howse bush-hog

what are your thoughts on a howse bush-hog,iknow they are not top-notch brand but I will not be using it a lot, do they cut good and are you able to find parts if needed, thanks for your replies, dale

I have two of those Howse mowers. A heavy duty 7' (bought used) and a medium duty 10' (bought new 2 years ago).
Howse uses an imported gearbox. According to the Howse dealer so does Bush hog. Also dealer said Howse was the last manufacturer to resort to imported gearboxes.
After using a Bush hog mower for over 40 years, my opinion is that Bush hog WERE the best. My old mower had a Bush hog gearbox that came a part. If everyone is using imports, the playing field should be level as far as gearbox quality.
All the fabricated steel parts of the Howse seem to be well built and heavy enough to do the job.
Shop around in your area for Howse dealers. There is quite a difference in price.
Bush hog still charges for the name. They are too high. IMO
The only thing I don't like about Howse is - on the 10' mower there are bolts that get loose. They must be checked and kept tight.
At this point, I would buy another Howse if the need comes up. I can buy 2 or 3 Howse mowers for about the same price as one Bush hog.
These are my thoughts at this time. Thoughts may change with time.
Good luck

I have a five foot Howse brush hog that I bought used about 15 years ago and I have abused that thing terribly. The only repair I have had to make was to weld up the tail wheel when a weld broke. I have been very pleased with it.

Ran my Bush-Hog for 20+ years, finally wore it out, bought a Howse 6-footer. Seems very well built, heavy, takes a bit to get her rev'ed up to speed, but cuts good. I did find that the front safety chains tend to lay down the weeds, before it could cut, so I removed the fronts. Seems like I remember the safety drive-line plastic guard came apart, but I think they all do that. Main mounting bracket is very heavy-duty, gearbox seems heavy duty, I guess. Only drawback I know is runnign down the highway, towing the thing, the rear wheel wobbles very bad.

Howse rotary cutters are less expensively made than the big names but are priced accordingly.

I once owned a 5' Howse and found the deck metal too thin for my purposes.

That said, the cut quality was OK, and it was light, which is sometimes an advantage.

Dean

I've had an 8' heavy duty for about 12 years with very few mechanical problems. It's a single-spindle 3pt hitch. It has had heavy usage in brush and heavy grass. Many of the typical encounters with hidden stumps, large ant hills, bottoming out in ditches, etc have usually just resulted in a clutch disc replacements. My experience has been that the seemingly small slip-clutch discs on this one are good for one event. I keep a stack of them on the shelf. Replacement is easy if close to the air-ratchet. I have also replaced one of the tail-wheel assemblies. On this one and several others I've seen, the blade-bolt access hole in the deck is about 6" from where it should be necessitating another one be cut.
Parts are easy to get but I'm only 75 miles from the manufacturer and major parts distributer. The few parts needed have always been on the shelf.
My main complaint with it since new has been the way it discharges material. The sides of it do not seem to be tall enough for the width and makes it hard to run. In heavy grass, 85hp is crawling and blowing smoke. I've pulled a 12' dual spindle that was much easier to turn. The main stream of material coming out of it hits the right tailwheel creating a perfect windrow that will last for years. If this is in long grass, it catches on the bolts and ears that hold the wheel rim together, wraps up into a knot, and locks the wheel. I've tried chain guards, mud flaps, and homemade hub caps with little success.
Overall, it's very well built, very reliable, great parts support, handles abuse, great for the money paid, and aggravates me to no end. If it ever has a major failure, it will be scrap.
Scott

I own several different Howse implements.
I believe the price to quality ratio is very good.
Yea you can buy better but you are going to pay for it.

Howse makes 4 different lines of brush cutters in southern Mississippi.
They use 10 and 12 gauge deck thickness with or without gussets.
The gear boxes are rated from 45 to 100 hp.
So if you choose the cutter on what quality you need rather than the price
I am sure they make something you will be happy with
at a price less or equal to other brands.

You can go to Howse web site and see all the models with suggested prices.

I had a 6'. Ran it behind a 4020PS. The problem I had was getting it in gear without shearing the bolt. It's hard to feather the PTO on a PS in gear, it's either in or out, otherwise it was a good cutter took a lot of abuse before the gearbox went bad. I was surprised how long it lasted. The gearbox wasn't build for that big of tractor but that's as small as I had to mow with.

I pull a 6 footer behind my IH 300U in heavy stuff for last 14 years, not enough hp sometimes for full swath and /or 2-3 in trees. Never had a failure, 540 pto 3 pt. Used chain for top link. Rugged unit to take my abuse.

you mean bush hog or brush hog?? Bush hog is a brand of brush hog or rotary cutter.Kinda like Kleenex and tissue.

I don t know how much mowering you have or light or heavy rough mowing you will be doing. I bought A new 6ft. howse mower about 24 yr. ago. I am still useing it. I did put A spline gear and grease seal in it, and A bussing in the tail wheel. Some of my mowing is light and some is heavy. If I buy another mower, it will be another howse.I think you will like.
I would get the medium weigh mower with the heavy duty gear box. I pull mine with A 3910 ford

Hammer Man

we sell repair parts for shortlines and as to howse run as fast as you can parts are junk --high and scarce --- a good briar hook is better

If I am not mistaken we have been using a Howse 5' for about 15 years to cut our hunting property. We've had to do a couple of repairs to it but considering how its been used (i.e. abused), nothing too bad. I wouldn't have a problem with it depending on the price. If you maintain it you should not have any issues.

I certainly would not run as fast as I can from it as was suggested.

I've got a 7' Howse bushog and it's been pretty durable. Mine has a slip clutch that has been a little trouble. The thing I like about it is the parts availability. I did have a little trouble with the gearbox but I had another old bushog that the parts interchanged.

I have a 6ft Howse I bought used from a friend, he ruined the bearing going into the gear box, I fixed it in 2006 and have used it since then to mow 5-6 acres of pasture twice a year, never a problem with it, I don't use it to mow down brush, so I can't say how it would hold up for that.

Just my simple advice. Don't beat the crap out of it . Sharpen the blades and grease the PTO and oil the gear box. That's the best you can do.

I have a 5 ft. House, rotary cutter, that I brought used in about 1991. I have replaced the pto shaft a couple of years ago with an aftermarket one. I needed just a u-joint but couldn't find one. I got a deal on the new shaft for 100 bucks. I brought a set of blades at TSC for it. I filled the original gear box with corn head grease a few years ago. I did some reinforcing on the deck last year.
I have been doing some custom work so I brought a used heavier duty 6 ft. Land Pride last fall. I was going to sell the House but decided to keep it as a backup.
The House doesn't owe me a thing and is probably still worth more than I paid for it. Although I didn't abuse it and probably never cut anything over inch or two with it. I never ran it on anything bigger than 40 Hp.