Bush Hog Transmission

Longmeadow farm · Mar 2, 2014

I do quite a bit of pasture clipping/mulching throughout the growing season and run my 7' Bush Hog 287 at the rated 540 PTO rpm. As I rotational graze about 150 acres, clipping the left over grass, etc... can get a bit time consuming and at 540 PTO rpm it sure eats up the diesel. I was thinking of getting a tractor with an economy PTO, but perhaps there is a cheaper alternative. What about installing an old car three speed transmission just in front of the Bush Hog gear box. It'll take some fabrication work..but does anyone have any experience doing something like this. I suspect I could even increase my ground speed by running the "Hog" a bit faster than 540 rpm. Thanks

old · Mar 2, 2014

By trying to increase the speed of the blades on a brush hog your looking for big unsafe trouble. You have any idea how much damage a blade flying off a brush hog can do at that 540RPM. By the way the 540 s just PTO speed not blade speed. Years ago I had a blade break on a brush hog and to this day I have yet to find where it flew off to. Please do not tyr to do this because you will get your self or some one else hurt badly

Mike (WA) · Mar 2, 2014

I'm with Old on not increasing your blade speed on the implement- but I can see where putting something in front of the gearbox so you could reduce your tractor engine RPM would save wear and tear, and fuel. But you'd have to put the transmisson on backwards, and I don't know how it would hold up being driven from the tailshaft.

pork · Mar 2, 2014

old has a good point. I teach a farm safety class and take my neighbors truck doors with me on a stand. his blade broke and went 200 plus feet, and pancaked the front and rear doors, sticking though the rear door. please don"t run the hog faster than rated. however, we use a similar trick on our field cultivator. our 1850 oliver has a 540/1000 pto. I put it in 1000 and run the tractor rpm lower and in a taller gear thus saving time and fuel.your tranny idea may work, but youll need to determine output rpm of tranny so your not over-running hog. this should let you lower tractor rpm, yet keeping hog the same.

RBnSC · Mar 2, 2014

A Brown Tree Cutter turns 1000 rpms with 4 blades. Very heavy duty and does an amazing job but not cheap. We have had one for years and the only complaint is if you hit a piece of metal it will send it into a tire.
Ron

60 acre hillside · Mar 2, 2014

Neighbor hooked up an old 5ft to a tractor with 1000 rpm pto and tried to throttle back. Machine lasted about a couple hours and was junk

John_PA · Mar 2, 2014

most transmissions top gear is a 1:1 ratio.

If your tractor has a 1000 PTO also, you can change the mower driveline to 1000, then run the tractor at approx. half rated speed.

One of the best things to do is to increase mower width, to increase productivity and fuel savings. Shulte now makes a 40 foot batwing mower. Although, for the price of it, you could hire someone to mow your ground for life.

I see a lot of cheaper 15 footers coming on the market lately. Relatively speaking, of course... any money you spend on a bigger tool takes a long time to make up in fuel savings. Labor is the real big cost.

JMOR · Mar 2, 2014

(quoted from post at 18:38:43 03/02/14) most transmissions top gear is a 1:1 ratio.

If your tractor has a 1000 PTO also, you can change the mower driveline to 1000, then run the tractor at approx. half rated speed.

One of the best things to do is to increase mower width, to increase productivity and fuel savings. Shulte now makes a 40 foot batwing mower. Although, for the price of it, you could hire someone to mow your ground for life.

I see a lot of cheaper 15 footers coming on the market lately. Relatively speaking, of course... any money you spend on a bigger tool takes a long time to make up in fuel savings. Labor is the real big cost.

ll hogs don't turn same speed for a 540 PTO speed. Google Bush Hog brand & find heavy duty, standard, and light, gear box ratios from around 1.2 to 1.8 step up. Even the light & finish mower keep the blade tip speed below 200MPH, which is in line with regulations for homeowner lawn equipment. Probably fed reg. HP required will increase with blade speed, given same material being cut.

Dieselrider · Mar 2, 2014

As Old and Mike have said. (count me in on the side for using caution here).

I too had a brush hog blade break as it hit a stump one time and the blade came through the side of the mower and flew a couple hundred feet and stuck in a corn field. I did find the blade as it left a path through the corn stalks. Had it come about a 16th of a turn before exiting the mower side it would have taken out the left rear tractor tire or maybe some serious tractor damage. Might have been even more serious than even that had the trajectory been different.

The blade had been cracked as evidenced by the detail of the break but, I didn't know that at the time. I was very fortunate it wasn't worse. Perhaps a bat wing mower to cover more ground would be a better idea.

old · Mar 2, 2014

Just an example that you may understand. If your reloading ammo you would not load the shell with say 60 grains of powder when max load is say 35 grains due to the fact you stand a good chance of blowing things up as you would do with a brush hog by speeding it up that way

John_PA · Mar 2, 2014

True, but I thought we were talking about a car transmission. It wouldn't matter what the gearbox ratio was, if you switch to 1000 rpm pto. If you run at half rated speed, you are still turning the same speed. half of 1000 is 500, so half engine speed for rated pto rpm would be the same. Or am I misunderstanding what you mean? I guess you could find a different speed rated gearbox, but like I said, if you are running at rated speed with 540, and you switched to 1000, running half rated would be the same. Not sure if maybe my thinking is off, I just watched another Chevy win a sprint cup race. That always put me in an off mood. LOL

FBH44 · Mar 2, 2014

Buddy of mine sped up his old "Hog a lot, heard a bad slam/bang and happened to just then look up, saw the outside 2/3 of a "Hog blade go whizzing past his head, off into the distance. MIssed him by a foot or so.

caterpillar guy · Mar 2, 2014

We run our hay mower on the 1000 with an adapter then back the throttle back to the 540 speed. Works great for that. I tried it on the baler, and found the torque curve of the engine was not, in the right place, for the baler on the 1000 with the adapter.
I think your bush hog would be a similar issue and you would find that you would be under powered if you run at the 1000 then throttle back. The best option would be a wider bush hog.

Northvale - PA · Mar 2, 2014

why not just get a disc mower, which would slice off the plants, rather than pulverize them. I don't like the way a single blade mower leaves a windrow of plant trash, basically smothering a continuous strip.

ih_bug · Mar 2, 2014

see if you can find a drum mower, and buy it.

Whichester1 · Mar 2, 2014

I see and understand your idea. But like the others said you would be better off buying a wider Bush Hog. In the unlikely event someone would get hurt (or worse) you would be all on your on from a legal standpoint. These cases are not easy to win in front of a jury even if you and the manufacturer are 100% right. Jury's tend to be sympathetic to injured people. I have been there representing manufacturers but can't disclose details.

Traditional Farmer · Mar 2, 2014

First problem is you have a Bush Hog brand cutter they won't cut nearly as well as a John Deere or a Woods.And instead of running the blades faster you need to get a wider cutter.

Dean · Mar 2, 2014

Get a wider cutter.

Alternatively,if your pasture is clean, try a 9' sickle bar cutter. Sickkle bar cutters use much less power than do rotary cutters.

Dean

Bush Hog Transmission

Longmeadow farm

Member

old

Well-known Member

Mike (WA)

Well-known Member

pork

Member

RBnSC

Well-known Member

60 acre hillside

Member

John_PA

Well-known Member

JMOR

Well-known Member

Dieselrider

Member

old

Well-known Member

John_PA

Well-known Member

FBH44

Well-known Member

caterpillar guy

Well-known Member

Northvale - PA

Member

ih_bug

Member

Whichester1

Member

Traditional Farmer

Well-known Member

Dean

Well-known Member

Similar threads