be thrown away from the operator

[Tripplebeards]

I had to give my “original, gen. 1” homemade brush hog a sermon today. It was a good mower and I’ll miss it. I beat the snot out of it over the last couple of trail mowings. I have to say that mower lasted WAY longer than I thought it ever would have. I had to use a vise grips to pinch the starting lever open last time I was out with it because the cable broke that holds down the starting handle. I started it in the garage today after sitting since last summer. It started making loud banging noises and launched the connecting rod out the side of block! It hit my boat trailer and made a hell of bang. Good thing I made a back up brush hog 2 seasons ago. I basically have a twin to it. I’ll be using it the next couple of days to clear saplings out and make a food plot. I have another buddy that has a twin do this mower, unmodified of course. I just sent him a picture and he said he would donate me his for the cause!

[Fishman]

What a saga!

[elmacgyver0]

Well, you got some good use out of it, you probably got your money's worth.
What was it? $9.00?

[Tripplebeards]

Free and I bought a throttle cable for $9! Saved the cable for the next one. I did wreck the original blade and bought a replacement and a new chuck that I kept as well. Can’t wait to make another one for a spare to the 2nd one I made, and still have, that’s going strong.

[gwpercle]

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

Then paint it like one of General Clair Chennault's P-40 Warhawks of the AVG's "Flying Tigers" and WWII fame ... Awesome !
Gary

[Tripplebeards]

I did make shark teeth on the second gen.lol

[Brassmonkey]

Glad to see another ready to take its place, last one someone posted had an 11hp Briggs, that machine would just eat! I cleared an acre overgrown with brush thorns and little sapling like trees I'm no arborist haha. 22" 4hp briggs mower knocked it all down but didn't survive the task.

[RKJ]

That was a good tale. That little mower sure earned it's keep. I would have never thought of a push mower as a brush hog but it sure did a good job.

[Tripplebeards]

When it rains it pours!!!! I wrecked my back up today! I hit a bunch of hidden stumps while clearing for a clover food plot. After hitting about the 100th stump today, give or take, my my mower stopped as usual. But this last time it locked up. I turned it upside down and pushed the blade till it freed up the motor. I then pulled it over. It pulled over really easy with little to no compression and a pinging noise. Darn it! Lol. Well, I called my food plot big enough since I'm currently out of "brush hogs". I have 2 mowers in my garage I found I will getting running so I can make a couple more. The back up was kinda wimpy vs the original hog I made anyways. Kinda shocked it lasted as long as it did too.

[Tripplebeards]

I worked on 4 free mowers i and a buddy picked up during our last big trash day. The Toro,not pictured, went back to the trash because it had no spark. I didn't have a replacement coil similar to its style laying around to test. The other three I got up and running this morning. The red one was missing its carburetor and coil. It was my buddies. He said it ran fine but needed the parts for another mower. Luckily It was the same engine as the 2nd one I blew up. I had it pieced back together in an hour and running like new. The green one with the big wheels needed a recoil pull handle and longer rope. I sill have to take one off the junk mowers. The carburetor and air filter was clogged. Fifteen minutes later I had it running like new. The last green one I went threw last week. It was running but still acted like it was starving for fuel and sputtering. I already cleaned the plastic carburetor three times with no luck. A buddy had an extra briggs and Stratton carburetor and tank laying around in his junk parts bin. I cleaned the replacement carburetor and tank. Then installed it. Number three after 15 minutes time also runs like new!!! These are all 22" mowers and my first two were 20" so I've upgraded! The three Amigo's will be getting the front decks cut our tomorrow for hoggin!!!



Here's what is left of my 2 original hogs...



The one block went in the trash. Think someone grabbed it for scrap metal. I'm sure they'll come back for these. They already snagged the toro. I stripped them and threw the parts in a 5 gal pail...just in case.